A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
A Rose for Emily is one of the most popular, but tragic short stories written by William Faulkner. He managed to convey multiple important themes within the work of a rather small size. A rose for Emily is full of symbols that may be interpreted in different ways, which makes the story extremely interesting for analysis. The plot reminds one of the gothic novels, where all the events are gloomy and dark but still maintain the spirit of romanticism.
The story begins with a death of Miss Emily, most important and well-known person the whole town. Faulkner describes the event happened on behalf of people living there, always in plural. At the very beginning, author mentions that the representative of the community will be able to pass the door of her house and finally get inside. Faulkner keeps the tension of the story till the very end of it where in a couple of sentences unfolds a secret long-awaited answer to the reader. After a couple of exciting the curiosity phrases, the author presents some of the most important facts of Miss Emily’s life and misfortune. Only at the end, we understand why the short story has such an unexpected structure.
The very name of the story, A Rose for Emily is hiding a symbol inside of it conveying a number of meanings. First of all, rose may mean Miss Emily herself as within the story we can find a parallel of her being beautifu,l but inapproachable as a rose. She is a flower of the past times suffocating in constantly changing present. Her conservativeness and fear of change determined all her life and made her a prisoner of her own house. The town was changing and trying out new appearance, buildings, lifestyle, but Emily’s house remained the same: “only Miss Emily's house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps—an eyesore among eyesores” (Faulkner 79). Emily was like an anchor that reminded the town community about their traditions. Second interpretation will be closer to the text since the only moment when the word “rose” was mentioned, is a closed room where Miss Emily’s lover was found: “ curtains of faded rose color”, “rose-shaded lights” (Faulkner 84). Rose, as a flower, symbolizes love. Taking into account this meaning, the whole room, furnished for the future bride and groom can be interpreted as a tribute to love. Therefore, in very name of the story, Faulkner gives a small hint, metaphor, symbolizing all Miss Emily had in her life – room with memories of her love. There is also a third interpretation of the story’s name, given by the author himself: "Here was a woman who had had a tragedy, an irrevocable tragedy and nothing could be done about it, and I pitied her and this [the story] was a salute . . . to a woman you would hand a rose" (Jeliffe 70-71). He described a tragedy of a women who was afraid to lose the love of her life and had to murder her lover who was willing to abandon her, in order to be with him till her death.
The plot of the story reveals conflicts on several levels. The external conflict traditions vs. changes opposition is emphasized throughout the whole story: Emily, being a part of those people living in the town, separated herself from the outside world and refused to accept any changes. Hence, we can see the society with their rules and laws and Miss Emily in opposition to them. With time , her stability became a symbol of traditions, like a wind from the past: for instance, “note on paper of an archaic shape, in a thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink (Faulkner 79).
The time stopped it’s move at her house, that was clearly visible from the conversation held by the local authorities delegation: all their questions and claims Miss Emily transferred to Colonel Sartoris who used to be a major but died 10 years ago; she was referring to him not knowing that he passed away. She repeated the phrase “I have no taxes in Jefferson” (Faulkner 80) three times, and only at the last time the deputation couldn’t provide evidence strong enough to be heard. The way she spoke revealed a real lady from the well-known family who could not accept any objections. It is important to mention that the number three is used in many texts, since it has a sacral meaning and always the third time is successful.
Moreover, in the story we can see opposition love vs. noblesse oblige that is followed by another one: freedom of will vs. traditions. It is visible on the example of Miss Emily’s love story that took place after her father’s death. Miss Emily, a white lady from a noble family was shamelessly showing out in public with a day labourer, Homer Barron. Love between representatives of different classes was a rare and hardly acceptable thing at that times. Moreover, Miss Emily’s disposition of love lead to the conflict with society: “some of the ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people”(Faulkner 81). Therefore, she was forced to show that her beloved one is going to marry her. As a result, we may claim that the society and it’s rules were to blame in her tragedy.
On balance, I would like to say that A Rose for Emily is a tragic story with a simple plot but complicated intertwined conflicts hidden beneath. The author’s signs can be found on different levels and analyzed in various ways that provides the possibility of multiple interpretations of the story.
Work Cited
Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. Robert DiYanni. 6th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2008. 79-84. Print.
Jelliffe, Robert, ed. Faulkner at Nagano, Tokyo: Kenkyusha Ltd., 1956. Print.
