A Rose for Emily

A Rose for EmilyWilliam Faulkner

William Faulkner

American Civil War• Occurred between 1861 and 1865 in the

United States. • The northern states were going through an

industrial revolution and desperately needed more people to work in its factories.

• The South was still mainly agricultural and purchased a lot of goods from abroad and was therefore against import tariffs.

American Civil War• 11 southern slave states declared

their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America, known as the Confederacy.

• The other 25 states supported the federal government and formed the Union.

• After four years of warfare, mostly within the Southern states, the Confederacy surrendered and slavery was outlawed everywhere in the nation.

Historical points in A Rose for Emily• Emily represents the southern aristocratic

family, she had class and power, and according to her father, none suitor was suitable enough.

• Homer Barron, a laborer from the north, known by his sense of humor, came to Jefferson to construct sidewalks.

Historical points in A Rose for Emily• The relationship between them was very

criticized by the society:

“At first we were glad that Miss Emily would have an interest, because the ladies all said, ‘Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer.’ ”

Historical points in A Rose for Emily• Tobe, the Negro, represents the slavery once

the society sees him just as a slave. He doesn’t talk, his opinion doesn’t matter, he just serves Emily during her life.

A Rose for Emily

A Rose for Emily

• Originally published in the April 30, 1930, issue of Forum;

• It was the first Faulkner’s short story published in a major magazine;

• A slightly revised version was published in two collections of his short fiction, These 13 (1931) and Collected Stories (1950).

SummaryChapter I

• The story begins at the huge funeral for Miss Emily Grierson;

• Her house is now old, but was once the best house around;

• Since 1894 Emily has had a special arrangement with the mayor and her family and her paid no taxes;

• the "newer generation" wasn't happy with it and tried, unsuccessfully,  to get her to pay the debt.

Chapter II• Thirty years before her death, the tax collecting

townspeople, paid Emily a visit and complained about a bad smell at her place;

• The bad smell began 2 years after her father died and a short time after her lover disappeared from her life;

• the stink got stronger and new complaints were made;

• The authorities sprinkled lime around the house and the smell was eventually gone;

• When her father died everybody felt sorry for Emily, because he left her the house but no money.

• Emily refused to admit her father’s death for three whole days;

• She almost never left the house; And it got worse when her lover died.

• the only sign of life about the place was the Negro man.

• People in town judged her and could not understand why she was still single in her 30’s.

• They also often said that her father had stolen her youth, because he had driven away a lot of the young men who tried to approach her;

• But they did not say she was crazy then.

Chapter III

• The story doubles back and tells that not too long after her father died Emily begins dating Homer Barron, who is a Yankee and is in town on a sidewalk-building project;

• The town heavily disapproves of the affair and brings Emily's cousins to town to stop the relationship;

• She was sick for a long time. When the town saw her again, her hair was cut short.

• One day, Emily is seen buying arsenic at the drugstore, and the town thinks that Homer is cheating on her, and that she plans to kill herself.

• “She was over thirty then,still a slight woman, though thinner than usual, with cold, haughty black eyes”.

Chapter IV

• Emily buys a bunch of men's items, and everybody believes that she and Homer are going to get married;

• Homer had a reputation and people judged him as either a homosexual or an eternal bachelor;

• Homer leaves town and the cousins went back home;

• Homer comes back and he is last seen entering Miss Emily's house.

• Emily rarely leaves the house after that, except for a period of half a dozen years when she gives painting lessons.

• When people next saw Miss Emily, she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray.

• Emily dies and the story cycles back to where it began,at her funeral;

Chapter V

• Tobe, miss Emily's servant, lets in the town women and then leaves by the backdoor forever;

• After the funeral, and after Emily is buried, the townspeople go upstairs and break into the room that they knew had been closed for forty years.

• Inside, they find the corpse of Homer Barron, rotting in the bed;

• On the dust of the pillow next to Homer they find an indentation of a head, and there, in the indentation, a long, gray hair.

