"A Rose for Emily" is a short story written by William Faulkner, first published in the April 30, 1930, issue of The Forum. The story is set in the fictional town of Jefferson, Mississippi, and follows the life of Emily Grierson, a reclusive and eccentric woman whose life is marked by tragedy and loss. The story is told in a nonlinear fashion, with events occurring out of chronological order.
The story begins with the death of Emily and the discovery of her body in her bedroom. From there, the narrative moves backwards in time to the day Emily's father died, which is described as the beginning of her decline. The story then jumps back to Emily's youth, when she was a young woman of noble birth who was courted by a number of suitors. One of these suitors, Homer Barron, a laborer from the North, eventually becomes Emily's lover, but the relationship is short-lived.
The story then jumps forward in time to the present, where it is revealed that Emily has become a recluse, rarely leaving her home or interacting with the outside world. Despite this, she remains a prominent figure in the town, and is respected and admired by the community for her aristocratic background and her strong sense of pride.
As the story progresses, the narrative returns to the past, showing the events that led to Emily's isolation and her eventual decline. It is revealed that Emily's father was a strict and controlling man who forbade her from marrying or leaving the family home. When he died, Emily was left alone, and she struggled to maintain the family's status and reputation in the community.
The story concludes with the discovery of Emily's body and the revelation that she had killed Homer Barron and kept his body in her bedroom for years. The community is shocked and saddened by this revelation, and the story ends with the townspeople coming to terms with the fact that Emily was not the noble and dignified woman they had believed her to be.
In conclusion, "A Rose for Emily" is a story that tells the tragic tale of a woman whose life is marked by loss and isolation. Through its nonlinear narrative structure, the story reveals the events that led to Emily's decline, and the ways in which her past shaped her present. Despite her flaws, Emily is remembered by the community as a symbol of the South's noble past, and her legacy lives on long after her death.
A Rose for Emily
The narrator makes judgments both for and against Miss Emily, and also presents outside observations. The townspeople offer their condolences, but Emily refuses to admit her father is dead. These examples show that the power of death triumphs over everything, including "poor Emily", herself. Faulkner skillfully put the story up to demonstrate the indefinable and intangible character of time. The narration is divided into five parts. Discussing Emily and her father, the townspeople said "We had long thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door". Maybe unrequited love that turns violent? Some townspeople are convinced that she will use it to poison herself.
The Chronology of William Faulkner’s "A Rose for Emily"
By presenting the story in terms of present and past events, he could examine how they influence each other. Nevertheless, he gives hints that make it possible to put these fragments together and thus reconstruct the chronology of the life of Miss Emily Grierson. After a whirlwind affair where the town believes the two will marry, Homer instead tries to cut off ties with Emily. A week later, Homer shows up again, then disappears for good. Miss Emily's house begins to smell terrible, and men from the town spread lime on the lawn. Homer and Emily, now over 30 years old, become sweethearts. Some scholars, including S.
Chronology in ‘A Rose for Emily’, Sample of Essays
The shocking conclusion of. So, why does Faulkner structure his story like this? Jim Barloon of the University of St. The author keeps the audience engaged with foreshadowing and symbolism. Instead of the tyranny of chronology, it is the construction out of fragments that now becomes a key formal characteristic. She was never able to grow, learn, live her life, start a family, and marry the one she truly loved. As we will see, the chronology of the story is not presented in a linear fashion, but rather through a series of flashbacks and events out of sequence.
A Rose for Emily: Timeline of Events
Homer tells the town he is not the marrying kind. The Journal of Narrative Technique. The house is an indicator revealing how Emily struggled to keep everything the same, in a frozen time period, avoiding change. She will not allow the doctor to take him for burial. The narrator he or she? Had the story been told in a linear fashion, this understanding would, perhaps, have been lost, something Faulkner knew and incorporated into the story. The effects of this non-linear chronology on the story are beautifully summed up by McGlynn 1969. Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing.
