A Rose For Emily

A detailed Summary of A Rose For Emily

In "A Rose for Emily", Faulkner presents a very horrifying picture in this story, and he does this by playing with the chronology, using detailed imagery, symbolism, and foreshadowing to present a detailed setting. Faulkner uses the element of time to enhance details of the setting. By avoiding the chronological order of events of Miss Emily's life, Faulkner enhances the plot and presents two different view of time held by the characters. The first view (the world of the present) shows time as a "mechanical progression." The second view (the world of tradition and the past) shows the past as "diminishing road." The first perspective is that of Homer and the modern generation. The second is that of Emily, the older members of the Board of Aldermen, and of the confederate soldiers.

Faulkner begins the story with Miss Emily's funeral, where the men see her as a "fallen monument" and the women are anxious to see the inside of her house. He gives us a picture of a woman who has "fallen", yet is as important and symbolic as a "monument." The details of Miss Emily's house relate to her and symbolize what she stands for. It is set on "what had once been the most select street." The narrator (

When Homer Barron, a symbol of progression, comes around to pave the town's sidewalks and construction modernizes the town. He starts courting Miss Emily, and the town believes he is the one that will marry her. Homer Barron is a cheerful character, a northerner, an outsider. "Whenever you heard a lot of laughing anywhere about the square, Homer would be in the center of the group." However, he is a bachelor who does not want to settle down, and the town's people don't approve of him marrying Miss Emily because of his class. "Then some of the ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people." Once Homer Barron enters Miss Emily's house and her life, he is bound to her forever without escape. "So we were not surprised when Homer Barron-the streets had been finished some time since-was gone." Once again, time stands still in her house, while the rest of the setting, the town, changes.

Miss Emily is "a small, fat woman in black, with a gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt." "Then they could hear the invisible watch ticking at the end of the chain." In this case, the watch is a symbol of time; yet in this house, time is invisible. Miss Emily has lost her understanding of time. When these men try to convince her that "there is nothing in the books" to show she is exempt from paying taxes and that she must pay her taxes, she repeats, "I have no taxes in Jefferson," and vanquishes them.

which is the town itself) describes the house as "stubborn and coquettish." Cotton gins and garages have long obliterated the neighborhood, but it is the only house left. With a further look at Miss Emily's life, we realize the importance of the setting in which the story takes place. The house in which she lives remains static and unchanged, just as Miss Emily has, even as the town progresses. Inside the walls of her abode, Miss Emily has halted time and its progression.

In chapter one, Faulkner takes us back to the time when Miss Emily refused to pay her taxes. She believes that just because Colonel Sartoris remitted her taxes, that she is exempt from paying them even years later. In the "Old South", a person's word was their honor, in the "New South", you must provide proof in writing. But the town has changed, it's people have changed, yet Miss Emily has put a halt on time. In her m

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Approximate Word count = 1591
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English