Analysis

Analysis

1. Title2. Plot devices3. Characters4. Symbolism5. Plot6. Subplot7. Setting8. Point of view

1. Title

“That was an allegorical title; the meaning (…) was a woman who had had a tragedy (…), and I

pitied her and this was a salute, just as if you were to make a gesture, a salute to anyone; to a

woman you would hand a rose...” (Faulkner, in: OUTÓN, 1999, p. 63)

1. Title

“Oh, it’s simply that the poor woman had no life at all. Her father had kept her more or less

locked up and then she had a lover who was about to quit her, she had to murder him. It was

just “A Rose for Emily”—that’s all.” (Faulkner, in: GWYNN, 1959, p. 87–88)

1. Title

• Getty (2005):– The only rose Emily actually receives;– Possible interpretations:• Symbol: Homer, a relic of the past;

• Symbol: combination of petals – the elements in the story;

• A tribute to Emily from the narrator: either preserving her secret or ignoring what may lead to it;

• A tribute to Emily from the author: the sub-rosa concept.

2. Plot

• “Plot is the author's arrangement of incidents in a story. It is the organizing principle that controls the order of events. this structure is, in a sense, what remains after a writer edits out what is irrelevant to the story being told”

(MEYER, 1998, p. 60)

2. Plot• Plot ElementsExposition – Miss Emily’s funeral and a story about taxes.

Raising action – The death of Miss Emily’s father and Homer Barron’s appearance, which turned the mood of the town.

Climax – Miss Emily’s hidden agenda: poisoning Homer Barron. The image of the poison package with a skull and crossbones where was written: “For rats”.

2. PlotFalling action – The gossip and suspense generated by the possible outcome of the strange and unknown relationship between Miss Emily and the “missing” Homer Barron. The subsequently years of isolation left for Miss Emily.

Dénouement – The death of Miss Emily, which opened an opportunity for the townspeople to enter the bedroom that has been locked for 40 years, only to find the rotting corpse of Homer Barron, alongside a strand of iron-gray hair.

2. Plot• Non-linearity – The story’s arrangement is out of the

chronological order. It is based on the techniques called:

• In media res – a narrative mode on which a story begins either at the mid-point or at the conclusion.

• Stream of consciousness - a narrative mode that seeks to portray an individual's or collective joint (or not) point of view expressed through written thoughts and/or memories put together by monologues intertwined and alternated with past and present actions or events.

2. Plot• FunctionsThey are used in order to do not give away something surprising and important to the story’s development or resolution straightforwardly, helping into building up suspense and relativizing the facts and events which took (or take) place.

In the story, the “consciousness” is originated from the habitants and the town itself merged into a stream.

It’s beginning is also what was supposed to be the end (not only of the story itself): Emily’s funeral.

2. Plot• Plot style: character-basedThe story revolves more around the characters inner conflicts, a “big picture” or an abstract theme or message; the action itself is of secondary importance, as time itself may not be off utter importance or the setting is a “dreamworld” of its own. The point of view and the characters minds make the story goes on, slower perhaps.

2. Plot• ConflictsExternal – Emily X Society• Judgement – Restrain - North• Gossip – Control – Tradition

Internal – Emily X Herself• Shoulder angel – Victim• Madness - Father

3. Characters

• Types of characters:– Round: when a person suffers changes inside a story

and when this person is complex.

Ex.: Emily Grierson– Flat and static: a person does not suffer changes and

he/she is not complex.

Example: all the other characters in “A Rose for Emily”

3. Characters

• Miss Emily Grierson:– The main character; protagonist;– Mysterious character, once that she kept her life in

secret;– She was born in an old southern aristocratic family;– Only child and lived with her father until his death;– Her life was totally controlled by her father;

3. Characters

• Miss Emily Grierson: – Her youth image was innocent and beautiful, for she

had many suitors:

She was described as “a slender figure in white” (p. 123), “which is typical of the virginal quality young women are expected to have at the time” (QUN, 2007, p.67).

