1. Southern gothic fiction is a subgenre of gothic fiction, focusing on the American South.

It is
similar to gothic fiction. Supernatural or unusual events usually guide the plot. Unlike Gothic fiction,
however, instead of there being a monster, the negative or unique characteristics of a monster are
portrayed through a southern character, such as a disabled man. Also like gothic fiction, there is most
always some notable structure whose decay is central to the story's plot. The character is known as a
grotesque, a character set apart from the rest of the world in a negative way who induces both empathy
and disgust in his appearance and actions. The character is characterized by his freakishness, and has a
negative way of viewing the world. Imprisonment and violence are two major characteristics as well.
And the sense of place in this style of writing helps one get a good idea of what old southern towns were
like at this time period. Two examples of southern Gothic literature are "The life you save may be your
own" and "A Rose for Emily".

"A rose for Emily" takes place in a southern town, and it's falling Victorian house represents the Decay of
Miss Emily, like in gothic fiction. Miss Emily is another monstrous character to feel sorry for. Her
husbands murder remains a mystery because she remains a mystery, never leaving her home after his
death.

2. Obviously the answer to when an individual reader figures out that Emily has murdered Homer
Barron years ago will vary greatly. Having taught this story for several years to high school students, I
can attest to the fact that most students don't figure it out until the very end, and many students are
still confused about what happened even when they have finished the story. The jumbled timeline is
one way that Faulkner keeps his readers off balance, making it less likely that they will guess what Emily
did in her thirties. Most people have a good idea that when Emily is buying rat poison, she wants to
murder someone with it because she asks for the strongest poison the druggist has and refuses to say
what she wants it for. But since the issue of the horrible smell around Emily's house is reported in
section II of the story and Homer Barron's disappearance is described in section IV, many readers have a
hard time reconstructing the timeline while they are reading the story to make the smell come shortly
after Barron's disappearance. In addition, the fact that Emily ordered what seemed to be wedding gifts
for Barron seems inconsistent with her wanting to poison him. Not only that, but Miss Emily's family
servant who stays with her until her death seems a mute testimony that nothing too horrific can have
gone on under her roof, to say nothing of her opening up her home for china-painting lessons. Therefore,
most readers can be forgiven for being completely in the dark until the third paragraph from the end.

Regarding the ending, especially the suggestion of necrophilia, most people are, to put it in student
language, "grossed out" by it. Readers tend to be first disgusted, then surprised, and then confused.
Only when they take time to look back over the story do they come to appreciate Faulkner's skill in
weaving this unusual and creepy story.

I believe one would have to be highly psychic to have figured out the double surprise ending of
William Faulkner's Southern gothic short story, "A Rose for Emily." The surprise ending(s) is one of the
highlights of the story, and it probably ranks among the greatest of all short story endings. It has been
more than 30 years since I first read this story, but as I recall, I had the use of the rat poison and the
source of "the smell" figured out. However, I never expected to see Homer turn up in Emily's bed, nor
did I see the final twist coming: the strand of gray hair that indicated Emily had been sharing the bed
with Homer for all those years. I have taught this story in many different grades (and recently had it
taught to me in a college English class), and the response by most students is similar: many opened jaws
in surprise; many "Ewww, gross" remarks; and always a few students who can't comprehend the ending
without an explanation.
3. I think the reader could see something like this coming upon close reflection of Ms. Emily's
character. Her inability to adapt to change is demonstrated not only in her refusal to pay taxes after
Colonel Sartoris remitted them, but by her refusal to have a mailbox when free postal delivery becomes
available to the town. "Thus she passed from generation to generation - dear, inescapable, impervious,
tranquil, and perverse." This extended to her relationship with Homer. She could not handle change:
Homer had to stay with her and remain the same.

4. Miss Emily is stuck in the past. There is the gap between the generation of Colonel Sartoris and
that which has "more modern ideas" is bridged by Miss Emily's life. She remains in the past, however, a
relic of a time forgotten. Her house, too, seems stuck in the past; when the aldermen call upon her to
demand her taxes, they wait in the parlor "furnished in heavy, leather-covered furniture," where "a faint
dust rose sluggishly about their thighs, spinning with slow motes in the single sun-ray." The antagonist is
Emily's past and her inability to reconcile with it. She cannot move on from her past to forge a new life

5. I think the deputation scene exists to help readers put events in order and find a frame of
reference for how the events unfolded. We also see Miss. Emily's resistance to change.

