I know what you’re thinking.
“I’m not even halfway done with the Sparknotes version of As I Lay Dying. Why should I pick up another William Faulkner story?”
I can assure you, A Rose for Emily is a compelling twist on Faulkner’s Southern Gothic style you won’t want to put down.
It’s also far more than just a short story. It’s analysis of the prevailing themes of post-Civil War Reconstruction — the tension and conflict between North and South, old and new. It’s a psychological case study of a young woman’s Father Complex, her inability to accept change, and a society’s unwillingness to tolerate differences. A Rose for Emily provides another view through the lens of Faulkner and a deeper look into the social issues pervading America media at the time. It’s a perfect complement to the abstract concepts detailed in As I Lay Dying, the frosting on a metaphorical layer cake that encompasses the works of this Nobel Prize winning author. (Here’s a link to the story if you want a taste.)
Where As I Lay Dying juggles the menagerie of intertwining perspectives of numerous characters, A Rose for Emily follows the life and death of a singular Emily Grierson, albeit in a nonlinear, narrated fashion.
Where As I Lay Dying dissects the complex relationships between an apathetic mother and her family, A Rose for Emily gives an intriguing account of a father-daughter relationship that ultimately materializes as an extreme (and deadly) case of daddy issues.
And yes, where As I Lay Dying might seem like a mind warping struggle to read, A Rose for Emily is a much more understandable way to ease into Faulkner.
The story begins at Emily Grierson’s funeral, which happens to be the first public appearance she’s made in years. Yet, the entire town attends her funeral: men who come out of obligation, and women who were more interested in seeing the inside of her house than paying their respects. Her home thus becomes the centerpiece of this story, the vehicle for her transition from vibrant Southern Belle to elderly recluse.
As a young woman, Emily’s father confines her to the house, turning away every suitor at the door. Emily’s romantic deprivation leads her to become dependent and overly attached to her father. So, when her father dies, her downfall begins. She begins to court a northern man named Homer Baron, much to the disapproval of the townspeople. However, as their brief relationship falls through and the two appear to part ways, Emily’s separation anxiety takes a far more sinister turn.
On the surface, the story appears to be a tragedy: Emily, the victim of her father and the judgement of the town. She’s described as, “A slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door.” (Faulkner 2.12)
It’s an image that parallels many other works of literature and art in the early 1900s, most notably, American Gothic, painted in 1930 by Grant Wood.
In the painting, a farmer and his daughter pose in front of their home. The father, positioned in front of his daughter, wields a pitchfork. It’s menacing. He glares at you through the painting, asserting his authority, making it clear that his daughter is off limits. The daughter can only obey. Her expression is stern. She looks at her father as in a subordinate manner. According to Mia Fineman, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the painting is widely considered, “a satire about the rigidity of American rural or small-town life, lampooning the people H. L. Mencken called the “booboisie*” of the “Bible Belt.”” (Fineman) Thus A Rose for Emily may have an alternative interpretation as a satire, criticizing the conservative rural values that confined women to homes and rejected individuality.
The painting also perfectly encapsulates the meaning of A Rose for Emily. Emily, depicted quite literally as a background character, is overshadowed first by an oppressive relationship with her father, and then by a town that chooses to regard her with pity, rather than acceptance.
According to Renee Curry, a professor at California State University Monterey Bay, “The stylistics of Faulkner’s language thus serves to subordinate Emily, ostensibly the subject of the tale, and to elevate the town as the truer subject.” (Curry) Emily’s story is not the focal point of Faulkner’s piece. Instead, he uses it to convey a broader theme: how a person’s fate is often dictated by the society that surrounds them. Herein lies the intricacies of A Rose for Emily.
The entire story is told through the perspective of an anonymous narrator who appears to be an omniscient towns-person. In her youth, the town views Emily with jealousy, manifested in the form of reverence. After her breakup with Homer, she is “left alone, and a pauper[.] [S]he had become humanized.” (Faulkner)
The town discards Emily. They cast her aside. Her only role becomes being the topic of village gossip. It’s a cynical message: society doesn’t mind when people fail, but they hate to see people succeed. It satirizes the rural community attitude of conformity, of weeding out differences, of oppressing those who are different and expecting their compliance.
