Essay Example on the Use of Symbolism and the Plot Analysis in "A Rose for Emily"

Introduction

A Rose for Emily is a strange and startling short story by William Faulkner, in which he introduces the reader to Emily Grierson, who is one of the most talked about female characters in literature. The story primarily focuses on highlighting the tensions that due to the change in the south in her eccentric lofe as well as the role of her death and gothic elements in the story. The story uses the viewpoints of two people in the town to reveal the miserable life Emily lived. The story covers the various details of Miss Emily’s life such as her relationship with her lover and her father, the old house, her taxes, the father’s and the lover’s corpses kept in the house as well as the unpleasant smell emanating from the house. The use of symbolism, imagery, and allegory, tone, and the plot impacts' on our understanding of the short story A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner.

Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory

A Rose for Emily is usually considered gothic literature since it contains the elements that verge on romanticism and horror. In both the straight and southern gothic literature houses in most instances are symbolic. In the story, Emily’s house has some great symbolism. The story gives the depiction of the house in most parts of the story as described but the people in the town. In one of the descriptions of the house, it is stated as “t was 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.” (Faulkner, Josef, and Zdenek, 173).

From this description, we understand from the fact that the house was built in the 1870s that Emily’s father was a bit wealthy after the civil war. However, the narrator calls it “an eyesore among eyesores”, which indicates the state the house has fallen to look uglier than the gasoline pumps that are surrounding it. From the start, the house is used as a symbol to indicate the states of the American South (Zhao, 18). It means that south which was previously built on the slave labor becoming a grandeur in the south has fallen into a state of disrepair after the civil war.

Besides, the house acting as a symbol of the former glory of the way of life that is long dead, it indicates the stifling power the society Emily lives possesses. This society had a custom that showed the Emily should progress to her role from a daughter to wife and then to a mother. This community had no alternative to the path for Emily. Due to Emily failing to get married, there is the non-materialization of her domestic into a reality (Zhao, 7). Thus, she became stuck in the first phase of her life, as a traditional woman in the society, which was becoming a daughter. Emily became confined into her father's house literally, living as a daughter.

However, the symbolism of Emily's house in this short story does not end here. The house crumbled more, the older Emily grew. It suggests the view of the people in the town of Jefferson about Emily. Emily becomes more hopeless as she near and turns thirty years since every additional year meant that she moves further from the marriageable age that the society has set, hence diminishing her potential to happiness. Therefore, the house symbolizes Miss Emily's image which is represented as that of a squandered beauty (Zhao, 2). The community in the town of Jefferson views an unmarried woman as a beauty that has dilapidated, which is a tragic eyesore of the eyesores.

Tone

The narrator in the short story “A Rose for Emily”, represents the citizens of the town of Jefferson. The narrator, therefore, adapts two tones in the story that reflects the two different opinions that exist among the citizens of the town of Jefferson. These citizens have been shown to show two sides to Miss Emily, including the alienation and care for her (Li, 79). The narrator reflects this nature of the community. In some instances, the narrator changes the tone to suggest deep remorse, while at times the narrator gives the reader a front row seat to the small town life full of gossip.

In one of the opening statement in the story, the narrator says “So the next day we all said, 'She will kill herself'; and we said it would be the best thing” (Faulkner, Josef, and Zdenek, 175). This statement is a good indicator of the use of both the tones by the narrator of the story. The community has been indicated the make a decision collectively about the suicide miss Emily is going to commit. It shows the rampancy of gossip in the town, where when it comes to dishing, the community has nothing to be scared of. However, the passage becomes confessional because the narrator suggests that the best course of action for Emily is suicide besides admitting to gossiping about her. It is through this statement that we realize that the people in the town of Jefferson are morbid and small-minded and we become aware of the sins of this society.

Plot

Every good story is usually characterized by main aspects such as conclusion, initial situation, climax, conflict, denouement, suspense, and communication. Good literature is indicated by how well an author uses these elements to bring out the best of the story (Gale, 26). William Faulkner in his short story A Rose for Emily uses these elements correctly, and it is one of the main reasons why the story is considered to be a masterpiece in the world of literature.

