Essay: Analyzing Themes and Symbolism in Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily'

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of William Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily', focusing on the themes of time, decay, and the changing social dynamics of the American South. The essay explores the narrative structure, particularly the use of an anonymous first-person narrator, and examines how Faulkner uses this technique to convey the perspectives of the townspeople. The primary themes of the story, including the devastating effects of time, change, and the decline of the Old South, are discussed in detail. The essay also touches upon the symbolic representation of Miss Emily as a monument to the chivalric American South and analyzes the shifts in the community's perception of Miss Emily's relationship with Homer Barron. References to Faulkner's work and critical essays are provided to support the analysis.

Running Head : ENGLISH ESSAY
English Essay
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

2ENGLISH ESSAY
William Fualkner’ “ a Rose for Emily” actually imitates all of the associative Southern
style of storytelling in the form of an anonymous first-person narrator speaking for the whole
city of Jefferson having related whatever all of the townspeople have known of believed.
Faulkner’ other stories usually employ few individual narrators. However, “ A rose for Emily”
has gained the effect of many narrators through combining into the single narrative voice which
is an unnamed narrator. This is written in the form of Greek tragedy where the chorus leader and
the chorus provide the audience/ reader with some useful information, express all of the public
opinions, interpret all of the actions of the characters. Therefore, in “ A rose for Emily” the age
and the gender of the narrator is never recognized but it can easily be positioned as a choric
character. In this critical analysis essay, the themes used in the fiction and the importance of
those themes will be analysed.
It is found that the primary theme of the story is the devastating effects of time , the
change and the decay which is quite familiar for Faulkner’ readers. The enemy of Miss Emily
is Change that is the reason she rejects of acknowledging whether this change is her father’
death, the decay of her own house, the beginning of the tax bills or the beginning of the mail
delivery. Her attitude towards death has been foreshadowed in her behaviour towards her father’
death and the death of Coloner Sartois afterwards. It is also seen that Miss Emily is connected
with time’ passage and one can consider her to be living beyond the usual limitations of the
time. In this way, she appears as combining the death and the life in the personality of her own.
There is another minor theme in the fiction which is the social dimensions of the first
half of the nineteenth century of American South becoming eroded by the modernization and the
industrialization of the New South. In order to avoid Miss Emily’ embarrassing nature, it is
devised by Colonel Sartoris who provides a different explanation to debt of Jefferson’ pre-Civil

3ENGLISH ESSAY
war to the Grierson. Surprisingly , this particular person further authored the verdict that every
African woman who would be appearing on the streets of Jefferson without veil or apron would
be punished/beaten up. The most important part is that , the change that is noticed in the attitude
of Jefferson towards the connections between Homer and Miss Emily. At the beginning, the
citizens became quite horrified by the relationship of this couple . Later, they finally accepted
Homer as a good man and appreciated Miss Emily’ choice.
Hence, it can be said that “A rose for Emily” is extremely symbolic too where Miss
Emily has been depicted in the form of the monument to the chivalric American South. All of
themes of the change and decay have been reinforced for several times along with the symbol of
oppressive hold of few people.

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Reference
Faulkner, William, John Carradine, and Anjelica Huston. A rose for Emily. Paderborn, De:
Verlag F. Schöningh, 1958.
Roberts, Taylor. The Language of an Exploitive Economy: Centering Women's Narratives in
William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and Language and Loss: Modernity's
Reckoning with Loss in William Faulkner's" A Rose for Emily". Diss. The University of
North Carolina at Greensboro, 2019.
Zhao, Yang. "Symbolism in A Rose for Emily." (2018).