A Rose for Emily
Recommendation
Want a study guide too?
What? She gets a rose and we don’t? Who is this Emily person anyway? What’s she done to deserve such a delightful, aromatic gift?
| American Literature | All American Literature Early 20th-Century American Literature |
| Author | Faulkner - William Faulkner |
| Early 20th-Century Literature | All Early 20th-Century Literature Early 20th-Century American Literature |
| Form | Short Story |
| Language | English Language |
| Literature | American Literature |
| Themes | Compassion and Forgiveness Isolation Memory and the Past Versions of Reality Visions of America |
Transcript
...the title character takes drastic measures to assuage her loneliness: she kills the man
she wants to marry so he will never, ever leave her...
...and then she keeps his corpse. Faulkner writes that Miss Emily Grierson <<Greer-son>>
has a disastrous love life...
...on account of her overprotective father...
...and, after Mr. Grierson's death, a boyfriend who doesn't want to say I do.
While Emily's neighbors enjoy talking about her misfortunes in the romance department...
...and pitying her...
...she has no friends, and her only relatives live far away.
So, here's a question: Why is Emily so very alone in Faulkner's story?
Maybe her loneliness is her own fault. After all, Faulkner tells us that Emily refuses
to pay her taxes...
...and then refuses again...
...and again...
...and again. No one likes a freeloader...
...especially one who delivers her refusal in a cold, imperious manner.
Perhaps if Emily made an effort to mingle with her neighbors, she would get invites
to all the local Easter egg hunts, Christmas dinners, and baptisms.
You never know what might happen at a baptism. Or maybe Emily's loneliness is rooted in her
inability to let go of the past.
After all, the only thing Emily wants to do is snuggle with the corpse of her dead, reluctant-to-wed-her
boyfriend...
...the boyfriend she killed with arsenic bought during a shopping spree at her local Jitney
Jungle.
Spending all her time with Not-So-Hot Dead Guy means Emily can't move on with life and
make new, still-breathing friends. Or is Emily's father to blame for her loneliness?
After all, Mr. Grierson was so certain that no one in town was good enough to marry his
daughter that Emily couldn't marry while he was alive.
By dominating Emily and separating her completely from the other townsfolk...
...perhaps Mr. Grierson shaped his daughter's personality in such a way that she is unable
to escape loneliness while she lives. So why is Emily so very alone?
Is she responsible for her loneliness?
Is she lonely because she can't let go of the past and her dead boy-toy?
Or is Emily lonely because her father made it impossible for her to live any other way?
Shmoop amongst yourselves.