A Rose for Emily Analysis Essay Sample

‘A Rose for Emily’ Analysis: The Main Themes and Symbols of the Short Story William Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily’ was his first published short story and is one of his most read and highly praised works. This ‘ghost story’ has an intricate enigmatic plot and offers immense possibilities for interpretations mainly due to its unconventional style. One of the most interesting analyses of ‘A Rose for Emily’ by SparkNotes suggests that the story reveals such broad ideas as complexities of the changing world, tensions between the South and North, and strict social limitations placed on women. The author describes the dank world of Emily Grierson who is the main character of this short story, a horrible world full of aberrant psychology and necrophilia. I am not going to give ‘A Rose for Emily’ summary but focus on a literary analysis of the short story. In this ‘A Rose for Emily’ analysis, I am going to discuss the main themes and symbols of the story. There are several themes here and the major ones include tradition vs change, isolation, the power of death, the decline of the old South. The story starts with a brief account of the huge funeral of Emily Grierson attended by the whole town. Then the narrator recollects Emily’s extremely strange behavior in a series of flashbacks throughout decades. The narration travels back and forth in time. By presenting the story in such a way, the author examines how the present and the past influence each other. Faulkner creates a complex multidimensional world where the past and the present coexist. Stretching the story out for approximately 74 years, Faulkner shows how a small southern town Jefferson is at crossroads, torn between the present and the past. Portraying the mysterious character of Emily Grierson, the author shows how the American South struggles to keep traditions when facing widespread, radical changes, trying to find a better way with each generation. Staying the same despite radical changes in her hometown, Emily Grierson represents the old traditions that the people of Jefferson want to respect and honor, but at the same time she is a burden and lives in a timeless vacuum completely cut off the outside world. Death is a prevalent theme in ‘A Rose for Emily’- there are 5 actual deaths in the story. Death prevails from the beginning when a narrator mentions Emily’s death and the rotting corpse in Emily’s bed also thematically reflects the decay of the old South. Emily is an emblem of the old South – she is a real grand lady but her respectability and grace decline as the time passes, like outdated feelings and values that the Griersons symbolize. Emily tries to take power over death by denying the very fact of death. These bizarre attempts are revealed in Emily’s necrophilia. Faulkner tells the story of Emily’s complete physical and emotional isolation which arouses the curiosity of the town residents. Emily is isolated and at the same time, she is always observed by the townspeople as a member of their community. ‘A Rose for Emily’ shows that Faulkner was influenced by Southern Gothics as a literary tradition when the authors explored extreme, antisocial behavior. Southern Gothics was based on the concept that everyday life and the refined attractive surface of the social order were too not real, illusory, hiding frightening realities. There are a lot of details that reveal the influence of the Southern Gothic style: the whole moody and forbidding atmosphere, putrefaction, decay. Emily’s house is also a symbol of the dying world of the Southern aristocracy. The house is lavishly decorated but it seems out of place among industrial surroundings – the same way as the old South sensibilities are out of place in the rapidly changing society. The house also represents the image of mental illness and death. There are also other unimaginably dark images in the story: a murder, a corpse, a mysterious servant who disappears when Emily dies, and the most horrible of all is Emily’s necrophilia. ‘A Rose for Emily’ is Faulkner’s most anthologized short story. It is a good example of Gothic and grotesque literature that generally contains terror, gloom, and understated violence.