– She never got married, because her father thought “none of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such” (p. 123).

3. Characters

• Miss Emily Grierson:– After her father’s death she became object of pity

for the townspeople;– Change in appearance: short hair making her look

like a little girl or an angel lack of sexuality, contrasting to what people might expect from a woman who was 30 years old.

3. Characters

• Miss Emily Grierson:– In the final scene: necrophiliac person;– “Necrophilia means sexual intercourse with or

attraction toward corpses”;– Her necrophilia is revealed when her father died: she

was unwilling to admit that he had died and stayed with the corpse at home for 3 days;

3. Characters

• Miss Emily Grierson:– Necrophiliacs tend to be controlling in their

relationships: Emily was unable to find a traditional way to express her desire to possess Homer;

– She decided to take his life away to achieve total power over him, keeping his body hidden for years.

3. Characters:• Mr. Grierson:– Emily’s father;– Nobody was enough for his daughter;– Controlled his daughter’s life even in death;– Faulkner: “He was a selfish man who didn't want his

daughter to leave home because he wanted a housekeeper (...)”; (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008)

– A selfish man in a selfish society.

3. Characters

• Homer Barron:– A foreman from the North who went to Jefferson to

work on a sidewalk-paving project;– Sexuality: people judged him as either a

homosexual or an eternal bachelor:

“Homer himself had remarked – he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks' Club – that he was not a marrying man.” (p. 126);

3. Characters

• Homer Barron:– A demanding boss, admired in the town because of

his sense of humor;– Distrusted by some of the townspeople because he

was both a Northerner and a day laborer;– He started going out with Emily every Sunday in a

yellow-wheeled buggy.;– Disappeared in Emily’s house and decomposed in

an attic bedroom after she killed him.

3. Characters

• Colonel Sartoris:– Previous mayor of Jefferson, he absolved Emily of

paying any tax burden after her father’s death;– Despite this kind attitude, Colonel Sartoris had

shown some prejudicial remarks: “he fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron” (p. 119-120);

– The coexistence of these behaviors was normal during that time among powerful political figures and elites.

3. Characters

• Judge Stevens:– Previous mayor of Jefferson portrayed as an older

because of his age (80 years old);– A typical southern man;– He did not absolve Miss Emily of paying the taxes;– He and the aldermen decided to sprinkle lime on

Emily’s property in the middle of the night in order to solve the problem of the smell emanated from her house.

3. Characters• Tobe (The Negro):– A Negro manservant, “combined gardener and cook”

(p. 119), who carefully took care of Emily and her needs;

– Loyal and discreet, he protected Emily’s privacy from the Jeffersonians;

– His skin color isolated him from the world: people did not accept him as a socialized person;

– He probably had the answers Miss Emily’s mysteries in the story, but he disappeared after he death.

3. Characters

• Old Lady Wyatt:– Emily’s aunt;– She is described for the townspeople as a

"completely crazy" (p. 123) person before her death;

– She seems to be in the story to alert the readers that insanity happens in Emily’s family.

4. Symbolism

“A symbol is a person, object, or event that suggests more than its literal meaning. A literary

symbol can be a setting, character, action, object, name, or anything else in a work that maintains its

literal significance while suggesting other meanings. Symbols cannot be restricted to a single meaning;

they are suggestive rather than definitive.”

(MEYER, 1998, p. 215 e 216)

4. Symbolism

• Symbolism is very prominent throughout “A Rose for Emily”, playing a big role in the underlying meaning of the entire story.

4. Symbolism• The Grierson’s house’s mirroring: a symbol of

Miss Emily’s physical attributes when compared chronologically:

4. Symbolism• The Grierson’s house’s mirroring:– The house: "white, decorated with cupolas and

spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies“ (p. 119); built to impress and engage the townspeople’s attention.

– Miss Emily: regarded as her father’s property, she used to dress in a similar manner; representation of the Old South; considered a “monument” of Southern manners and an ideal of past values.