6. The narrator of this story is the voice of the town rather than a specific person. We get the valus,
speculations, and judgments of the town through the narrator's voice. The story begins with a
recounting of when Miss Emily Grierson died, and how the whole town went to her funeral. The women
of the town went mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which is "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 our most select street." The narrator of this
story is the voice of the town rather than a specific person. The narrator, who is the voice of the town in
general, uses anecdotes to tell the story of Miss Emily's life as observed by the people around her. This
technique is used to transcend time, from the time right before Miss Emily's death to her youth to the
time around her father's death, etc. We see Emily through a chorus of voices rather than separate
people. This gives the reader a perceived "general consensus" of Emily, which drives the narrative
forward.

7. Miss Emily is a monument to the way things used to be.... to a world that no longer exist, and a
world in which she has become an oddity.

Miss. Emily's home was a monument recalling times past.

It was 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 our most
select street.

Homer's dead body was a monument to love.... or perhaps to retribution.

For a long while we just stood there, looking down at the profound and fleshless grin. The body had
apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts love, that
conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him. What was left of him, rotted beneath what was
left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the
pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust.
Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something
from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long
strand of iron-gray hair.

8. Actually, Miss Emily Grierson was probably born either before or during the American Civil War.
("A Rose for Emily" was first published in 1930, and Faulkner had apparently been working on it for
several years. Since Miss Emily was around 70 years old, this would put her fictional birth between 1850-
1860.) She would have been one of the last survivors of this epic conflict, so both she and the war serve
as a reminder to the glory days of the South. Well into the 20th century, the War Between the States
served as a dividing line between various social and ethnic beliefs. The beaten Southern states took
many decades to recover from the economic and political restraints they were forced to endure during
Reconstruction. Once they had earned an equal place in national politics, many Southern leaders--a
number of whom were important members of the Confederate military and state governments--sought
to build a New South that reflected an image of the CSA in its heyday. By the turn of the century,
however, with most of these men dead or dying, the South was changing once again; the old ante-
bellum ways were being disregarded for a more modern approach. Miss Emily remained a symbol of the
old ways; the younger citizens of Jefferson considered her a relic of a time best forgotten. Her own
peculiarities only gave more ammunition to those who sought an end to the old ways that were now
considered decadent in the first decades of the 20th century.

The references to the Civil War help establish the setting and culture of the community, and Emily’s
importance to the town.

The first reference to the Civil War tells you instantly that the story takes place in the South.

And now Miss Emily had gone to join the representatives of those august names where they lay in the
cedar-bemused cemetery among the ranked and anonymous graves of Union and Confederate soldiers
who fell at the...

Clearly the war is important to these people, as it was for many Southerners. Long after the war the role
your family played in it was important to your status. This is why Emily’s father is referred to as Colonel
Sartoris. He retained his title, and is called Colonel rather than mayor.

Emily’s sense of entitlement comes partly from having a war hero as a father, and partly from having a
mayor for a father. It affects her own actions, and how others treat her,

The overtone of war, death, and decay hovers over the entire story. There is also a stubbornness
associated with the Southerners after the war, many of whom did not want to think of themselves as
losers. This pervades the town, and Miss Emily. Southern gentility aside, there is pride in being a
Southerner.
9.

10. I think Homer is only a part of the story and we are not wholly informed about the details of
their relationship. There is much more to consider when examining the conflicts of Emily. There is her
father's control as well as Emily's mental instability. Since another antagonist murdered Homer, and
since we have no reliable information on him, we worry about putting him in this category. Still, there
are strong insinuations that he wasn't a nice guy and that he might not have treated Emily well.

11. Vanquish" is a potent in this story that looks back to the time of the civil war for its context. To
"vanquish" means to overcome, to conquer, and "vanquish horse and foot" resonates with civil war
battles that the south ultimately lost. For a woman to vanquish men shows an upset of traditional roles,
and indeed Emily, even though she is a traditional, southern lady--in fact, because she is a traditional
southern lady-- has power over the town in such a way that they are afraid of her, and it is this distance
that enables (or causes) her to deteriorate in the way she does in murdering (vanquishing) Homer and
then preserving his body. To "vanquish them horse and foot" means that she sent all comers away, be
they on horses or walking. Here she is not being compared to anything per se, but her actions help the
townspeople excuse their behavior of allowing her to descend into such an abysmal state
12. Sidewalks are significant because they represent progress while Emily lives in the past. The
sidewalks in "A Rose for Emily" may signify, first and foremost, moving toward the future, as well as the
advent of change. The fact that Jefferson County even considered the repaving of sidewalks indicates
that this is no longer a town who's still asleep and dreaming of its once great past; Jefferson county is
now up and moving, clearly showing that they are opening their doors to whoever chooses to walk
down its streets.

