Rose For Emily By William Faulkner example essay topic

Definitely, William Faulkner is one of the most controversial writers ever studied; a lot of his stories bring about the issues and questions, which has bothered humanity for a substantial period of time. Faulkner is great at creating unusual settings for his stories, most of the personages he develops throughout the course of his stories are authentic and unique, and none of the other writers is able to reproduce the realistic appeal of the Faulkners characters. A Rose for Emily is the perfect example of the writers style; most of the readers are somewhat shocked by the unusual issues the author elaborates upon in his famous story. A Rose For Emily was written in 1931. Not only is this story sad, and in the end a bit horrific, but it appears to be definitely somewhat autobiographical. It is written with a certain first-hand knowledge.

There appears to be a direct link between Emily and the author, not the narrator, but the author, William Faulkner. Some indications of this relationship can be found in the characters and the setting. Mr. Faulkner seemed to be at a low point in his life when he wrote this short story, and perhaps found a release by describing his struggle in a work of fiction. In A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, the author uses the element of time and history to tell the story of Emily Grierson.

Emily attempts to resist the progression of time and modernization in the American south during the post-civil war era. Emilys struggle of transition from old south to new south values is portrayed in a unique story-telling style. Faulkner uses many symbolic meanings associated with Emily, in relation to time and history, to decipher and interpret Emilys life. He also manipulates his story by offering key incidents out of chronological order. The authors use of these techniques is particularly effective in bestowing his perception of Emily upon his readers. In A Rose For Emily, Emily Grierson is described in her younger days as having a slender figure, and in one instance being compared to an angel.

She may have been described this way, because Faulkner thought highly of himself in his younger years. But in her later years, Emily is described as, ... a small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head. Her skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that is 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.

With age, Faulkner had become a wealthy man, but also began to gain weight. During this dark time, he probably thought of himself this way; old, depressed, and worn down by lifes long struggles (Allen 687). The two also endured similar love lives that ultimately ended in pain. Faulkner himself lost his first love to another man.

Her family kept her from William because they thought the other man would make a better husband. In Emilys case her father turned away many young suitors of whom she could have had her pick and then her first love abandoned her shortly after her fathers death. Her next love turned out to be a homosexual, who enjoyed spending much of his time drinking with younger men in the neighborhood. Rather than be abandoned again, and robbed of her one last chance at happiness, she secretly married him, poisoned him with arsenic, and kept his body locked in her upstairs bedroom for decades.

There he remained until after her death when neighbors found his decaying body. The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace... What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust. In a not so extreme fashion, Faulkner, after the loss of his first love, never went looking for love again, but rather engaged in a series of affairs. Parting from the dreariness of the story, both Emily and Faulkner were considered to be artistic.

As a child Emily drew a picture described only as, On a tarnished guilt easel before the fireplace stood a crayon portrait of Miss Emilys father. Even though the portrait wasnt described as anything great, it must have had an important meaning because it is mentioned in the story three times. In her forties she also instructed young women in china painting out of a studio she created in her home. William demonstrated artistic talent at a young age, drawing and writing poetry, but around sixth grade he began to grow increasingly bored with his studies. (Allen 689) Much like how Emily showed artistic talent when she was a little girl, but drew away from it until her forties, when she began to teach.

Faulkner also did not start using his talents until later in life. Emily, not by her own efforts, seemed to be the talk of the town. All the other people in the story could seem to do nothing but speak of her. They were hypocritical of everything. The women hated her when she was beautiful and rich and yet when she lost all those she cared for they pitied her and still gossiped behind her back.

Even after her death, Emily remained to be the most famous person in that town. Faulkner chased this fame. He wrote great works of fiction and achieved more in a matter of decades than most writers achieve in a lifetime. Since his early years in the airforce, he liked the attention he received from others. He even bought uniforms for airforce positions he did not earn just to have his pictures made in them. He also, after getting an honorable discharge, adored the attention from telling untrue or exaggerated stories about his career in the Royal Air Force in Canada (Allen 691).

Another similarity between the story and reality was the setting. Emily lived in a small town. Her home is described as, ... a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires, and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street... only Miss Emilys house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and gasoline pumps-an eyesore among eyesores. Faulkners home is described as, ... a decrepit antebellum house in Oxford... it lacked plumbing, electricity, and was in a general state of disrepair. These are very similar homes in very similar small towns.

It is also interesting, that the story takes place in the south, and Faulkner lived in the south at this time (Clausius 107). They both spent the rest of their adult lives in these houses. Undoubted, it should be assumed that this story is a reflection on William Faulkners own life. There is certainly enough evidence to support this theory. Emily lived the dreary and sufferable life Faulkner felt he had up to the point of writing this story. They both were attractive in their youth, then their beauty decreased, as they grew older.

Both had failed attempts at love and eventually gave up trying to find true love, although neither would have had a difficult time of it. Emily and Faulkner demonstrated artistic talents at very young ages, but did not pursue them until later in life. Emilys talents lying in drawing and painting while Faulkners in poetry and other works of fiction, such as this story. Living the majority of their lives in small, fairly rural towns. Each living in large homes they could not afford due to things like; creditors and numerous dependants.

In a statement from Faulkner about this story he stated, ... it was a young girl that just wanted to be loved... in which he was in conflict with himself... It seems, by his own admission, that he wanted exactly what he told of Emily wanting (Clausius 109).