Rose For Emily Essay, Research Paper

The use of conflict, foreshadowing, and flashbacks throughout the story form the

plot along with its characters. The plot’s stages can be traced throughout the

story. The start and end of the exposition, climax, and resolution can be

identified. There is also a protagonist and a few antagonists in this story. The

story is based on the life of a southern woman and the outcome of probably her

one and only relationship with a man. I will in the following paragraphs

illustrate the use of the previously mentioned tools in the story. The story

opens with the death of Miss Emily Grierson, the subject of the story. The fact

that the story begins in medias res or in the midst of the story is an example

of manipulation of the chronological order of the story (Kirszner and Mandell

65). This tool used by authors enhances the way a story is told. Another form of

manipulating the order of when events are exposed is through the use of

flashbacks. Faulkner relies on this to describe the events leading up to Emily’s

death. Throughout the story the narrator goes back to different events to

introduce characters such as her father, her Negro servant, Homer Barron, and

the Board of Aldermen. An example of this would be when the narrator states,

"We did not even know she was sick; we had long since given up on getting

any information from the Negro." (86) Within these flashbacks, the author

inserts examples of foreshadowing. When an author uses foreshadowing they are

trying to give the reader an insight to the events about to unfold later on in

the story (68). Palomo 2 One example of this would be when the aldermen go to

visit Emily to serve her with a notice of the taxes she owes. The author writes,

"So she vanquished them, horse and foot, just as she had vanquished their

fathers thirty years before about the smell." ( 82) This statement was an

example of foreshadowing in that it evoked the reader to ask him/herself

"what smell?". The smell would be the rotting corpse of her dead lover

Homer Barron, which was revealed at the end of the story. The cause of his death

was also foreshadowed in the text. Emily had gone to the drugstore and asked for

arsenic. When the druggist informed her that by law he was obligated to ask her

the purpose for the arsenic, she looked at him "eye to eye, until he looked

away and got the arsenic and wrapped it up." (84) The use of flash backs

and foreshadowing by the author help him establish the storyline and introduce

the conflicts that the protagonist must face. The conflicts that Emily had with

some of the characters and herself shaped her in the eyes of the reader. Emily

was a woman that had been raised around the time of the Civil War in a prominent

family. This fact kept her from having a normal life. Her father never felt any

man was worthy of courting her. After he died, she searched for that happiness

she felt she deserved, but always maintained the noblesse oblige whenever in

public. The denial she exhibited at her father’s passing was the same denial she

felt when she realized that Homer could one day leave her, too. The culmination

of her father’s death and no big inheritance made her feel as if though her life

was spinning out of control. She could not bear the thought of being without

Homer and alone with nothing. This is why she killed him and still slept by him

all those years. His death created a conflict with her moral character, which is

why she became a recluse. Palomo 3 Aside from this struggle, Emily had now also

become an old lady surrounded by a new generation of towns people and leaders.

She had become kind of a burden to the town because of Colonel Sartoris’ promise

to void her from paying taxes. The text alludes to this when it states,

"When the next generation, with its more modern ideas, became mayors and

alderman, this arrangement created some little dissatisfaction." (81) The

new generation saw Emily as a reminder of the older ways of life in that town.

All the conflicts that Miss Emily Grierson faced were what established her

character in the story. Emily is seen as the protagonist of the story. She is

the one that battles with her father’s ruling hand and his death, her own

conscience about killing Homer, and the town’s people constant scrutiny. All

these forces are some the story’s antagonists. They are the opposing forces that

Emily must deal with before her death. Examining the role that her father played

in her life, no statement in the story leaves a stronger impression than the one

at the bottom of page 82. The narrator says, "None of the young men were

quite good enough for Miss Emily…a slender figure in white in the background,

her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and

clutching a horse whip…" (82). The death of her father and the meager

inheritance left her feeling helpless; without guidance or protection. This lead

to the interest in Homer Barron. She needed him to be her security. In which

case, she kept him there forever. The fact that she committed a crime like this

must have thrown her conscience into a maelstrom of guilt, yet it also brought a

perverse security from the outside world. A world that she locked out of, up to

the time of her death. I believe that it was this same world that made her feel

this insecurity and vulnerability. The author clarifies this point, "Thus

she passed from generation to generation-dear, Palomo 4 inescapable, impervious,

tranquil, and perverse."(86) The view of this society made her feel she

could not show any weakness, when she had little or no strength left. She did

the only thing that would keep her from the same fate as her great aunt old lady

Wyatt, she cut the connection. The end result was the increased scrutiny and

curiosity of the town’s people. With all these antagonistic forces at hand, Miss

Emily Grierson handled this as long as she could in true nature of her proud

upbringing. The plot of all stories has stages that it goes through in order to

get its point across. These are the exposition, climax, and resolution. The

exposition starts from the beginning of the story. It introduces all the players

in the story, the conflicts, and the events that lead up to the climax. I

believe that the exposition ended and the climax began at the point of the story

when they are all gathered at her house for her funeral. The climax peaked at

the point when they forced their way into the room that no one had seen in

decades. The discovery of Emily’s lover on the bed "now in the long sleep

that out lasts love" was the point that the resolution had begun to become

evident. (87) The arsenic, her reluctant nature of letting anyone see that part

of the house, and the secrecy all were tied together at this point. Here the

reader reached an understanding of what the author was trying to tell them,

which is the definition of the resolution. These stages are essential to the

success of a good story. The elements of a plot all work in synchronicity with

one another. They all added there own flavor to the story. One can add a little

more of one or two of these aspects of the plot to get a different affect. All

in all, the story combined the right amount of these tools to attain not only a

well written story but one that clearly states what the author is trying to

convey.

Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandell. A Rose for Emily. Fort Worth.

Harcourt, 1997.