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RoseforEmily1.pptxRose for Emily William FAulkner
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Rose for Emily
William Faulkner lived from 1897-1952 in Mississippi. Faulkner is considered one of the most prestigious Southern writers of the early twentieth century. Faulkner is also very controversial, especially in light of racial and gender issues. Some of Faulkner’s language has been negatively critiqued, but he has also been praised for dealing with racial issues of the South. He recognizes problems with the South and knows that the South cannot stay immersed in the past but must move forward to survive.
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Rose for Emily
“Rose for Emily” was written in 1930 and is considered a short story that discusses the theme of being trapped by nostalgia, not only with Emily but also with the South. Emily represents how gender stereotypes can trap women, and she is symbolic of the turmoil within the South in the early twentieth century. As Emily was trapped by the constraints of being a woman in the early twentieth century, so was the South. The tragedy of Emily is that she cannot move from her past.
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Rose for Emily
The following are the major themes of the story:
Nostalgia
Gap between generations
Gap between the rich and the poor
Old maid
Tradition vs. Change
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Rose for Emily
The power of death
Patriarchy
The story is told by a third-person narrator who is also supposed to speak for the town. Emily Grierson comes from a wealthy family in a small town. Emily lives on a vast estate, mostly seen as a curiosity rather than a natural person. The town considers her an eccentric old woman.
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Rose for Emily
She is gossiped about by the town, and there may be a degree of jealousy among them. The story opens with Emily’s funeral, which the city’s residents have attended. She had lived in isolation; only her black servant, Tobe, had been in the house for over a decade. Emily’s house is decaying and has not been kept up. Emily lost her money after the war. The South, after the war, was devastated. They lost their slaves and their money, and the run-down plantation houses were symbols of the resounding defeat.
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Rose for Emily
Emily’s house is representative of the decay of the South. For the town, she symbolizes the last vestiges of the Confederate era. Emily’s death was meant to be the last of their obligations to a bygone era. The town considered Emily a “heredity oblivion,” but now the town can move past a period that is holding them back. An example of this is the tax situation. The dead mayor of the city told Emily she did not have to pay taxes regarding her father’s death.
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Rose for Emily
But the town tax officials confront her and tell her she has to pay taxes like everyone else. She refused and felt that she did not have to because of her position. She told them to take it up with the mayor. The mayor felt that since her father had lent the town money, Emily did not have to pay taxes, which was payment for what her father had done for the town. The town officials represent the modern world, and Emily reflects the old world.
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Rose for Emily
Emily got rid of these town officials just as she had gotten rid of others. Emily had gotten rid of the officials who came to investigate the smell coming from her house. Grierson saw the men checking out her house and then the smell vanished. The smell came after Emily’s supposed male suitor left. She always got her way in terms of keeping people away from her house and life. The Grierson family was the richest in the town and the town felt that they saw themselves as better than anyone else.
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Rose for Emily
Emily, as a young woman, was a very desired woman for marriage. But her father wanted control over his daughter and ensured no one dated her. At this time in the nation, women went from their father’s house to their husband’s house. Control from the father went to the husband. The daughter never had time to learn about herself. Emily’s father wanted to ensure he never lost control over his daughter. Faulkner never tells us why the father does not want any man near his daughter.
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Rose for Emily
This story was written in 1930 and discussions about incest were not really discussed. There is no proof that this is the reason but more than likely if this had been written later that might would have been discussed. Normally a father irrational control over a daughter signals some kind of abuse if not sexual then at the very least emotional. So, Emily grew up in a house that became her prison, and her father was the only person in her life.
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Rose for Emily
Emily was still single by the time she was thirty. At this time if a woman was not married by 30, she was seen as an old man. The town sympathized with her when her father died and left her broke with just the house. The average person loves to see the rich fall. They sympathy for Emily went to thinking she was mentally unbalanced. As women came to her house as is custom to see if she needed anything, she informed them that he was not dead.
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Rose for Emily
Emily finally had to give up her father's body. Faulkner, like O’Connor, is a writer of what is called the Southern Gothic, where the eerie and the realistic live side by side. They use these genres to discuss things that are uniquely Southern. As Faulkner once said, “In the South, the past is not dead; it is not even past.” What Faulkner meant is that the past lives with the present in the South and is never put to rest. Living with the past can prevent the South from moving forward and can also be where one can get strength.
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Rose for Emily
Emily does not want to let her father go because he is all she has in her life. Emily is positioned as a tragic figure because of her life and inability to move from the present. Emily meets a construction worker later because of work at her house. She was seen taking buggy rides with Homer, a construction worker. The town started talking about Emily and her new beau. But the city suspected Homer was not what he appeared to be.
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Rose for Emily
At this time, when Faulkner wrote this story in 1930, homosexuality was not discussed the way it is now. So, Faulkner hints at another life for Homer that Emily more than likely did not know. According to the text, the town said, “When had first begun to be seen with Homer Barron, we had said ‘She will marry him.’ Then we said, ‘she will persuade him yet,’ because Homer himself had remarked----he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger in the Elks’ Club----that he was not the marrying man” (218).
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Rose for Emily
This quote from the text illustrates that Emily will not have her ever after with Homer. Homer, to some degree, is playing with her. Going out on dates with Emily makes it clear that she sees a new life for herself. She cannot see that the town considers this man as living a double life. But Emily does at least figure out that he wants to leave her.
The story's ending is truly tragic. Emily cannot face another man leaving her. Even if dead, in her mind, she is never alone.
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Rose for Emily
Emily’s final decision to kill Homer and sleep with his dead body every night can be seen as a desperate cry for help. As a woman, Emily has been controlled by the patriarch to the point that it has driven her crazy.
If you see Emily as a symbol of the South, she represents a region that is living with its dead and in conflict with other Southern forces that want to move forward.
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Rose for Emily
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