Faulkner does not slowly wade into this story. Rather, he uses the first sentence of ?A Rose for Emily? to accomplish a host of literary objectives. First, he establishes the point of view in the form of a first-person narrator. The narrator, an unnamed townsperson, is presented as the voice of th

When she was dating Homer, the people of the town judgmentally gossiped about her as she would drive by. But Emily, like her house, was defiant. ?She carried her head high enough--even when we believed that she was fallen. It was as if she demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the last Grierson.? Like the last house on the street, Emily stubbornly held her head high. In alluring defiance she resisted the social values Jefferson forced upon her.

A bit a foreshadowing and symbolism occur in the first sentence, as well. The narrator splits the town?s perception of Emily along the lines of gender. While the men attend her funeral out of ?a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument,? the women attend ?mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house.? Obviously, this paints the women as unsympathetic and nosey. But more importantly, it creates a sense of mystery about Emily and her house. The symbolic relationship continues to develop in the second paragraph. Emily?s house, once a grand Victorian home on a prominent street, has fallen into disrepair and sits alone among a row of unsightly gas pumps and garages. Emily, like her house is described as the end of a grand era in her town. Her house, like the narrator?s description of her in the first sentence, has become a fallen monument.

After Emily?s boyfriend, Homer, is believed to have left, we are told ?she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray. During the next few years it grew grayer and grayer until it attained an even pepper-and-salt iron-gray, when it ceased turning. Up to the day of her death at seventy-four it was still that vigorous iron-gray, like the hair of an active man.? Later in life, when the men come to her house to collect taxes, she is described as ?a small, fat woman in black, leaning on an ebony cane.? We see the progression of the decay in Emily?s build and attire. As a yo

Some topics in this essay:
Emily Faulkners, Rose Emily, Miss Emily's, Emily Grierson, emily house, rose emily, William Faulkners, relationship emily, emily grierson, town jefferson, symbolic relationship, American Literature, grierson town jefferson, house described, emilys house, short story, fallen monument, emily grierson town, relationship emily house,