Criticism on William faulkner on the short story A Rose for Emily Research Proposal

Criticism on William faulkner on the short story A Rose for Emily - Research Proposal Example Life was not easy for the members of the upper class either, with their clinging to obsolete customs and traditions. It will be shown that Miss Emily Grierson in Faulkner's "Rose for Emily" took advantage of her upper class upbringing at the same time becoming a victim to the same tradition of class difference. "A Rose for Emily" is a seminal work by William Faulkner in which he has portrayed the various characters in a small town in America. Set in the period between the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, the story is steeped in tradition. This short story was the first of Faulkner's stories to be published in a national publication, when it was published in the Forum in 1930. He narrates the story of Emily Grierson and her doomed love affair. Using a technique not much used in those days, Faulkner goes back and forward in time making the story very effective .Emily Grierson belonged to a wealthy upper class family which had lost all their money, but not their iron pride. Thinking her too good for the local young men, Emily's father had never allowed her to date anyone." None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such."(Faulkner) When the father dies, Emily refuses to accept his death. Soon after, Emily's unsuitable suitor Homer Barron, who did not belong to her class arrives .He goes about with her in spite of the disapprobation of the towns' people. The minister trying to advise Emily and the minister's wife writing to Emily's cousins about the unsuitable Homer Barron, the Yankee foreman are typical of the class distinction which was prevalent in those days. The cousins arrive, and Barron is seen no more except once. Emily buys arsenic ostensibly to kill some rats, which leads the townspeople to think that she will commit suicide. After that Emily shuts herself up in her house with the old negro servant to care for her. She adamantly refuses to pay taxes citing a long expired grant by a former mayor. In a macabre end to the story, after Emily's death, the townspeople discover the skeleton of Homer Barron in the locked up bedroom upstairs, with a strand of 'long gray hair' in the pillow next to it. Faulkner has used the inherent class distinctions prevalent in the small towns of the American South to develop the story. He begins the story with Emily's death." And now Miss Emily had gone to join the representatives of those august names where they lay in the cedarbemused cemetery among the ranked and anonymous graves of Union and Confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson." (Faulkner) Only in death did the 'august names' and the anonymous soldiers come together. Emily was a tradition in herself for the town with not many other 'august names'. Faulkner's preoccupation with heredity is evident in his works. His characters are haunted by their traditions .He draws upon his observations in Oxford, a small town in the American South where he lived. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Oxford provided Faulkner with intimate access to a deeply conservative rural world, conscious of its past and remote from the urban -industrial mainstream". (E.B.)We see the town of Jefferson portrayed by Faulkner has all the characteristics of a deeply conservative world. Emily goes on ignoring the notices to pay taxes,