Summary
William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily is a short story told from a first-person narrative. The story begins with the narrator informing the audience about the funeral of Miss Emily Grierson (Faulkner 6). Although the “whole town” attended the funeral, the woman had been alone for at least a decade as her servant was the only person who had been inside her house for many years (Faulkner 6). Moreover, the people came to the funeral with the main purpose of looking inside the house as its last owner was the town’s “hereditary obligation” (Faulkner 6). Miss Emily Grierson was an older woman who represented the customs of the previous generation and ignored her obligations as a town citizen (Faulkner 6, 7, 9). Miss Emily rarely left her house, which had developed a strange smell that bothered everyone but the two living in it (Faulkner 8-9). As the story progresses, one can assume that people in the town were not fond of Miss Emily but only treated her with pity and puzzlement (Faulkner 9). The narrator shortly describes Miss Emily’s long life in the way people in the town viewed it.
The narrative illustrates various events, showing the story of Miss Emily Grierson. First, the narrator represents differences between generations describing the town’s mayor’s time, the next generation being against old arrangements, and the newest people who would not let their children visit Miss Emily (Faulkner 6, 12). Second, the narration describes solidarity portraying Miss Emily’s lonely life as she was never married, rarely took visitors in her old house, and, if she had to, did not interact with them properly (Faulkner 7-9). Third, the story talks about death and Miss Emily’s denial of it, as she referred to the deceased mayor as if he was alive and refused her father’s death (Faulkner 8-9). Fourth, there is a mentioning of suicide as the townspeople believed in Miss Emily’s intention to end her own life when she bought poison without revealing why she needed it (Faulkner 11). Fifth, the narration presents a homosexual character as Miss Emily’s only suitor in life is said to “like men” (Faulkner 11). Describing one person, the short story touches upon several aspects of life.
Thesis Statement
Upon reading A Rose for Emily, I decided to focus on Miss Emily’s relationship with her father, who is described as the only man she was close to for a prolonged time. Following that, the thesis statement will be, “Miss Emily’s father has influenced her personality and caused her inability to live as part of the town.” In my opinion, her father was the one who had affected Emily’s character the most, and it can be explained by doing more research.
Research
With regard to the proposed thesis statement, I chose the following article: Zhang, Xiaotong, and Yihui Li. “A Comparative Analysis of the Causes of the Heroine’s Tragedy in Tess of the D’Urbervilles and A Rose for Emily.” Theory and Practice in Language Studies, vol. 10, no. 8, 2020, pp. 988-992. I think this article can be highly evaluated as, by comparing two different stories, it provides a better understanding of each character. The paper examines tragedies in the lives of the two main characters and talks about Miss Emily Grierson being “deprived of happiness” (Zhang and Li 988). Emily grew up in a patriarchal society in a period when women faced mental and physical torture (Zhang and Li 989). Her father was the only one to raise Emily, teaching her to obey him and mentally repressing her (Zhang and Li 990). Zhang and Li analyze Miss Emily’s personality focusing on the social environment and family oppression in the story. The article also made me think how Emily’s character could be different if her mother were alive.
Works Cited
Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily and Other Stories. Random House Publishing Group, 2012.
Zhang, Xiaotong, and Yihui Li. “A Comparative Analysis of the Causes of the Heroine’s Tragedy in Tess of the D’Urbervilles and A Rose for Emily.” Theory and Practice in Language Studies, vol. 10, no. 8, 2020, pp. 988-992.