|
HOME »
WORKSHOPS » FICTION » WILLIAM FAULKNER, "A ROSE FOR EMILY" » EXPLORATIONS
William Faulkner, "A Rose for Emily"
BIOGRAPHY
Reading » Re-Reading » Explorations » Links
Student Responses
Virginia Commonwealth University
I absolutely love this story! Emily is a fascinating character to me. She seems to be very respected in her community. Everyone refers to her as Miss Emily, a sign of respect. She lived a solitary life after being rejected by the man that she loved, Homer Barron. (He was obviously gay because the text said that "he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elk's club.") He was not a "marrying man." She buys some arsenic and kills him so that she could have him forever. No one actually knew what happened to Homer; he just disappeared. However, after Miss Emily dies, the town's people find the body of Homer in a bedroom upstairs. Next to his corpse on a pillow is a strand of Emily's iron gray hair. What a weirdo!! She actually slept with his dead body! Still, the weirdest thing to me is how Miss Emily could get away with so many things and never get into trouble. She avoided her taxes and even killed a man. She stayed locked in her house with only one servant and neither she nor the servant ever spoke. The town seems to respect her enough to leave her alone to live as she pleases. The only time the town ever interferes with Emily's business is when the rotten smell (obviously Homer) was coming from the house. Even then they only spread some lime around the house and didn't bother Emily. I think the reason that the town respected Emily so much was due to her family history. Her father was a respected man in the town because he had given so much money to the town. The family's taxes were remitted as a way of repaying her father. However, after he died Emily still refused to pay the taxes. The town just let her get away with this because her family was so respected. In regards to the subject that the story's time line is so confusing . . . I think that the time line is confusing because, for Emily, the past and the present intruded on one another. The past continually affected her present. Therefore, whenever explaining situations in the story, the narrator had to go back in time to tell what had happened in the past to make Emily act the way that she did.
Chad
This story seems to be narrated by "we." This "we" that is telling us this story seems to be representing society or the public in this setting. It is interesting that Miss Emily herself never gets to speak or defend herself, but for this reason, it seems like you as a reader get to do more analyzing than if Miss Emily was telling the story from her point of view.
This story seems to be told in a manner like it's an old tale that might have been passed on through generations in this place. The author's style of going back and forth through different time periods is an indication to the readers that whoever "we" is, is either as old as Miss Emily and has followed her life (not likely), or the stories or life of Miss Emily and her family have been followed by the community and passed down for years.
Even though Miss Emily is not speaking for herself in the style that this story is written, I don't think that it would have made any difference who told the story. As readers, we are probably only hearing about the facts of what was seen through the eyes of the public on the outside looking in on Miss Emily's home. But if Miss Emily herself was the narrator, we probably wouldn't have a story to read about, because it wouldn't be as mysterious. It was obvious that she killed Homer, and that she never left the house, so what would be interesting about that, if she was telling the story?
Erica
This particular story confused me a little. I know that Emily's father kept her from dating and marrying the guys that liked her, but why did she keep him in the house for three days after he had died? Of course she loved him, but why not let him go and live the life that she probably wanted to live? Nobody seemed to understand Emily but many used to speculate and get into her business. Everyone in the town wanted to always know what she was doing with herself and also the big question of whom she was dating.
I think that someone from the town was telling the story and that they were really interested in her. If she were to say something in this particular story, I think it would have been for everyone to let her live her life and for them to get out of her business. She would not have probably said much because it seemed as if she was a quiet person who kept to herself and minded her own business.
One thing that I don't understand now is why did she kill Homer Barron? I thought that this was the man that she was secretly dating or at least that she seemed to be interested in at the time.
Tiffany
I really enjoyed reading this story. This was my second reading but I noticed many things that I never noticed before. Even while reading it for a second time the order in which the events were told throughout the story confused me. This story does not sound like a work of William Faulkner but more like a work of Edgar Allan Poe. This story not only had an eerieness about it but it also had sensual connotations throughout. For me Miss Emily was not easily understood. Her eccentricities were not readily accepted by the people of her town because she did not fall into the norm of that time. Miss Emily was truly a woman before her time. If Emily was able to defend herself she would have told the people of the town that she was no different from them. In all actuality I don't believe that she would have said anything in her defense because she appeared to be the type of person who really didn't care what people thought of her. It sounds like only a person who truly understood her could have told the story. If it had been told by one of townsmen there probably would have been more far fetched drama.
