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A review by arinnroberson
A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
3.0
This was a very interesting story, I found myself intrigued and interested.
What I learned, and analyzed:
Then there is the description of Emily herself, and the vast differences that appear, caused by the passage of time. There is young 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” (84). From this, we get the impression of her Father’s overbearing nature, Emily in the background, smaller, less important, under the control and dominion of this man. This description though brief is full of implications about their relationship. As an older woman, she is depicted quite differently. “Her skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that was why what would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her. She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue” (83). Again we are given this suspicion of being stuck, trapped, locked in time. She is submerged, fully and without escape in her past and the consequences of her actions. Emily was once slender, skinny, but as time passes she gains weight, her figure rounding out. She loses respect and care for her appearance. As a young woman, she held out hope, had dreams for the future, her future. Older, and beaten, she holds out no such hope, her sins are too great for her to move on, and the circumstances of her childhood and younger days have shaped her into the women she now is.
What I learned, and analyzed:
Spoiler
In “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner enhances his story through description using it as a tool for characterization. The characters in this fascinating story would be insipid and vague if not for Faulkner’s mastery of portrayal. Miss Emily is a complicated character who is introduced and made known to us through various flashbacks, which hop through time. The story starts at the end and continues in its untraditional unfolding of time throughout. It is through his descriptions that we are able to garner a deeper understanding of Emily. At the beginning of the story, but towards the end of Emily’s life, men visit to discuss her refusal to pay taxes, her home is “shadow[ed]” and “cracked”. Faulkner claims, “It smelled of dust and disuse—a close, dank smell” (82). The house is thick with neglect, though not to be mistaken for apathy, Emily has trapped herself in time. Her dusty house is like a tomb, giving us a sense of being stuck in the past unable to let go and move on, wallowing in what has happened, or hasn’t, to the point of self-inflicted isolation.Then there is the description of Emily herself, and the vast differences that appear, caused by the passage of time. There is young 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” (84). From this, we get the impression of her Father’s overbearing nature, Emily in the background, smaller, less important, under the control and dominion of this man. This description though brief is full of implications about their relationship. As an older woman, she is depicted quite differently. “Her skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that was why what would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her. She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue” (83). Again we are given this suspicion of being stuck, trapped, locked in time. She is submerged, fully and without escape in her past and the consequences of her actions. Emily was once slender, skinny, but as time passes she gains weight, her figure rounding out. She loses respect and care for her appearance. As a young woman, she held out hope, had dreams for the future, her future. Older, and beaten, she holds out no such hope, her sins are too great for her to move on, and the circumstances of her childhood and younger days have shaped her into the women she now is.