Topic:Analysis of A rose For Emily
Subject:Classic English literature
Volume: 4 pages
Type: Essay
Format: APA
Description
The paper needs to be 4 pages with 1.5 spaces between lines. It’s an analysis of the use of figurative language – symbolism in the story.
Let’s Get Rid of the Past!
“A Rose for Emily” by Robert Faulkner, reveals the life of Emily through flashback memories of selective events in her life. The narrator introduces Miss Emily at her funeral, where the men went only out of “affection for a fallen monument” (Faulkner 1). Emily, an emblem of the old south, reflects the traditional customs and values of the early 20th century. Her death symbolizes the demise of the old society despite efforts to cling to the past. This essay will examine William Faulkner’s use of symbolism and metaphors to comment on the southern aristocratic society and those still living with that ideology.
Faulkner sets the stage with the symbolic use of the rose in the title, “A Rose for Emily.” For centuries, the rose is often viewed as a symbol of everlasting love and beauty. But Miss Emily did not experience this. Emily Grierson, a gentile woman of the south, brought up to believe that herself worth is linked to her success as a daughter, wife and then mother. Her father thought that “none of the young men were good enough,” (Faulkner 11) and denied her the opportunity of a loving relationship. Emily did not rebel against her father’s mandates because her life was dictated by the expectation of the society she lived in. She had no close friends and the townspeople thought she was a little odd and stayed away from her. Miss Emily was alone and isolated slowly dying just like the society she was brought up in and the house she lived in.
Faulkner describes the house as “an eyesore among eyesore.” It is even worse than the other decaying buildings on the street. The neighborhood had once been filled with prominent homes but now only has garages, cotton gins and the Grierson house. The house was originally a status symbol of wealth and status. It represented the former grandeur of the old south built on the injustice of slavery. The house, “had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies” (Faulkner 1) but now show the wear and tear of the civil war. Similar to the Confederacy, the house is now an embarrassment to the town. Suffering from lack of attention and care, it no longer has a place in the new generation.
Faulkner continues to show the death of the post Civil War society. The townspeople, although respectful and in awe of the old southern way of living, wanted to embrace the new changes. They often referred to old ways as a bad smell. By associating the before civil war society with a bad smell, we realize that something is not right or has passed its original state. Like the bad smell, the old southern heritage was deteriorating but no one would let go of the established traditions. In fact, men “broke open the cellar door and sprinkled lime there, and in all the outbuildings” (Faulkner 3). The men resorted to covering it up, which worked for a couple weeks, but the smell, came back. The problem and issues of the aristocratic south had to be dealt with before any movement forward. Faulkner uses this event as a crossroad in the story to reflect the changing of old way of life. The older men of power like, Colonel Sartoris, were dying leaving room for the young generation with not as much connection to the past. They still tried to honor the past while trying to rebuild a new south.
Another example of the decline antebellum society is the lifestyle of Miss Emily, the town’s icon of the Old South. Even though her family has suffered financial losses, she continues act as if she were better than the other citizens. The townspeople tolerated this behavior and found ways to excuse Emily from conforming to what was expected of everyone else. For instance, “Colonel Sartoris invented an involved tale to the effect that Miss Emily’s father had loaned money to the town, which the town, as a matter of business, preferred this way of repaying.” As a southern belle, she never had to deal with the harsh reality of money. She was taken care of by her father and then Colonel Sartoris continued by finding a way for her not to pay taxes. And even though the newer generation tried to collect the back taxes, she ignored their request. “Each December we sent her a tax notice, which would be returned by the post office a week later, unclaimed.” (Faulkner 1V) Emily resisted any change to her old way of life. The text also explains that she didn’t want metal letters placed on her mailbox for the new delivery service and wrote letters on 40 year old stationeries.
An equally important evidence of the struggle to keep the Old Southern heritage alive is the death and burial of Emily. Everyone in town came to, “look at Miss Emily beneath a mass of bought flowers, with the crayon face of her father musing profoundly above the bier and the ladies sibilant and macabre; and the very old men –some in their brushed Confederate uniforms.” (Faulkner 6). The “whole town went to her funeral”(Faulkner 1) as witness to the long ago era that was gone but not forgotten. A time of chivalry, plantations, slavery, role of women and aristocratic men. Similar to the old south, they watched as Emily slowly declined bloated, pale, and decrepit. The townspeople honored Emily and their southern heritage with a flower bed symbolizing the remembrance of their heritage. A visual reminder of the traditions that Emily represented in their community. The older men wore the confederate uniform. A nostalgic reminder of an era they grew up in that was more glorious in their minds that in reality.
In addition, a view of the struggles of the antebellum south would not be complete without looking at Tobe, the old man-servant. He was a negro and obviously left over from affluent time of the Grierson family. Just like Emily, he exemplifies a culture that died with the civil war, the owning of slaves. Toby is a black man living in a white society whose name is not mentioned until towards the end of the story. He’s referred to as “the negro”. Suggesting that he is insignificant and almost invisible. Yet he was the only person who had access to her house, “ the only sign of life about the place was the Negro man–a young man then–going in and out with a market basket” (Faulkner 2), and probably was the last person to see her alive. So, with the death of Emily, Tobe was released from an archaic tradition. The text says,“He walked right through the house and out the back and was not seen again”(Faulkner 8). Tobe was no longer stuck in the past of the Old South.
In conclusion, William Faulkner uses symbolism and metaphors in “A Rose for Emily” as examples to support the theme of the decline of the Old South after the Civil War. Miss Emily would not conform to the new era but stubbornly clung to the values of the Old South. She was a monument to the town’s past. Because of this, they hid her secrets to honor the traditions of the Old South. The townspeople were ambivalence to the new revolution but Miss Emily was stuck in the past and died a lonely death because of it. Jefferson lost their monument to the Old South when Miss Emily died.
