Literary Devices in A Rose for Emily
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Miss Emily's house is an important symbol in this story. (In general, old family homes are often significant symbols in Gothic literature.) For most of the story, we, like the townspeople, only see...
Setting
Setting is usually pretty rich in Faulkner. SimCity-style, William Faulkner created his own Mississippi County, Yoknapatawpha, as the setting for much of his fiction. (For a map and a detailed desc...
Narrator Point of View
The fascinating narrator of "A Rose for Emily" is more rightly called "first people" than "first person." The narrator speaks sometimes for the men of Jefferson, sometimes for the women, and often...
Genre
Take a gander over to our Characteristics of Southern Gothic page for a quick second. Then come back—we know it's easy to get lost in Carson McCullers/Tennessee Williams land.We're going to go do...
Tone
The narrator of "A Rose For Emily" is a stand-in for people of Jefferson, and the tone the narrator adopts reflects the two sides of the Jeffersonian nature. Remember, this is a community that both...
Writing Style
Faulkner isn't well known for holding back. In fact, he's (in)famous for his descriptive wordiness. With Faulkner we can feel the vines tangling, the magnolias blooming, and—yes—the dust motes...
What's Up With the Title?
You probably noticed that there is no rose in the story, though we do find the word "rose" four times. Check out the first two times the word is used:When the N***o opened the blinds of one window,...
What's Up With the Ending?
"A Rose for Emily" ends with the discovery of the forty-year-old corpse of Homer Barron. Yeah. It's nasty.The first time we read this story, we assumed that—of course—the town didn't know about...
Plot Analysis
Death and TaxesAs we discuss in "Symbols, Imagery, Allegory," Faulkner might be playing on the Benjamin Franklin quote, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes," in...
Booker's Seven Basic Plots Analysis
Meeting Homer BarronAlthough she doesn't quite fit the profile a Booker tragic hero, Miss Emily has often been thought of as a very special tragic case. We think that applying Booker to her tale...
Three Act Plot Analysis
The curtains open on the huge funeral of Miss Emily Grierson, which is taking place on the grounds of a decrepit southern house. The fact that nobody in town has been in Emily's house for a decade...
Trivia
William Faulkner is a character in David Cronenburg's Naked Lunch. (Source) William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway were friends.(Source)Or were they… Hemingway's take on Faulkner: "Poor Faulkn...
Steaminess Rating
On the one hand, there's no actual sex in this story.But, on the other (cold, dead) hand, the story fairly reeks of necrophilia. Miss Emily has been lying in bed with a corpse for the better part o...