Suspense In A Rose For Emily

Comparing Murders in “Killings” and “A Rose for Emily” “Killings” by Andre Dubus and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner are two short stories where each protagonist commits a murder. Each author uses point of view and a small town setting in their stories to have the reader sympathize and form an attachment to the protagonist. However, while Dubus focuses primarily on the protagonist point of view, Faulkner separates the reader from the main character completely by using an outside perspective to tell their story. Within the opening paragraphs of “Killings”, Dubus introduces Matt Fowler and his family during the grieving process for his son, Frank.

A rose for Emily Starts off with Emily Grierson's funeral, later on in the story it goes back to show Emily’s childhood and her relationship between her abusive father and her. In the short story, Faulkner uses irony, metaphors and other literary devices to show how emily is mistreated by her father, as well as her loneliness. After her father’s death, she doesn’t want to accept it which puts her at a mental breakdown. Even though she had an awful relationship with her father, when he passed away she still couldn’t believe his death which only made her isolate herself, almost depressed. People thought she was getting ill.

The Evil Behind Dark Isolation While reading these short stories various things are represented. The variation ranging from symbolism, theme and gothic elements. Gothic elements are characterized by fear, horror, death, and gloom; in addition to, romantic elements such as nature, individuality, and high emotion. The gothic elements seen in “A Rose for Emily”, “The Minister’s Black Veil”, and “The Tell-Tale Heart” are exemplified by dark villains’ and quiet isolation.

In the story “A Rose for Emily,” written by William Faulkner, you take a journey through Miss. Emily Grierson’s life. Miss Emily resides in a tiny town called Jefferson during the late 1800s and early 1900s. During this time period, southern tradition and the role you played in the community was very important. This is a time of industrialization for the South, which Emily does not adapt to.

William Faulkner had written one of the most complex and interesting characters in his short story, “A Rose for Emily.” The character, Emily Grierson, committed a murder at the end of the story. Faulkner used the characters, the plot, and the theme of isolation as clues for Emily’s intentions behind the murder. First, Faulkner used character to highlight Emily’s motivation for murder. He described Emily Grierson to be a weird and peculiar woman with some kind mental health issue.

Literary Analysis: “A Rose for Emily” Foreshadowing is a key tactic used by an author to reel the reader in. This method makes the reader try to predict the ending, and they must read to the end in order to find out if their educated guess was right or not. William Faulkner utilizes foreshadowing in his short story, “A Rose for Emily” all throughout. Emily was presented as a gothic character in this story, and this helps make the ending that is revealed more believable.

Miss Emily comes from an old wealthy line of family in the deep south. Faulkner story is highly symbolic, enhancing miss Emily’s values and character. “Miss Emily is described as a fallen monument to the chivalric American South”(Allmon). Faulkner uses the setting of the story to show the emotional state of Emily. The female-male relationship between Emily and her father is strict, oppressive, and controlling; Their relationship has a major impact on Emily’s character Throughout the short story.

Aubrey Binder's “Uncovering the Past: The Role of Dust Imagery in a 'Rose For Emily'” explains that the motifs of dust and decay are very important and prominent in Faulkner's story. Binders arguments for the motifs are strong, especially for the motif of dust. However, her article provides very little literary evidence for the motif of decay. While I agree with Binder’s motif of dust, I don’t agree with her arguments for the motif of decay, and I believe that the motif of pity would better fit the text. Binder’s motif of dust is heavily supported in the text, she believes that the dust covering the objects and people in Emily’s home represents the obscuring of past events.

“A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner and “The Possibility of Evil” written by Shirley Jackson have both created characters in which they display evil. Emily Grierson and Adela Strangeworth have different wishes of outcome, when it comes to what they have done, but yet are still quite similar. Both stories take place in rather small, quiet towns, where it doesn’t seem that most others are aware of what these women do. Both Emily and Adela’s similarities and actions display their possibility of evil.

Authors use characters for creative purposes and to convey messages. They also use characters to form stories, examine the dangers or choices these characters have to make, and are used to develop themes. Moreover, characters have to to possess qualities that readers can relate to. In the case of "A Rose for Emily" and "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" , the main characters and how the roles they play center on the loss of love, repression and grudges, and how they can turn a soul into something unrecognizable is analyzed.

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” critiques the American South Describing Emily’s vibrant life full of hope and buoyancy, later shrouded into the profound mystery, Faulkner emphasizes her denial to accept the concept of death. William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” takes place in the South during the transitional time period from the racial discrimination to the core political change of racial equality. Starting from the description of her death, “A Rose for Emily” tells the story about the lady who is the last in her generation (Emily Grierson). Being strong, proud and a traditional lady of southern aristocracy, Emily turns into an evil, unpredictable and mysterious old lady after the death of her father. Even though “A Rose for Emily”

status in the society and not having neither of them in her life, pushed her to find a way of survival. The narrator implies that when the town authorities entered Miss Emily’s home, it was a dusty and nothing had changed since her father had died. One of the most intriguing distinction presented in the first section entails the narrator’s portrayal of Miss Emily’s physical appearance and that of her house. A pall of dust hanging over the entire house, underscores the decay and decline that figure so prominently.

In this short stories “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, the authors represent the sense of horror in their stories. They are very similar in expressing their terrifying point of view. However, there are also differences. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is told in the first person perspective which creates compulsory picture of a mad murdered, whereas the third person perspective of “A Rose for Emily” shows Miss Emily through the eyes of others, which changes the narrative radically. In Addition, Miss Emily committed the crime because the fear of being alone.

“A Rose for Emily” is a unique short story that keeps the reader guessing even though its first sentence already reveals the majority of the content. William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is the epitome of a work that follows an unconventional plot structure and a non-linear timeline, but this method of organization is intentional, as it creates suspense throughout the story. William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” follows an unusual plot structure, which creates an eccentric application of suspense to a short story. Throughout the story, there are no clear indications of standard plot structure in each section, such as intro, climax, and denouement. Instead, there are sections, which are not in chronological order, that describe a particular conflict or event, which in turn creates suspense, as each conflict builds upon each other to make the reader question the overall context and organization of the story.

I believe that the story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is a character driven story but also has a strong emphasis on the plot. The whole story was about a woman named Miss Emily but the plot twists and external conflicts were greatly emphasized. The external conflict of this story was that the antagonist, her father, made it so she didn’t have a husband. “We remembered all the young men her father had driven away.” (Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily” 101)