The story sets the stage by introducing the readers to a huge funeral that has been attended by the people in the town of Jefferson. Faulkner then takes the readers to a strange little story about taxes and death. In this initial section, it can be said that the author was alluding to the famous quote by Benjamin Franklin that says that "in this world, nothing can be certain, except death and taxes." This description sets the mind of the readers and shows them that death and taxes play a critical role in the plot of the story.

The second phase of a story is usually the creation of a conflict in the story. The second section of the story deals with showing the conflict in the story and shows that there are numerous things besides tax, which are not good. In part of the story, the author uses various elements to create conflict in the minds of the reader. For example, the readers learn that after the death of her father, Miss Emily could not believe for four days. It is at this time we learn about Emily lover, whom she meets the summer after the death of her father when she is in her thirties.

Also, we learn that Emily bought a poison after getting worried that her boyfriend might leave her. Later, the readers learn of the disappearance of Miss Emily’s boyfriend and the eventual bad smell surrounding her house. At this point, the readers have the information that might help them further out everything about the story (Gale, 43). However, the existence of the story about taxes throws off the readers as well as the way the facts in the story are jumbled up by the author.

The third section of the plot of the story deals with highlighting the conscience of the citizens of Jefferson. The readers view this phase of the story plot as the confession of the people in the town. It creates a complication for the conscience of the citizens of Jefferson. The people are shown to have been horrible to Emily upon realizing that Miss Emily was dating Homer Barron. Since there has been already set out paths for a southern lady, they wanted her to hold to the ideals that had been mapped out for her by the forbearers (Yu, 199). The death of her father gave way for her to break free of this path, but the people of Jefferson would not let her do it. The people of Jefferson end up sending Emily’s cousins after realizing that they cannot stop her from dating Homer Barron.

Despite the story being jumble up chronologically, the climax of this story can be seen to come up in the middle; hence a creating a smooth and symmetrical feel. Emily has been holding to her dream of having a normal life consisting of a family and love. However, upon the realization that everyone in the town of Jefferson was against her plan including Homer, her cousins, and the minister, she ends up having an extreme reaction. The reader remains with the image of the skills and arsenic package that has a warning stating "for rats", due to the intense response taken by Emily.

In this part of the plot, we learn of the deadly gossip by the citizens of Jefferson. William, Faulkner follows the traditional structure for this part in the narration of the story of Homer and Emily. The readers learn of the purchase of arsenic by Emily as well as Homer Barron being last seen to be headed to Miss Emily’s house on the particular night of interest.

This section of the plot of A Rose for Emily discusses the next forty years after the disappearance of Homer Barron and the funeral. The initial stages of the story gave the reader a rough outline of the life lived by Emily, starting with her funeral before introducing the coming of the newer generation to collect taxes ten years ago. Then, the story takes the reader back thirty years explaining the death of Emily's father, the affair between Homer and Emily, before describing the disappearance of Homer (Gale, 121). A Rose for Emily then fills up the void in the forty years between the disappearance of Homer and her funeral to conclude. Her life before this, however, is not stated besides the painting lessons.

The plot of A Rose for Emily winds up by describing the citizens of Jefferson entering the bedroom that has been locked for forty years, and eventually finding homer’s corpse that has been rotting for all those years.

Conclusion

Through the analysis of the tone of the narrator, the plot of the story, and symbolism, allegory, and imagery, we understand what happened in this story as well as why and how things happened in the story. The tone shows the different views of the townspeople as well as elaborating the effect of social change on individuals. The plot shows the various things that happened in the story even without the existence of chronological order in A Rose for Emily. Symbolism, allegory, and imagery play a critical role in explaining the events in the story.

Works Cited

Faulkner, William, Josef Schwarz, and Zdenek Urbánek. A rose for Emily. Paderborn, De: Verlag F. Schöningh, 1958.

Zhao, Yang. "Symbolism in A Rose for Emily." (2018).

Yu, Ma. "Symbolism in A Rose for Emily." (2016): 199.

Li, L. I. U. "A Stylistics Analysis of “A Rose for Emily”." Studies in Literature and Language 10.4 (2015): 76-81.

Gale, Cengage Learning. A Study Guide for William Faulkner's" Rose for Emily". Gale, Cengage Learning, 2016.