4. Symbolism

• The Grierson’s house’s mirroring:As time goes by….– Both the house and Miss Emily decay;– Both were seen as empty and also lifeless at

the time of Miss Emily’s death: “an eyesore among eyesores” (p. 119), and “a fallen monument” (p. 119).

4. Symbolism

• The Grierson’s house’s mirroring: a symbol of Miss Emily’s change in social status:– The house: “big, squarish (…) set on (…) Jefferson’s

most select street” (p. 119); extremely solid, impervious to the insignificant problems of the common people.

– Miss Emily: powerful and strong; symbol of the Southern tradition and rich past.

4. Symbolism

• The Grierson’s house’s mirroring: – Her scandalous appearances with Homer Barron

further diminished her reputation among the public;

– Inevitably, the prestige and desirability of the Grierson’s house fell right alongside Miss Emily's diminishing name.

4. Symbolism

• Homer Barron: a symbol of the adaptable North in the traditional South:– He is an emblem of the North and changes in the

South;– Representation of modernity, innovation and

industrialization: progress over values resistance among traditionalists;

– Representation of the Yankee attitudes toward the Griersons and also toward the entire South.

4. Symbolism

• Tobe: a symbol of slavery

“This name (a variant of Toby) of Emily's servant symbolizes slavery and a better

future, as suggested by the two words (to and be) that make up his name”.

(Cummings Study Guides, 2010)

4. Symbolism

• Disrespected and dehumanized throughout the story, people called “the Negro”, stripping him of his human qualities;

• Niggers were considered only labors, not socialized people.

5. Plot – Sequence of events

Young years

• Emily lived under her father’s control• She did not marry anybody

Her father died

• Emily became ordinary and object of compassion• Her taxes were remitted• She was not considered crazy• She got sick and reclusive

The following summer

• She recovered and showed up again with the hair cut short• Homer Barron came to Jefferson with the construction crew• Emily and Homer started to be seen together• Emily’s humanization and liberation period

5. Plot – Sequence of events

Poor Emily

• Emily could not think seriously of a Northerner• She would marry him• She would persuade him• She would kill herself• Ladies and relatives’ interference• Homer left

Closed front door

• Homer had returned , but later disappeared completely, murdered by Emily

• Emily locked herself up again• She gave lessons in china-painting• She was bothered about the smell• She was bothered about her taxes

5. Plot – Sequence of events

Last years

• Emily was isolated from the changes in the city• She closed the top floor• She was an image in the downstairs’ windows• The Negro kept going inside and out with the market basket• She got sick and died

After her death

• The Negro disappeared• Homer’s corpse was found in one of the upstairs’ rooms• A long strand of iron-gray hair was found next to the dead

body

6. Subplot

• Prejudice: racism “(…) Colonel Sartoris, the mayor – he who fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron (…)” (p.119-120);

Tobe, “the Negro”, as a symbol of slavery.

6. Subplot

• Prejudice: sexism– Women’s liberation:

“Then some of the ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people.” (p. 126)

– Men’s and women’s capacities and duties:

“Only a man of Colonel Sartoris generation and thought could have invented it, and only a woman could have believed it.” (p. 120)

6. Subplot

• Prejudice: discrimination against foreigners and people of different social status:

“Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer.” (p. 124)

6. Subplot

• Intolerance:– Intolerant remarks within discrimination;– Against the Griersons:

“People in our town (…) believed the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were.” (p. 123)

“When her father died, it got about that the house was all that was left to her; and people were glad. (…) Now she would know the old thrill of the old despair of a penny more or less.” (p. 123)

6. Subplot

• Madness:– Lady Wyatt: Emily’s aunt;– Emily’s father: keeping his daughter only for himself

and abusing her mentally. – Miss Emily:• Reclusion

• Murder

• Corpses

• Macabre

7. Setting

“Setting is the context in which the action of a story occurs. The major elements of setting are time, place, and social environment that frame the characters. These elements establish the world in which the characters act.”