I think every neighborhood has its own Miss Emily, whether it be a man or a woman. As I read this story it reminded me of a few people in my neighborhood that seemed to carry a legend who were the most talked about because they were the least known and the least understood
Shawna
The narrator might be considered as a representative of the town, someone who considers everyone else to feel the same way he/she does (hence, the "we"). I was curious about who the narrator might be as I read the ending. If the narrator had been someone from the town, how was he/she able to describe the man's room so poetically? I would have expected more surprise and disgust. The description seemed so thoughtful, unlike what I would describe if I saw a 30 or 40 year old corpse. I didn't find the story particularly interesting as I read it. I was hoping that something was going on, but there didn't seem to be anything. There was a stench, and Emily bought poison, and Emily didn't pay taxes, but none of this seemed to mean anything. Even now, that I know the ending, I still don't understand it.
In the first paragraph, the narrator explains why the men attended the funeral; "through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument" (275). I really don't think Emily is the fallen monument; could it be the house itself, or the Grierson family? I had to re-read this part, because it stuck in my head the whole time, and I couldn't figure out what point was being made.
The part of the story that I found to be the most interesting could be taken out of the story, and still be interesting. It is the description of the people at the funeral: ". . . talking of Miss Emily as if she had been a contemporary of theirs, believing that they had danced with her and courted her perhaps, confusing time with its mathematical progression, as the old do, to whom all the past is not a diminishing road, but, instead, a huge meadow which no winter ever quite touches, divided from them now by the narrow bottleneck of the most recent decade of years" (282). That is so true, and so well said.
Oh, and where is Emily's rose? Of course, I only read the story once, maybe I missed it, but I might think that if I knew the title of the story, I would have noticed it within the story. If there is no rose, what is it symbolic of? I know it's not the lovely smell of Emily's domain.
Malissa
I like this story, probably because I completely understand it (that stems from reading it so many times in high school). When you first read the story, you get confused because you are wondering who is the narrator. Finally you realize that the entire town is telling the story, and you see that the townspeople's biases affect the way they portray Emily as a person.
I really don't think Emily would have said much to justify herself; she obviously wasn't altogether there, and hadn't been for quite a few years. I think her father's overprotectiveness really affected her in a sense that she became out of touch with reality, and when she realized this (if she ever did) it was too late.
I'll have to admit, the timeline of the story is confusing. The way the story is told (I think) is that Emily has died, and the townspeople are getting ready to go into the house, all of them reminiscing and adding their separate thoughts about the past into the whole conglomerated "town mind."
Kenya
I found this story very strange. It was hard for me to follow because you were not very sure who was telling the story. This story also seemed to jump around a lot: when you start reading you are at the end of the story and as you continue it jumps around to the past. Emily seemed to be a very strange character with very strange ways. I do not understand why she locked herself up in the house for so many years and refused to go out in public. Also she was supposed to marry that guy and then all of a sudden he disappears and nobody knows where he went. After Emily dies, though, they find him dead in one of the upstairs rooms. Why would she kill him if they were supposed to get married and if she loved him? I thought maybe he had decided not to marry her and that was her way of keeping him with her forever. Also there is another part of the story that does not quite make sense to me. The narrator says that they had to break the door down but on the pillow beside him they find a piece of Emily's hair. I do not understand that except maybe she used to stay in there with him and stopped so the door was stuck from being shut for so long. It seemed, though, that she stayed up there or lay up there with him a lot since there was a head indentation in the other pillow. It was a neat story but very confusing and extremely hard for me to follow.
April
The fact that Emily never speaks directly made me see the point of view of the narrator only. Since the narrator or narrators (since the narrator is often referred to as "we") make it seem like Emily is crazy or something, that is how I felt. I did notice the different sections of the story. The story starts out talking about when Emily died. It then bounces back and forth from the past to the present. I did not get confused by that, but I just kept wondering what was the point. I was dying to know who "we" were so that I could see what their significance was. The people in the town were sickening. None of them really cared about Emily. She probably was a little crazy because she had no love and happiness in her life. When she bought the poison, everyone thought she would kill herself and it would be the best thing. Maybe Emily just wanted a little attention, but the town did not give her the right kind of attention. No one was concerned that she might take her life. Not one person tried to go talk to her and make sure she wasn't going to commit suicide. Then when she was being seen around town, the people complained that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example for the children. They couldn't just let her be happy. So what if she was being seen riding around town with a man. Didn't she deserve a little happiness? One thing I did wonder was why she killed the man and why no one had went to the house to see the man. He used to hang out with his buddies a lot and when he stopped coming out no one went to check on him.
LaTonya
I guess we know what happened to Homer Barron. A Rose for Emily is a confusing story. The time jumps around so much. I was confused because I didn't know what age Emily was at certain points of the story. One thing I need clarification on is what was the smell that was coming from her house? Was it Barron's body causing the stench? I didn't know because of the way the timeline is. I didn't know if the stink was before or after she met Barron. That leads me to the question of why she poisoned him to begin with. I was thinking perhaps it was to keep him with her forever but I didn't get the impression while reading the story that she was crazy like that, but she must have been to poison someone with arsenic and then hole the decaying body away in a room for forty years.