The sidewalk project is also significant because this is how Homer Barron, a Yankee, enters the town,
makes a notorious name for himself, and somehow sweeps Emily off her feet. Homer, who was one of
the construction workers assigned to the projects, seemed to have made quite the image for himself,
leading people to think of him as brash, and vulgar, and some even thought he was attracted to other
men.

Finally, because of Homer's connection to the sidewalks, and the sidewalks' own connection to change,
we can say that the sidewalks are a conduit through which Emily left her shy ways, and dared to
challenge her father's stern rules of courtship. After all, she takes very seriously her relationship with her
beau, Homer...seriously enough to kill him when he attempts to leave.

13. If only we knew! Faulkner writes this piece of the story enigmatically, so we can guess that the
conversation between the Baptist minister and Miss Emily would make so very juicy gossip for the
townspeople of Jefferson. All we know is that the minister

"would never divulge what happened during that interview, but he refused to go back again. The next
Sunday they again drove about the streets, and the following day the minister's wife... wife wrote to
Miss Emily's relations in Alabama."

Recall that the women of the town persuaded the minister to visit Miss Emily after she had done several
things to rebel against the antebellum spinster role the townspeople had fit her into: she was cavorting
with a man, a Northern day laborer beneath her station at that! They also assumed that she had had sex
with him: "She carried her head high enough--even when we believed that she was fallen." The Baptist
minister is then sent to visit her, presumably to convince her to get herself married or stop riding around
in a carriage with Homer Barron.

How Miss Emily took such a request is impossible to say for certain, but not hard to imagine, having seen
her reaction to the alderman who came for her taxes. Certainly she would have been haughty and rude.
Likely she would have been offended at the presumption of the minister (not even of her denomination
– remember, "her people" are Episcopal) and not afraid to voice her outrage at his visit and the subject.
For a man who was not inclined to broach the subject at all with her, it wouldn't take much to scare off
the minister and have him outsource the problem to her Alabama relations.

14. The townspeople are not surprised by Homer’s departure because they assume that Miss
Emily’s two haughty, disagreeable cousins—or his own inclination not to marry— drove him away. It is
ironic that Jefferson residents hold in high esteem the representatives of the Southern aristocracy as
ideals, yet can’t stand them in person. Strange, also, is the fact that the townspeople never investigate
where Homer went after seeing him for the last time—do they suspect murder, but collectively agree to
let a sleeping dog lie?

15. Section IV: Miss Emily is born. Section II: She and her father ride around the town in an old,
elegant carriage. Section II: Her father dies, and for three days she refuses to acknowledge his
death.Section III: Homer Barron arrives in town and begins to court Miss Emily.Section IV: She buys a
man's silver toilet set — a mirror, brush, and comb — and men's clothing.Section III: The town relegates
her to disgrace and sends for her cousins.Section IV: The cousins arrive, and Homer leaves town.Section
IV: Three days after the cousins leave, Homer returns.Section III: Miss Emily buys poison at the local drug
store.Section IV: Homer disappears.Section II: A horrible stench envelops Miss Emily's house.Section II:
Four town aldermen secretly sprinkle lime on her lawn

16. The word "shadow" is mentioned 3 times in Faulkner's story, "A Rose for Emily."

Before the murder of Homer:

They called a special meeting of the Board of Aldermen. A deputation waited upon her, knocked at the
door through which no visitor had passed since she ceased giving china-painting lessons eight or ten
years earlier. They were admitted by the old Negro into a dim hall from which a staircase mounted into
still more shadow. It smelled of dust and disuse-a close, dank smell.

Shortly after the murder:

As they recrossed the lawn, a window that had been dark was lighted and Miss Emily sat in it, the light
behind her, and her upright torso motionless as that of an idol. They crept quietly across the lawn and
into the shadow of the locusts that lined the street. After a week or two the smell went away.

And after Emily died:

And so she died. Fell in the house filled with dust and shadows, with only a doddering Negro man to
wait on her. We did not even know she was sick; we had long since given up trying to get any
information from the Negro. He talked to no one, probably not even to her, for his voice had grown
harsh and rusty, as if from disuse.

