In William Faulkners "A Rose for Emily" the, the use of setting plays a very dominant and crucial role for the rest of the piece. It gives a sort of definition and background as well as some foreshadowing into what will happen. The picture that Faulkner paints of the house leads the reader to create certain imagery in ones head, which goes on to further relate to the setting of the play and the influence that the setting has on the events.
The house is described as having a lot of character, making it seem to have a personality of its own. The house in many ways in comparable to Emily in the way that it was once known for its status and grandeur. This relates directly in comparison to Emily because she too was once known for her status and well being. She was known to have left the others in awe. The degraded state of the house now too compares to how Emily has aged and her much talked about self has faded with time.
The house is also described as being stubborn, as if it has a mind of its own. The house has obviously survived, not paying too much attention to what is going on around it. It is still standing despite the decay, the pumps and the gasoline stations and the wagons. This too is a lot like the stubbornness that revolves around Emily's attitude. She too is portrayed as being stubborn and having a mind of her own, regardless of what the norms are. She too survived despite all that was going on around her and remained aloof in her own world, passing a blind eye to all the developments happening, just as the house.
The house has a very eerie and dreary feel to it. It's almost somewhat haunted in a sense and seems to be holding a lot of mystery. This becomes more vivid as we continue into the story. The decay, the smell, the lime are all somewhat of a sort of foreshadowing of the discovery we later make in the bedroom. The oddness that takes place in the running of the household for the forty years that Emily doesn't leave the house seems to fit in just as the oddness of the house fits in with the environment and its surroundings.