(MEYER, 1998, p. 143)

7. Setting

• TimeEstimated era: 1861-1933 -> A brief timeline

1861 – Miss Emily Grierson is born.

1870s – The Grierson house is built.

1893 – Miss Emily's father dies.

1893 – Miss Emily falls ill.

1893 – Miss Emily's taxes are remitted (in December).

7. Setting

• Time1894 – Miss Emily meets Homer Barron (in the summer).

1895 – Homer is last seen entering Miss Emily's house (Emily is "over thirty; we use thirty-three for our calculations).

1895 – The townspeople become concerned about the smell of the Grierson house and sprinkle lime around Emily's place.

7. Setting

• Time1895 – Miss Emily stays in for six months.

1895-1898 – Miss Emily emerges and her hair gradually turns gray.

1899 – Miss Emily stops opening her door, and doesn't leave the house for about five years.

1904 – Miss Emily emerges to give china-painting lessons for about seven years.

7. Setting

• Time1911 – Miss Emily stops giving painting lessons. Over ten years pass before she has any contact with the town.

1925 – They "newer generation" comes to ask about the taxes. This is thirty years after the business with the lime. This is the last contact she has with the town before her death.

7. Setting

• Time1935 – Miss Emily dies at 74 years old. Tobe leaves the house. Two days later the funeral is held at the Grierson house. At the funeral, the townspeople break down the door to the bridal chamber/crypt, which no one has seen in 40 years.

(Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008)

7. Setting

• PlaceAn old and creepy house in Jefferson, Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi – a southern in-decadence town inside a ficcional county created by the author.

7. Setting

7. Setting

• Social environmentA small town rather unique, in decadence, beholder of the infamous “big brother” environment: filled with gossip, judgement, unbreakable traditions, and in this case, with strong influences from the slavery era. A society in transition, therefore vulnerable and confused, but that still carries on the southern legacy: not only the tradition, but the rivalry with the north.

7. Setting

• Historical context:

Confederate ( South ) Union ( North )

Favored slavery Opposed slaveryFelt they were fighting a second war of independence

Felt they were fighting a war to free the slaves

Made living from small farms and plantations Made living from factories and trade

Wanted to lower taxes on goodsWanted to higher taxes on Europeans goods so Southerners would buy Northern products

Believed in states' rights Believed that the Union must be saved above all else

7. Setting

• Tone (writer)/mood (reader)A literary technique related to the attitudes toward the subject and toward the audience implied in a literary work which. Tone and mood are not interchangeable. The tone is often defined as what the author is feeling towards the subject, rather than what the reader feels, which is defined as mood.

7. Setting

Tone – The author is sympathetic towards Emily, to whom he offers a rose of consolation after many thorns, thus configuring na ironical situation. He also made the narrator a confessional one: through it passes a sense o communitary guilt frequently overlapped by all the gossip made towards Miss Emily, what generated angry and revolt. However, the given rose (color) works also as hope source; that a future of no choices like of Emily’s is not to be repeated again: the overcomming of inevitability by facing the ugly truth.

7. Setting

Mood – Throughout the story, the presence of death, decadence, sickness and darkness as feelings wandering over the readers’ heads is constant. Those presences are conveyed by:• The house – Miss Emily – Miss Emily’s father • The funeral – The assassination – The corpse smell• The status quo of the town

7. Point of view

“Point of view refers to who tells us the story and how is it told. What we know and how we feel about the events in a story are shaped by the author’s choice of a point of view. The teller of a story, the narrator, inevitably affects our understanding of the characters’ actions by filtering what is told through his or her own perspective”

(MEYER, 1998, p. 174)

8. Point of view

• “We”: representation of the whole community and general opinion;

• Small distance between narrator and reader: the last is part of the former’s voice;

• Unreliable narrator, because of the insertion in the story;

• Partial omniscience;• The reader watch the events from a distant point

of view.