" A Rose for Emily" by Faulkner.

Essay by chickenandriceUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, September 2003

download word file, 3 pages 5.0

Downloaded 112 times

English 1002 Sec 2

Fiction Paper #1

An Analysis of "A Rose for Emily"

Miss Emily Grierson finds it extremely difficult to let go of the men in her life. She clings to the past and refuses to allow her world to change. In "A Rose for Emily" Faulkner illustrates how over time an admired woman, who was described as "a tradition, a duty, and a care", could not cope with losing a man. Miss Emily's perception of reality is clearly distorted when it comes to men and her inability to allow change to occur in her life.

The first indication of Miss Grierson's insanity took place after her father died. He insisted on being the only man in her life. No man was ever "quite good enough" for her. A few visitors went to see her the day after her father's death to offer their condolences and aid.

Miss Emily met them at the door, and with not a trace of grief on her face, insisted her father was not dead. She even kept his body in her home for three days, with doctors trying to convince her to let them dispose of his body. Before she was forced to do so, Miss Emily allowed authorities to take her father's already decomposing body and bury him. Miss Emily's peers felt that these actions were normal given the way her father treated her. He isolated her from the world. What woman of sound mind would keep a dead body in her home for three days?

The summer after her father's death, she met a man named Homer Baron. It was clear that her heart would be broken again because Homer was described as "not a marrying man". This did not seem like the kind of man Miss Emily...