Emily’s fate was sealed at the death of her father. When her aristocratic standing was terminated, she was left to the mercy of the town, which chose to treat her as an outcast and play it off as her own choice.
It’s dark, but what Southern Gothic story isn’t? It casts a pessimistic light on society, but many may argue it’s in fact realism. A Rose for Emily, though, will surely make you think: how does our society reject people who don’t fit our standards of normal? How have we allowed the collective to shape our perception of individuality?
So while you can, leave Sparknotes alone and pick up A Rose for Emily instead. Sparknotes is a site that presents the mainstream meaning of a novel. It assigns a book a certain fate: how a group of people decided it should be interpreted. Embrace your own ideas, no matter how rough or thorny they may be. Don’t take a rose for what it’s worth. Peel back the petals and look inside. I guarantee you’ll find something you didn’t expect.
* “booboisie” is a derogatory term coined by Mencken in 1922 for people who are uneducated and uncultured. It comes from the combination of “boob” (careless) and “bourgeoise”.
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 (1994): 391. Web. 18 Oct. 2019.
Fineman, M. (2019). The Most Famous Farm Couple in the World. [online] Slate. Available at: https://slate.com/culture/2005/06/the-most-famous-farm-couple-in-the-world.html [Accessed 18 Oct. 2019].
Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. 1930.
Additional Information:
Link to story: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/wf_rose.html
Vox video:
This was really interesting and well written (unlike my post) but I think the themes you discuss are really interesting! As much as I enjoy my art history, I’ve never delved into American Gothic. In fact, I never even realized that it was a father and daughter pictured – I just assumed it was a couple. You do a great job connecting the painting to the short story, and using it to provide historical context for Emily. The strong emphasis on social standing and what society deems as acceptable and not also reminds me a lot of the 1920s, where rich, posh women and wives of robber barons would compete for social power and influence. To me it seems kind of silly, but I think that’s mostly because I’m still young and totally out of the loop. As much as it seems prevalent in big cities like 1920s NYC and rural areas like gothic southern, towns, I’m sure it must exist in well-to-do suburbia like Naperville. No matter what or when, it seems like it’s impossible to deviate from society’s standards without facing backlash or being ostrachized.
You pose one question throughout your post which particularly stuck out to me. “How does our society reject people who don’t fit our standards of normal?” Well to answer your question, we reject them. It seems simple but is not. Similarly to Emily’s situation, gossip is a tool that is often weaponized. When Emily was left alone she was shunned by society because of its opinions. This same idea is seen in so many aspects of life today. Being a teenager in today’s society is a reflection of this. It can so easily feel like the opinions of others are constantly the weight of a young adult. That’s what is so compelling about Faulkner’s story. Opinions are set around us and are something absolutely everyone can relate to. Your observation of this encourages the reader to dive into both their opinions and the opinions of others during this read. By doing this you becoming similar to Falkner yourself, you point out society’s issues through on character and force the reader to look internally and around them.
We read this story in Mrs. Parato’s class last year! While we discussed the same themes with domesticity of women during the time period and how it relates to our world right now, the way you extrapolated the short story to conformity and pursuing your own passions is something that I’d never though of before. Looking back at the short story, I think you really found the root of the problems.
Although we as a society have made leaps and bounds in women’s rights these past few decades, the issue of conformity has only been growing in my opinion. With such an interconnected world where you’re influenced by social media and celebrities, a lot of “outcasts” are being discarded like the town did to Emily. I guess it really does bring into question, as you put it, how we have “allowed the collective to shape our perception of individuality”.
Overall, I really enjoyed how you connected the short story to art and, of course, Sparknotes. Despite having read the story last year, your post really showed a new side of the story that I’d never really thought of before. Thanks!
Not only does this post hype up A Rose for Emily, it also provides an interesting insight into the overuse of Sparknotes by today’s students. I think we’ve been reading a LOT of southern gothic lately, and this is a really nice complement to the fiction we’ve been dealing with in class. It’s good to hear that Faulkner didn’t always write in confusing circles like in As I Lay Dying, especially because a lot of authors tend to write the same kind of stories over and over again.