A Rose for Emily by Faulkner
Faulkner’s use of the rose in the title of ‘A Rose for Emily’ symbolizes his feelings build towards the character, majorly towards the tragedies she endured in her life. William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily is usually viewed in a short story anthology. The story has attracted various critical attention and has been enjoyed by average readers. Besides, the story is set in a fictional town of Jefferson in Mississippi and generally categorized as Gothic horror. The victory of the American Civil War ended glory days of the South. Most of the Southern people declined to accept the transformed situation and continued to cherish their precious memories. They, therefore, displayed a robust attachment based on old values and traditions of the past that faded away. The main character in the story ‘A Rose for Emily’ is considered to be typical of Southerners. In the entire story, the word ‘rose’ appears rarely, but attempting to interpret it assists readers in developing a deep understanding of the story. This paper comprehensively discusses instances and impacts of various discriminatory vices in the plot of Faulkner’s work and analysis of ‘A Rose for Emily,” as discussed below.
Faulkner uses a white rose to Emily in expressing his condolences to Emily’s death. He, therefore, sympathizes with her state of loneliness and the imagination concerning her status. People who are living in the town give her respect, although they are the primary reason for making her have a reasonable opinion of herself. Besides, they are not daring to force her to pay taxes, questioning her when she buys poison; hence they feel embarrassed in making remarks concerning the smell. Also, the rose signifies the comparison to Emily’s personal life. The acts of the people around Emily enable her to develop a self-centered approach and thinking of herself as a superior being to everyone else in the town. Emily is too proud of herself, just like the most beautiful rose in the garden, a situation marked by her healthy life. She, therefore, declined to pay taxes, ignoring gossips around the town, terming her as a fallen woman. In my view, as a competent student, she is a victim of the circumstances since she suffers from inadequate genuine love and care due to overprotection treatment she received from her father when she was young.
In my opinion, the rose symbolizes love. In her life, Emily lacks the desire and love of having one. She has a strong feeling for love and wants to be loved; therefore, she has a solid determination that Homers is her true love rescuing her from developed fear of being lonely. Besides, I also have a strong feeling that she loves Homer even though Homer has a negative opinion concerning marriage. According to Emily, the only love she ever knew was now leaving her. Her hidden longings and most profound feelings for love make her murder Homer Baron. Emily does not realize that Homer is not a deserving man, instead desperately clinging to what is referred to as blind love. In my opinion, a rose is what she is searching for in her life, but she never acquired one till the day she dies.
The rose symbolizes Miss Emily. In Emily’s heyday, she was highly ranked as the most beautiful girl, although, when she became an adult, she had a lot of thorns that could cut and as well as wounding. Emily’s personality prevented everyone from becoming close, including those who were attracted by the beauty or fragrance of the rose. She, therefore, involve in framing herself in a manner that symbolizes a rose in a protected garden that is far from the reach of outsiders. Thus her rose only bloomed for Homer in a short period and subsequently faded and dies.
As a competent student, it is right to say that the rose is used to refer to the color that characterizes the life of Emily in her viewpoint. I firmly believe that Miss Emily is entirely unable to realize what is happening outside her closed front door. Emily prefers living in an isolated and protected world that is inside her house, hence believing it is a rosy ecosystem. Furthermore, Emily is acting like an innocent kid after losing her concept of time. Emily is considered both unconscious and indifferent to the crimes she committed. Emily continuously thinks of her past and imprisons herself based on her imaginative of the rosy world instead of taking reality. Miserably, people within the town make her misperceive the real ecosystem and having too much pride in her independence and isolation. Even though society makes her misperceive the real world, they also aid in making up a romantic story concerning the relationship between Emily and Homer. Seemingly, Emily is a strong woman characterized by a great sense of tradition and the same time victimized misperception towards the world, resulting in her misconception about herself and her real environment, which goes on till her death.
Consequently, ‘A Rose for Emily” is a commentary based on her self-love. Faulkner illuminates knowledge concerning the love of Emily’s father and as well as Emily’s true love. The father offers protection and care for Emily despite driving all men away from her. As a result, Homer, despite the sincere love he receives from Emily, does not offer the love given. Ironically, the two men that Emily loves most are the ones that leave her; a situation intervened by her pride, which keeps her from socializing with other individuals in the town; thus, she is forced to reinforce her loneliness. Emily seemed not to be satisfied by her desires of loving and companionship. Therefore, Faulkner employs the conscious use of the town people in the story “A Rose for Emily” since it enables the readers to develop an objective and positive view on the life of Miss Emily. Besides, Faulkner gives readers an insight into the problems of Miss Emily, which in turn enables the readers to form their disparity, which is a proper interpretation concerning the title of the story.
In my interpretation of the story “A Rose for Emily,” there seems to be very minimal guesswork concerning what Faulkner meant in employing the use of “A Rose for Emily” as the title for the story. Therefore, the primary intension of Faulkner was conveying feelings of pity for a character title. Emily greatly influenced Faulkner more than anyone due to her healthy independence; thus, she is considered to be the inspiration for a strong and independent character. Even though Emily is perceived as an inspiration for being strong and independent character, control and repercussions persist as a theme throughout the story. Emily’s father seemed to be an intimidating and manipulative figure that bar her from experiencing her personal life. Emily is depicted as powerless and small, placed behind the haughty frame of her father. Emily’s fashion of white-colored clothes also symbolizes purity and innocence. Besides, she is victimized by the ruling hand of her father and her place in society. Consequently, this control puts Emily in a state of isolation, both internal and external, imposed.
Besides, the power of death constitutes a dominant theme in the entire story. Emily is being depicted as a skeleton that seems to be both spare and small, hence representing her emanates death. When it comes to an end, Emily is perceived to be in denial due to her state of loneliness. After the death of her father, she keeps his father’s corpse for three consecutive days refusing to admit his death, thus enabling the reader to perceive the father’s body with Homer’s body, although she was the one who inflicted death upon Homer Barron. This inevitability portraying death, A Rose for Emily, is viewed as a tale that is focused on determinism, hence making the story to be part of the naturalism literary movement. There is also a portrayal of a cursed land due to slavery and the class structure focused upon no matter how individuals clung to the glorious past and soldiering on; this is a tarnished way of life leading to impending devastation. Emily received favors from the local authorities and had many expectations of living within, marrying a qualified guardian. She was to live in the company of a man as a partner to sire children. Therefore, Emily’s failure in achieving her expectations appeared to be the onset of the tragedy befalling the plot at the end.