“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is a short story centered around the life of a well-known town woman, Emily Grierson. Set in Mississippi, the story spans over 75 years. The Griersons are well known in the town of Jefferson, and quite frankly, Emily Grierson is admired by the town. This story is written in first person but uses pronouns such as we. The narrator is the town, and I have never read a story that had this point of view, so it was cool to read and worked very well. The story is divided into five sections.
Some interesting qualities about this short story is its structure, point of view, characters, conflict, and its frame. Choosing to use “we” instead of “I” made it feel like it was written from the town as a whole’s perspective. It also felt like they were responsible to tell her story like it was their duty. The town’s attitude towards Emily and her entire family tree is obvious throughout the story.
“When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old man-servant—a combined gardener and cook—had seen in at least ten years” (Faulkner).
This is the opening text of the story and instantly introduces you to the idea of the town people and Emily. It sets the foundation of the setting, a small country town where people see or claim to see everything. It also introduces that Miss Grierson is almost the town’s mystery.
There is a battle of old v new and North v South heavily present in this story. There are two interesting characters in the story and one of them is Emily Grierson. I find her to be an extremely complex and mysterious character. The town sees her as “a fallen monument” “duty.” I feel they see her this way because she represents the old ways of the setting. However, at the same time, she partially represents modern time. It talks a lot about the modern people coming in and changing things. Emily is also interesting because of her relationship with her father, which is very troubling and oppressing. He apparently ruins every relationship she’s in and is very strict and close-minded. She still loved him deeply however and depended on him. It was essentially an unhealthy relationship.
The structure of this essay works well because it introduces new information in each section. The only part I didn’t understand was where Faulkner decided to begin number two; it was very weird because it was still discussing a scene from part one.
The story begins and ends with death, hence the frame structure I mentioned earlier. The progression and changing of characters in the story is very well done. Overall, this was a nice short story. If you like twists and surprising endings, then this story is for you. Click here to read it.