Emily's "shadow" is her death, her past, her father's death, Homer's death, the decay of the South, the
secret of Emily's upstairs bedroom where she committed murder and necrophilia. It is a kind of
Gothic imagery "catch-all."

17. Miss. Emily's hair changed color in the six months she disappeared from life in town and
cloistered herself insode of the house. This time frame also directly corresponds with the disappearance
of Homer Barron, causing the reader, and the townspeople, to surmise she'd gone through a traumatic
experience.
18.

19. I have always found it interesting that mention is made of Tobe leaving the house. You have to
wonder how much and to what extent he knew about what was going on in the house. Although his
place as a black servant would have him leaving through the back door, I've always thought that perhaps
he had protected Emily's secret for all these years, and he didn't want to be around to answer questions
when the townspeople found Homer's skeleton and Emily's gray hair on the pillow next to him. We
aren't told anything about what Tobe's responsibilities were or how much he had to take care of Emily in
her latter years, but I just find it interesting why his departure and the fact that he was never seen again
was included in the story. I don't think Tobe did anything other than to protect Emily and her reputation,
knowing what would happen to her if the town ever found out about Homer.

20.

21. The delay in breaking down the door to Miss Emily's upstairs bedroom was primarily a matter of
respect for the recently departed. Most religions observe a period of mourning for the dead, and
discovering what was behind the bedroom door was primarily a matter of curiosity, so it is not too
surprising that in order to appear properly pious "They waited until Miss Emily was decently in the
ground before they opened it." The delay is just one of the many examples found of the slow-moving
nature of the Deep South and how the older generations were wary of change. As for Miss Emily, she
had long been a "hereditary obligation upon the town," yet the people of Jefferson always delayed in
dealing with her problems--the unpaid taxes, the "smell," her public romancing of Homer Barron, and
his later disappearance. The fact that authorities had never searched Miss Emily's house in the first place
reveals the importance of the old Southern virtue of chivalry: The bedroom had never been searched
because it would have been highly improper for any man to enter a single woman's boudoir without her
permission. Such traditions died slowly in Jefferson.

22. It represents death--of the Old South and as a final resting place for Emily's loved ones: both
Emily's father--she would not allow his body to be removed for several days following Mr. Grierson's
death--and for Homer Barron and, later, Emily herself. The house serves as a place of isolation for Emily,
who rarely is seen in public, and who prefers to live her life as she always has within the walls. Inside,
time never changes, and Emily adapts to the stagnancy within. Like Emily, the house slowly is reduced
from its 1870s grandeur into a "fallen monument," a reminder of the glorious past now nearly forgotten
by the new generations who have come to dominate the town.

23. In the short story 'A Rose for Emily' by William Faulkner, the themes of love, honor and
respectability are used in various ways-the love Miss Emily felt for for father and husband, the honor
that she bestowed upon her father, and the respect that the town gave Miss Emily. All of these themes
relate to the closing of this story.

Primarily, the theme of love is shown in how much Miss Emily missed her father after his death. A
representation of this occurs when the narrator states, 'After her father's death she went out very little'
(para 16). This tells us how much Miss Emily was grieving for her father, and also how much she cared
for him. Additionally, in paragraph 27, the narrator comments that Miss Emily told people that her
father was not dead. Because of her affection for him, Miss Emily could not bear the thought of his
being gone. Another subject of love in this story was the character of Homer Barron. He is used as a
revival of sorts for Miss Emily. In paragraph 31, the story desribes Hommer Barron and Miss Emily riding
in a buggy together, hinting at a blossoming romance. Perhaps because of her loss, it is assumed that
Miss Emily went to extreme measures and poisoned Homer Barron, shown at the end of the story (para
60) when his corpse is found in a secret room, and evidence of Miss Emily remains- 'we saw a long
strand of iron-gray hair' (para 61). Miss Emily loved him so much that, because of the past events
occuring to her father, she could not stand to lose Homer Barron. To paraphrase, she did not want to let
him go.

Secondly, the theme of honor is used in this story mostly to show how much Miss Emily respected her
father. An example of this occurs in paragraph 26, when it is told that 'when her father died, it got about
that the house was all that was left to her'. Miss Emily must have honored her father, for which she
went and lived in her father's house until her death. Additionally, as mentioned in the love argument of
this response, Miss Emily 'went out very little' (para 16) after her father's death. Her honor and respect
for her father caused Miss Emily great sadness, in which she bottled up by staying solitary.

