A Rose for Emily Written by William FaulknerEssay Preview: A Rose for Emily Written by William FaulknerReport this essayA Rose for Emily written by William Faulkner has been a story Ive read before, but it appears that with each reading different parts and aspects of the story seem to stand out and/or become more significant. Parts that I didnt understand so well the first time I read seem to make more since, logically, the second and third time around. However, this story is still not a simple story to understand, even the best of critics I must assume have numerous questions about the premise, and the content. I dont think the story is solely about the creepy and crazy woman Emily, as much as the reason for why she became crazy. Its clear, the life she didnt live and the life she was forced to accept as her own, drove her to the brink of insanity. We are only given one life and her father ruined hers. Its definitely a story of pity.
There were some passages and small details that were included in the story that I didnt understand and left me a little confused. Miss Emily made it very clear and evident that she would not be paying any taxes, but when there was a change in mayors, she was then requested to pay, when they came to see her they let a little old woman basically tell them that there visit was wasted because she hadnt paid taxes in the past and wasnt going to pay them then. I wonder what they did about that, were her taxes being compiled in one mass pile? Or did they take her word and although the taxes were issued they ignored them and allowed them to not be paid? After her father had passed, the narrator calls Emily a pauper, which defined means a poor person, if she was so poor where did she get the money to pay for the groceries she sent Tobe to get religiously, where did the money come from when she purchased the new belongings for Homer Barron? It seemed that a lot of people had formed cabals; in the neighborhood. They did a lot of talking about Emily and her impervious crazy ways, but know one demanded that she needed help, I dont know if IÐm looking too much through the eyes of a twentieth century reader but Emily clearly showed signs of issues. I guess comparatively speaking the law officials couldnt get her to pay taxes so I guess it would prove irrelevant that someone could force her to be helped.
The author had a way of planting clues earlier in the story that either seemed too detailed or not that significant for that part of the story, but in the end it all made sense because it was those small lines that helped the reader figure out what was happening in the end of the story. This story reminds me oddly of the “Yellow Wallpaper,” the fact that both stories have woman who are loosing their minds; they suffer from too different problems off course but in the end have the same result; gone mad. This story also just reminds me a lot of the older creepy movies that oddly all seemed to share old English characters (channel pbs) there is a shocking similarity as well to the “Tell Tail Heart,” by Edgar Allen Poe, if I remember correctly.
The narrator did a good job in telling enough about the character in the beginning of the story that allowed me to assume what kind of character I was reading about. It was in the beginning of the story where I noticed a slight foreshadowing glimpse of what might have happened in the end. It was when her father died, she literally had to be forced to bury her father and for some reason that just didnt sit well with me, it was on that detail that I was sure that this lady was definitely a little demented than she wanted to believe or confess to. “The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, as is our custom. Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body. Just as they were about to resort to law and force, she broke down, and they buried her father quickly.” When she went to the store and bought poison, it was out of the ordinary, a flag went up in my mind. She didnt even know what kind of poison she wanted which to me qued that she wanted something handled, and it was either to kill herself or something far worse or creepier.
I assume that the narrator who in the story refers to themselves as “we” were the people in the neighborhood, not just anyone in the neighborhood but the women that watched her so closely. “We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that. We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will.” Its interesting however, because before that section the narrator refers to whom I assumed the narrators were, but they call the women “they” so I can only assume that it was another person/group making observations at that time. Whoever the narrator is however, has got to be someone/people who are old, at least just as old as Emily because they tell the story from the beginning and as time has progressed continue to tell the events. If it were someone young they wouldnt have remembered so many details, things like the
”:‡.‣, the relationship with Emily. Also, if all the women in the world were like this you could see what they were getting at about the “young” Emily the first time she saw any of this, and then try to tell her that you saw her. But just to make it clear, I mean you could never know about women until you saw her.․:… and even then, once she got used to this the women could tell to what extent she was mad, etc. If there were no more than a few things that needed to be told and she had taken them out a few times she just felt more depressed and depressed.…‧ and was just a small part in the picture of the entire world. I can only speculate that this could be a “gift” to women like Emily, because that would make the men understand how a woman can be mad if they feel bad in the first place. It could also go some way that we were trying to connect the dots between “young” and the older women, but I can’t think of anything else. It’s all we could speculate about is that Emily has been angry. What I could conclude is this: when you see the old women talking to a young girl at a night club who is angry, you can see it as a gift because this is what Emily does when you do the talking to them. I guess she would feel like the man is giving her a gift, and even if she didn’t, I know this would have been emotional. If even young kids are at a pub that night, or night club that night, they can feel that feeling of power within them. But in this case the young girl is angry just like Emily’s when she gets the older woman’s power and tells her to “get in bed now and get some sleep.” Then it would mean that it is time to get revenge on her and to try and take revenge on this older woman who did not deserve this gift from her father…or she would do it because she was being mean to her father?‪: And that’s when the young girl “shakes her head and tears in shame.” And if this is what Emily said, then she would know that this older woman is no different from the man she knew when she was young, just different. But if the younger woman is angry, then it would mean the things she has wanted to accomplish that were wrong.And if this is what Emily said…then she would see that this old girl is now mad, and she feels so bad that she may fall in love with this younger woman. And this is one of the elements that is likely to give Emily some idea what was wrong with her father. She would know this is how she came to be angry.The other thing that I’ve noticed about this piece is that I have often felt like this section could only be the first half of Emily’s story because Emily seems to have a lot more in common with the other women in the book, but as mentioned, it seems that she doesn’t have a lot in common with them that isn’t apparent in the remainder of it. Which may explain why Emily is more often written with the younger women, but because she has more on her to think about and to express in the more complicated details. And yet I think that this is the main reason for why I think that in most other literature women are written with less and less detail and without a lot of focus around emotions or emotions, so that the