Free write: Literary Analysis of "A Rose for Emily" Cont.

Once Miss Emily’s father died, the town found it a reason to have pity on her. She was described as “a vague resemblance to those angles in colored church windows –sort of tragic and serene” (208). Like her house, Emily was slowing growing older as her hair turned greyer and greyer. After time, there was hardly any commotion of people, including Emily, in and out of her house. “When the town got free postal delivery, Miss Emily alone refused to let them fasten the metal numbers above her door and attach a mailbox to it” (211) this shows that Emily prefers to live in the past, perhaps because she feels that not only will she need any communication with anyone inside the town or anywhere else for that matter. She chooses to keep her house private as well as her personal life. Once her father died, Miss Emily didn’t bother to answer the phone or show hospitality to any visitors; therefore she felt no need for postal delivery which would allow more people to bother her.
Eventually, Miss Emily was never seen outside of her house for years. She sent her black servant, Tobe, to the market for fresh foods. Emily’s house developed an awful smell, which the townspeople complained about and eventually the Board of Aldermen were sent to her house to investigate the stench. This shows how Miss Emily doesn’t bother to keep up with her own house, and shows no effort to control the situation, just as she doesn’t have any effort on keeping herself proper. The “big, squarish frame house that had once been a white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies” (206) was an example of Emily’s resistance to accept the change of the upcoming society, filled with postal service and cotton gins. Her house was a visible illustration that she is unable to accept the change. Perhaps it is because Emily finds no hope for the future and she has no will to be connected with the outside world so she remains in the past, living in the sole part of town that holds the past rather than accelerates to the future.

Free Write: Literary Analysis of "A Rose for Emily"

The story, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner shows an important relationship between the setting of a story and the main characters in a story. This particular story is told from the point-of-view of other townspeople in Jefferson. The story is based on their portrayal of Emily and her house, but there is no context about what Miss Emily is thinking herself. Emily’s character is closely related to the setting in this story, which is primarily her house. In the story, “A Rose for Emily”, the specific details about Miss Emily’s house gives insight towards Miss Emily’s character. Her house was described as “an eyesore among eyesores” (206), “dust and disuse” (206), and “the house filled with dust and shadows” (211). These descriptions about her house are comparable to her character.
The story begins at Miss Emily’s funeral, the description “a fallen monument” (206), which could easily be described as both the house and Emily. The women of the town come to Emily’s funeral for the sole purpose to see her house, which had been private for years after Emily’s father’s death. The house was once a part of the most popular and up kept street in Jefferson, until slowly the houses decayed and soon there was only her house left. Even throughout the sporadic chronological order of this story, Miss Emily loses control over certain things as time goes on. When the city authorities come to collect Emily’s taxes, she claims that she has no taxes in Jefferson and refuses to pay. She refers them to Colonel Sartoris, who had died nearly a decade ago. This is an example of how Emily is becoming less aware of the changes in her town. She seems to enjoy keeping to herself instead of becoming involved with current town affairs. Miss Emily chooses to live in the past because she finds no grantees for her future nor does she show any interest in any changes her town of Jefferson. “After her father’s death she went out very little” (207) is an example of how she chooses to remain locked up inside her own house.