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Rose For Emily Essay Research Paper A 2

Rose For Emily Essay, Research Paper

?A Rose for Emily? By William Faulkner Reading this atypical piece of work

entitled ?A Rose for Emily?, written by William Faulkner encourages a sense

of thrill and stimulation within. Since Mr. Faulkner resided in Mississippi most

of his writings reflect his home state, as does ?A Rose for Emily?. The

first person minor point of view is being told by the townspeople. The main

character, Miss Emily, in this short gothic story that took place during the

early 1900 hundreds demonstrated a conflict she was having with herself. I think

that it is well known that our parents are the backbone to each person?s

existence. Knowing this, William Faulkner managed to include through the events

in the plot an underlining message mixed with a little flowered mockery.

Although, Ms. Emily committed murder, she was a victim of her learned

environment because of her father and the citizens of Jefferson. This story

revolved around one town and one main character. The beginning of this woman?s

well to do life in a poor southern state consisted only of herself and her

domineering father living in the same house until the calling of God summoned

her elsewhere. Miss Emily managed to make it to age thirty still being single

with only the help of her father and ?she would? continue to cling to that

which had robbed her"(472). The town?s people assumed that ?none of the

young men were quite good enough for Ms. Emily and such?(471). When the only

person in Emily?s life passed on, she stood in denial and refused condolences

an aid to bury her father from the town ladies. The damage that her father had

bestowed upon her by sheltering her from the rest of the world was starting to

emerge at the time of his death. By over-protecting Emily and ?clutching a

horsewhip?(471) to control her life, caused her to become hermit-like in the

town she grew up in and knew very well. This creator of Emily must have lead her

life for her in every way, fore when he exited the earth, he managed to take a

big part of her with him. I believe this caused a confused state in which Emily

really didn?t know herself, causing her to be so afraid of being alone that

townspeople were ?trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body…

for three days?(471). Emily came upon and involved herself with a second male

figure that turned out to be her lover. In the end Emily poisons her lover to

keep him from leaving her. The fulfilling plot is retold by the townspeople as

if they were all reflecting upon her life and the things they remembered. By the

author reflecting back, using the whole town, it gave the story a sense of

upcoming purpose. The climax continued to climb starting ?when the smell

developed?(470) to Emily purchasing the arsenic and finally the very end when

the realization was put forth by ?a long strand of iron-gray hair?(475)

implying that she really killed Homer. The author?s tone carried sympathy for

Emily as stated by the townspeople, when they said ?poor Emily?(472) several

times. The characterization of Emily was also provided by the description of her

house that had once been white, decorated with a nice roof, steeple, and

?scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies?(469),

compared to the current portrait given of ?an eye sore among eyesores?(469).

The townspeople who ?had begun to feel really sorry for her?(471), along

with her father, all provided an external unhealthy motivation that is

responsible for her unthinkable actions of murdering Homer. A mixture of simple

to read sentences along with minor dialog made the story easy to understand. I

felt the style of writing provided a spirited suspense by not letting on that

Homer was dead until the closing paragraphs. For me, stories like that keep me

reading until the very end. A story like this, that took place in the south

during the early 1900 hundreds basically got away with murder. If the setting

for this story would have been present day 2000, it would have upset and

infuriated some readers for the fact that a crime was committed and no one were

prosecuted. The town officials would have carried more of the blame for not

finding out the real cause of that smell. The black servant would have also been

charged for not reporting the murder. Basically, any other time and place would

have caused the story to lose its effectiveness. Looking past all the literary

elements except the theme, which contained the most meaning relating back to

Emily?s surroundings. The death of her father constructed a mental milestone

in her life in which she would continue to build upon in an unhealthy manner.

She carried the haunting presence of father with her, and had always maintained

a love/hate attitude regarding her father and the sheltering life style he

provided for her. The citizens of Jefferson contributed to Emily?s demise by

befriending her in times of need, and whispering about her instead of helping

her. If Emily really meant that much for the whole town to attend her passing

then they should have been there to support and comfort her and not ?out of

curiosity to see the inside of her house?(469). If the men really had respect

for her while she was still living then they would have welcomed her to social

gatherings. None of this occurred; in thus, making Emily the town?s laughing

monument during her breathing years. Emily deeply needed to ?become

humanized?(471) and love someone and to be loved since the passing of her

father ?left her all alone and a pauper?(471). Emily must have known that

the end of her relationship with Homer was drawing near, other wise she would

not have already had the arsenic on hand. Following her unthinkable actions to

finally take control of a situation, she invited the town?s children to her

newly created studio within her home and taught them china painting. This was

Emily?s last attempt to be giving to the community and in turn calm her

loneness. Then ?the pupils had grown up…. and did not sent their children to

her…. for china painting lessons so her door closed and remained

closed?(474). Citing this example is another way the town had turned their

back on her. Over the years the word had got out that Emily was a crazy person

and I am sure that is why there were no further students sent to her. The entire

concept of a rose is interesting with possibly two meanings. Roses are beautiful

with a meaning of love and respect along with hope and courage. Even though

roses have such meaning, they also have thorns. Roses and their thorns symbolize

her life as a whole. The petals being her father?s love that protected her,

the thorns being ?all the young men her father had driven away?(472) and

comparing it to the affection she had for Homer that he did not carry for her.

It makes sense that Emily lived her life like a rose. Another symbolic item

about the title is that it only states ?A Rose?, meaning one. One rose

symbolizes simplicity and the fact that all she really wanted was a normal and

simple life with out loneness. This single rose happens to be Homer and Emily

dries him out and keeps him. The purpose of the story is that life is

unpredictable and we are all products of our environment. Some of us choose not

to let an unfortunate way of life rule us, Miss Emily on the other hand did not

have self-esteem, self-worth and confidence to persuade her otherwise. She had

been ruled by her father, deemed a crazy woman by the town and lost many men

that had come calling her. The one man that she held somewhat of a relationship

with was going to leave her and her only solution in order to hold onto him was

to do the unthinkable and murder him to keep him from leaving like all the rest.

In this day an age, Emily would have been diagnosed with mental disorder, which

would have required her to contend with her separation anxiety behavior that

stemmed from the nucleus of her family, primarily her father. In the beginning

Emily was being controlled and in the end Emily learned to control. Sociology

teaches that everything is a learned behavior, including the environment in

which we are harvested from. I would also like to imply that it is impossible to

kill without creating conditions for your own murder. Miss Emily may have

thought that by administering the rat poison to Homer she would finally get and

keep what she always wanted regardless of a beating heart. But in the end she

was still alone from being victimized by her environment and that added to her

decline.