Literary Analysis for A Rose for Emily - Research Paper Example

Literary Analysis for A Rose for Emily A Rose for Emily is a short story written by William Faulkner that has been the topic for literary analysis from diverse perspectives. The controversial nature of the main character, Emily Grierson, in conjunction with the rest of the literary elements, have been deciphered by diverse scholars, professors, academicians and writers, that until contemporary times, the written work has continued to provide the impetus as a remarkable theoretical discourse for analytical and critical honing. In this regard, the aim of the current analysis is to proffer significant evaluative findings of various authors, whose interpretation of the short story is comparatively similar, or distinctly diverse. Six disparate critical analyses of the short story from English professors, from a director of Freshman Composition, to members of the faculties of State Universities, that have been published in authoritative journals and online educational media would be gathered, likewise evaluated in terms of comparative issues and concerns on the infamous Emily Grierson, as she travailed her journey through Yoknapatawpha, Jefferson. The main character, Emily, was depicted as a round character, whose personality and traits were clearly established and expounded throughout the story. Emily is considered the protagonist, being the lead character, while the rest of are generally flat characters whose personalities were structured as silhouettes, outlines, or simple descriptions deemed necessary to to build the main character. Robertson viewed Emily as a helpless victim (156), with her father as the controlling villain (156). Melczarek, on the other hand, was more intrigued by the point of view of the narrator and averred that “Faulkner here effects one of his most ingenious narrative innovations: a first-person-plural narrator” (238). Kurtz depicted Emily’s main character as a “denial of change” (40). Spencer interestingly compared Emily’s character to Norman Bates of Psycho. Spencer supported and validated Emily’s protagonist character stating that “Emily repeatedly faces down anyone who attempts to thwart her, whether the tax collecting aldermen, the hardware clerk selling the poison, or the lover attempting to abandon her” (96). Curry specifically identified the narrator as “"our whole town" emerges the narrator of the story who poses an interesting limited omniscient narrating position for Faulkner to control. The author designates this narrator both as part of the "our whole town" and part of the supposed objectivity through whom the reader must envision the story” (392). From different points of view, consistency was marked in lead character assuming the protagonist role, with disparities in relegating her as the victim, rather than the villain (Robertson, 156). The authors were consistent in depicting the rose as a symbol in the short story with diverse meanings, to wit: tokens of love or deep friendship (Kurtz, 40); secrecy: “ the confidential relationship between the author and his character” (Melczarel. 240). Spencer, on the other hand, manifested the house as a symbol of Emily: “itself in its heavily lightsome style of the seventies” evolving to become “an eyesore of eyesores” (Spencer, 95). The house was likewise discussed by Curry as an enigma, “the house is one of the greatest powers of integration for the thoughts, memories and dreams of mankind” (398). The mention of the odor emerged as a symbol discussed by Curry: “Faulkner and the judge stop the smell and the scene with lime, the word and the substance. Interestingly, the word "lime" has as one of its variant meanings "to paint or cover a surface with a composition of lime and water; whitewash” (394). The lime was indeed required to cover up the bad odor of the decaying body of Homer, which Emily wanted to cover up to prevent the prying eyes of the townspeople to discover he violent deed. The setting for Faulkner’s short story was revealed to be in the county seat of Yoknapatawpha, Jefferson, initially foretold by the narrator at the funeral of Emily. Robertson indicated that the story’s setting was at the backdrop of traditional Southern region where Emily was depicted as an “upper-class young woman who only wanted to fulfill her culturally prescribed maternal and familial destiny as a wife and mother but was denied that fulfillment by circumstances she was too weak to overcome” (Robertson, 156). The Old South setting was also validated by Kurtz (40) who indicated that Emily was familiar with the tradition of signifying the rose as a symbol of love and endearment and be bound by memories of these through tokens of remembrance left between the pages of seldom used books. Roberston, in another article entitled Response to Fick and Gold’s “He liked men’: Homer, Homosexuality and the Culture of Manhood in Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily’” who contended that emphasis should have been focused on the Victorian era, the supposed period for the story, including the “influences and ramifications of the American South that Fauklner’s Yoknapatawpha Country represents” (Robertson, 115). The story exhibited a general setting where events, especially the outcome of the tragic death of Homer and its discovery, unfolded through time. Six disparate critical analyses of the short story from English professors, from a director of Freshman Composition, to members of the faculties of State Universities, that have been published in authoritative journals and online educational media were gathered and likewise evaluated in terms of comparative issues and concerns on the infamous Emily Grierson, as she travailed her journey through Yoknapatawpha, Jefferson. The critical analyses proffered by these various authors showed some similarities in terms of character analysis; the interpretation for symbolisms using the rose, the house, the odor and the lime, among others; and the setting. Disparities in points of views and in perspectives were shown in terms of viewing the narrator as an intriguing piece in uncovering the real secret to the story. The interpretation of Spencer as he analyzed the story in terms of providing comparative evaluations with Psycho, were Norman Bates was considered analogous to Emily’s character was a refreshing contention. In the end, despite intricacies and complications that emerged from closely analyzing the literary discourse, the moral remains to be laid on the readers’ personal interpretations through the development of the characters, the setting, the plot, and the symbols that all interplayed to continually regard A Rose for Emily as an aesthetic piece of literature that needs to be shared in the future. Works Cited Curry, Renee R. Gender and authorial limitation in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily." (Special Issue: William Faulkner). The Mississippi Quarterly. 47.3 (Summer 1994): p391 – 401. Print. Kurtz, Elizabeth Carney. Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily. Central Missouri State University. N.D. Print. Melczarek, Nick. “Narrative Motivation in Fauklner’s A Rose for Emily.” The Explicator, 67:4, pp. 237 – 243. Robertson, Alice. The Ultimate Voyeur” The Communal Narrator of ‘A Rose for Emily’. N.d. Print. Robertson, Alice. Response to Fick and Gold’s “He liked men’: Homer, Homosexuality and the Culture of Manhood in Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily’”. N.d. Print. Spencer, Mark.William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily and Psycho. N.d. Print. Read More