Denying Change in William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily

A detailed Summary of Denying Change in William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily

William Faulkner's, "A Rose for Emily," is a short story about a woman of enduring character. Miss Emily uses the past to exert her will over the townspeople of Jefferson. She possesses an unrelenting outlook towards life, and she refuses to change.

Miss Emily is from a well to do family, which has long since lost its fortune, but not its aristocratic thinking and bearing. She holds herself aloof from the rest of the town, because this is how she was raised. Her father was a very domineering man and controlled everything Miss Emily did, so when he passed away Miss Emily felt lost. Times are changing and all that Miss Emily knows is changing too. The only way for Miss Emily to survive is by holding onto the past and to continue to live the only way she knows how. When the ladies of the town call upon her the day after her father's death, they believe that Miss Emily will more "humanized", but this was not to be. She met them at the door and was "dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face" (31). She denies that her father is dead, because she has escaped to the past and doesn't want to

The present keeps trying to bring Miss Emily out of her safe world but her will is stronger than her mind. The town continues to progress and the street that Miss Emily lives on has been modernized. "But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily's house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps-an eyesore among eyesores" (28). The house in which she lives remains static and unchanged as the town progresses.

She tries to change her life a little with Homer Barron. Although he is not in what the townspeople feel is Miss Emily's social class, she chooses to defy the very upbringing she lives by and see him anyway. Their relationship doesn't last and this makes Miss Emily realize that she will be alone again if Homer leaves, so she takes measures to ensure that he will always stay with her. Miss Emily has once again become aloof. "Now and then we would see her at a window for a moment, as when the men did that night when they sprinkled the lime, but for almost six months she

Some common words found in the essay are:
Miss Emily, Miss Emily's, Colonel Sartoris, miss emily, Rose Emily, Homer Barron, miss emily's, changing miss, change miss, changing miss emily,

Approximate Word count = 745
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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Denying Change in William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily

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