I don't think that Emily would want to justify herself to anyone. She seems to be so proud and to regard herself in such a high manner; why would she deem it necessary to explain herself to anyone? That may be the reason why we only hear the narrator's voice throughout the story because nobody knew Emily, so that made it necessary to speculate about her. She was a mystery woman to the town's people and I believe that she preferred to remain that way. She never left her house and she didn't like to let people in her house. It even says at the beginning that when she died, the women went to her funeral because they were curious to see what her house looked like because no one had been in it for ten years save three people.
The narrator is referred to as we. Who is we? I think we is the town's people as a whole because they were all in the same situation. None of them knew her so it was like them against her which would explain the references to we.
Taren
I think if Emily could speak for herself she would say MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS! I think that Emily probably started off as a well-balanced individual. But who could stay well balanced in a town where everybody minded your business more than they minded their own! Plus she had a father that drove every man that came around away! I think she ended up killing Homer Barron because she was afraid that he was going to leave her. She had had her father leave her and I don't think that she could bear to lose somebody else.
I don't really know who is telling the story. I think it is a male. It doesn't sound as if a female wrote it. This is going to sound really, really sexist but it doesn't include enough juicy gossip for a female to be telling this story. The way the women of that time period occupied their time was to talk about everybody in the town.
Another thing that I noticed is that the people of this town have got to be really stupid! I mean Homer Barron goes into the woman's house and they never see him again and then they start to smell something really bad like a dead animal coming out of her house! Hello!
Tanya
There is no possible way that Emily could tell this story because she is too proud to deal with the public. The public is the only link to the outside world for Emily because she is so pompous and superficial that she cannot interact with others. Now, the reason for this is obviously because of the way her father brought her up. This is revealed through flashback which brings some confusion to the story. But it also helps to add to the gossip-like nature of the narrator(s) of the story. Obviously, Emily has no intention of ever wanting to deal with the public because she shuts them out at every opportunity. She doesn't really feel the need to communicate with other people because maybe she feels she will somehow fail their expectations.
While reading the story I was not sure how it was going to end. I truly believe that this was the only force that kept driving me through the story. There were two options that I saw in Emilys actions. One was that the man lived in the house with her and just never went out because their love was so strong it could live without the outside world . . . and would flourish through this sacrifice. The other option was that she had killed him because she loved him so much and could not have him because of their differences of class and his nomadic nature. I learned by the end of the story that it was a twisted combination of both, although I thought that the first option would be the best.
Emily
All in all, I found this story to be vastly entertaining. Don't we all know someone like Miss Emily? She was a member of one of those "traditional southern families," whose place in society was determined by the good (or bad) deed that one of their relatives did long ago, and she is desperately trying to hold onto that status.
I actually feel sorry for Miss Emily, because as the narrator says, "Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town." The general feeling that I got from this story is that Miss Emily is living in the wrong time. It seems like she is trapped in her home and this causes her to lose touch with reality. After her father dies, she has no one to communicate with but the negro servant, and the classes that she teaches the young girls in her town eventually end also, leaving her with almost no contact with the outside world. One episode that reiterates this fact is when some of the townsfolk try to collect taxes. Despite the fact that she owes taxes, she refuses to pay them because of some promise that Colonel Sartoris made many years ago. " 'See Colonel Sartoris.' " (Colonel Satoris had been dead almost ten years.)"
In my literature course last year, we had a debate as to whether the narrator was a male or female. It's a bit confusing, but I still think it's a male. He seems to be more sympathetic to her situation than a woman would.
The timeline is effective in this story because it shows us what led up to Miss Emily's death. I doubt the story would have been the same if we went chronologically. Like in everyday life, we never realize the significance of events while they are going on, but upon reflection, we can understand their importance.
Tamika
Who IS telling this story? While I read "A Rose for Emily," I had the impression that the town where Emily lived was telling the story. Or at least, it was the town council that told the story. No, to think about it, I think the elderly residents of the town who remember Emily's life early on are telling the story. There seemed to be some reminiscing in the past about Miss Emily, the deep past, which described Emily's short love life with Homer Barron and her strict protective father before he died.
The structure of the timeline of this story, I think, gave the story a sort of remembering. Elderly people think about the past and Emily after her death. This structure seems to show the way someone would think of the past. When some detail came up unclear, a different time was brought up to clarify the current story.
I think Emily was shy because her father never let a suitor near her. This possibly made her a bit upset and when her father died, she wasn't going to let the next man get away. She probably killed Homer Barron because she loved him and didn't want him to leave her.
Trevor
|
In 
In 
In