William Faulkner created a woman out of words who is relatable to all women of all generations, and all types. This is done with how Miss Emily Grierson looked, how she acted, how the town reacted to her, and mostly how she affected the audience. ‘A Rose for Emily’ paints a picture of a woman stuck between generations, men, and ideas. The story is a well known one. Emily Grierson was a well known figure in the town who never paid her taxes. After her father died, and she was still unmarried, she became something of a shut in. When she emerged and met a fine man, the town thought they had married, until that fine man disappeared. The town pitied Miss Emily, but in a weird way respected the old broad. They were shocked when they found the body in her bedroom, but it made sense in an odd way.
How she looked: As a young girl she was “slender figure in white”, and it is implied, by the way her father drove suitors away that Emily Grierson was once pretty. In the short story, however, she …show more content…
On one side, she was a “monument,” “a tradition”(794). She had been a part of the town through generations. On the other side, she was “a duty, and a car; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town”(794). The town had once respected the Grierson family, and that Emily had been robbed of happiness from her father who had “driven away” many suitors. As the years roll on however, she begins to be pitied by the town. “Poor Emily” was whispered on sidewalks, and the town would watch and waited to see if the woman would emerge from her home (798). They “did not say she was crazy,” even when she held on to the body of her father, and denied his death (796). In a way, the town understood. She wanted to hold on to the person who had kept everyone else away, to “cling to that which had robbed her” (796). What a shock it must have been when they opened the door upstairs and saw she also held on to Homer. That’s when they began to call her
How she looked: As a young girl she was “slender figure in white”, and it is implied, by the way her father drove suitors away that Emily Grierson was once pretty. In the short story, however, she …show more content…
On one side, she was a “monument,” “a tradition”(794). She had been a part of the town through generations. On the other side, she was “a duty, and a car; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town”(794). The town had once respected the Grierson family, and that Emily had been robbed of happiness from her father who had “driven away” many suitors. As the years roll on however, she begins to be pitied by the town. “Poor Emily” was whispered on sidewalks, and the town would watch and waited to see if the woman would emerge from her home (798). They “did not say she was crazy,” even when she held on to the body of her father, and denied his death (796). In a way, the town understood. She wanted to hold on to the person who had kept everyone else away, to “cling to that which had robbed her” (796). What a shock it must have been when they opened the door upstairs and saw she also held on to Homer. That’s when they began to call her