Within this short story there are many characters that bring meaning to the plot. Along with Miss Emily and her father the other main characters include Homer Barron, Miss Emily’s servant Tobe, Colonel Sartoris, Judge S

The setting of Faulkner’s short story takes place in a town called Jefferson. The house of Miss Emily was described on page 154 as a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been the most select street. On the top of page 155 the narrator explains how garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood and only Miss Emily’s house was left lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and gasoline pumps—an eyesore among eyesores. The setting is quite significant to the meaning of the text in the fact that the author shows how the town has transformed while the Grierson residence still remains decaying.

The language of “A Rose for Emily” is descriptive as well as symbolic. Faulkner represents Emily’s rejection to change and wish to live in the past through dialog and description of setting. For example, when the mayor comes to her house to discuss her taxes, after sending her three notices in the mail, she repeats that her father took care of it with Colonel Satoris and does not owe anything. The words the author chooses to describe the house and Emily coincide. The house is described as having a smell of dust and disuse. In the next paragraph she is described as looking bloated like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. Both descriptions of the setting and of Miss Emily are dark and morbid. Faulkner’s use of language and choice of words justify the tone and foreshadowing of the story.

Symbolism is seen throughout the entire short story. Most of the symbolism that is used represents the contrast of Miss Emily’s sense of time to reality. Specific characters and descriptions of setting show the difference of the world Miss Emily was mentally living in and the world that really existed. Other symbols such as the crayon portrait that Emily kept of her father represented how important he was

Some topics in this essay:
Miss Emily, Miss Emily’s, Rose Emily”, Colonel Satoris, Homer Barron, miss emily, Board Aldermen, Sartoris Tobe, miss emily’s, William Faulkner’s, short story, homer barron, town’s people, , Colonel Sartoris, reader miss emily, emily’s house, descriptions setting, rose emily”, father taught, colonel sartoris, faulkner’s short story, “a rose emily”,