Last of all, the theme of respectability is shown in the way of how the town respects Miss Emily. A
good example of this is when the narrator tells us that 'the whole town went to her funeral: the men
through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument' (para 1). This shows that the town thought
of Miss Emily as an important figure, comparable to a monument. Another instance of this respect
occurs in paragraph 57, when it is desribed that Miss Emily is 'beneath a mass of bought flowers' in her
casket. Flowers frequently represent affection, respect and care. The town lavished flowers upon Miss
Emily at her death, a sign that they respected her and that she was important to them. Yet another
occurance of this respect is when the town remarked that 'none of the young men were quite good
enough for Miss Emily' (para 25). At a comparative standpoint, the town is looking at Miss Emily and
seeing her as higher as others, which is a sign of respect.

In conclusion, the three themes of love, honor and respectability are shown throughout 'A Rose for
Emily' in varied ways. Love is shown through Miss Emily's love for her father and Homer Barron, while
honor is put forth as how Miss Emily honored her father. Lastly, respectability is the respect the town
had for Miss Emily.

24. Choosing the stance of Miss Emily is a symbol of the post-Civil-War South is a solid beginning for
a high school essay. It’s a position most critics would agree with. The main advantage is that it agrees
with what we know about Faulkner and the story. There are two main disadvantages. For a stance to be
something you need to prove, it has to be something that is in doubt, i.e. that your readers might
disagree with, or find new or original. Since the position is one generally accepted, it fails to meet the
criteria of something that needs to be argued. The second problem with it is that it is too general. It’s a
good starting point, but you need to narrow it down to some specific aspect of the post-Civil War South.
Does she represent something good or bad? Is she a victim as much as an oppressor? You have a good
starting point, but now you need to focus your topic more narrowly.

25. (sabihin nyo di nyo nabasa yung Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations)

26. This is a pretty complex question for this short-answer forum space. In "A Rose for Emily," the
narrator, who is the voice of the town, describes how the town people had resented the Griersons
because they "held themselves a little too high for what they really were. None of the young men were
quite good enough for Miss Emily and such." So when Miss Emily reached thirty and was still unmarried,
they felt "not pleased exactly, but vindicated." After Miss Emily's father died and left the house to her,
they were glad to pity her because "being left alone, and a pauper, she had become humanized."
Females are expected to fit a narrow definition of femininity. If they do not marry, they are considered
old and spinsters. A key to the role of the old maid is that the townspeople must whisper, "Poor so-and-
so" about the woman. Pity is essential, for the role to be tragic. In "A Rose for Emily," the narrator
reports that "as soon as the old people said 'Poor Emily,' the whispering began... this behind their hands;
rustling of craned silk and satin behind jalousies closed upon the sun of Sunday afternoon as the thin,
swift clop-clop-clop of the matched team passed: 'Poor Emily.'"

27. A rose is a life form, and there are few life forms in and around the home of Emily Grierson.
Emily's home is an eyesore that is dilapidated and decaying, while the rest of the town is rebuilding and
changing appropriately with the times. While a rose is symbolic of life, Emily's home "smelled of dust
and disuse-- a close, dank smell." And Emily herself is described as "a small, fat woman in black." The
narrator also describes her as a "... skeleton ... [who] looked bloated, like a body long submerged in
motionless water, and of that pallid hue." Emily appears dead herself, long before she physically
succumbs in the novel. Perhaps that is because she hides the death of her father and her lover, H.B., in
her home, for as long as she can. The contrast between the title and Emily's dark surroundings serves to
emphasize just how isolated and misunderstood Emily was.

Not only is a rose a form of life, but the title suggests that this is something being offered to Emily. One
might offer a rose as a romantic gesture on a date. Emily, in her life, did not go on dates, for her father
forbade it. He turned away countless suitors at the family door. Even after her father's death, when
Emily finally has the freedom to choose a man for herself, she cannot do so; the man she wants, Homer
Barron, does not want her.

The title could suggest an offering made by the town for Emily at her funeral. The town acts as the
collective first person narrator of the story, and the town's opinion of Emily ranges from curiosity to
disapproval to pity. Little is known of Emily, and when the town attends Emily's funeral, the men go
"through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument," while the women go "mostly out of
curiosity to see the inside of her house." Emily was elusive and isolated in life. She was not the kind of
woman who would have received a gift of roses. Only in her death does the town get close enough to
discover the secrets of Emily. Only in her death does Emily receive the gesture of a rose, but this gesture
is impersonal and compulsory-- something one might do to mark a "fallen monument."