A Rose for Emily Literary Analysis

In “A Rose for Emily”, Faulkner shows the death of Emily Grierson and how her funeral service was attended by almost the entire home (Faulkner W. 2003, pp 594). The story has a flashback of how her father died and how she was abandoned by a prospective spouse. The author makes it clear that Emily’s father had driven away several suitors who wanted to marry her. Emily denies her father’s death for some days before she offers the body to be buried. When the father dies, Emily becomes very sick. She buys some poison to commit suicide. Emily kills her suitor, Homer, and hides herself in the house till she dies at the age of seventy four years. After her death, her suitor’s body is found in her house almost at the point of decay. The themes of death and change are common in the story. We are told about the death of Emily, her father, the town’s mayor and Emily’s suitor. This story shows that everything in the town has undergone a great change including Emily herself and also shows that the people in the town do not embrace change. Emily did not accept change when her father died. This is why she could tell the town’s people that her father was still alive. Literary analysis of “A Rose for Emily” can take many different approaches. These include psychoanalytical, feminist and structuralist approach. In a feminist approach, the story shows how people in society treat women due to their imaginations that women are weak and cannot do much for themselves (Saputri A. 2009). When Emily fails to get married, she loses hope in her life because she has the imagination that women need men to help them in life. The society also neglects her because at the age of thirty years, she is still single. In this society, Emily is a representation of the town’s women who are able to do a little for themselves. We learn that when Emily’s father was alive, their house was always well maintained. After her father’s death, the house had faded paint, unmaintained yard and it even reached a