Another Short Story Mini Analysis
So… “A Rose for Emily”? Disgusting. Sure, we already talked about it more than enough today, but I’m sure one more live journal post about it won’t kill you. So what do I think Faulkner wanted to say through this story? I’ll revolve this around the dangers of gossip and prejudgment.
Look at the entire story: every other line talks about the townswomen’s opinions on every part of Emily’s life. “So the next day we all said, ‘She will kill herself,’” (Faulkner 541), “we learned she had bought… and we said, ‘they are married’” (Faulkner 541) etc. If these women stopped merely gossiping about everything they saw, I’m sure they would have noticed that something was off in Emily’s actions. Furthermore, look at some of the symbols: rats, tax notice; everything revolves back to the idea of gossip and prejudgment. What does a “rat” do, in slang terms? He releases secrets that he was entrusted with, which very closely mimics gossip. If you don’t remember, rats are mentioned in the scene when Emily is buying arsenic; when the druggist asks what she wants it for, she says, “For rats” (Faulkner 541). Also, a tax notice is a perfect example of prejudgment; when will a tax notice be delayed in its issuing because the issuer doesn’t know the victim well enough? Never. The tax notice makes its appearance in the first scene when it was issued to Emily. In the end, all of the bad things relate to gossip and prejudgment, and I’m sure the worst thing in the story (the safeguarded corpse) also relates to the theme.
Works Cited:
Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” Literature: A World of Writing. Ed. Joseph Terry. New York: Pearson Education, 2011. 538-543. Print.
Look at the entire story: every other line talks about the townswomen’s opinions on every part of Emily’s life. “So the next day we all said, ‘She will kill herself,’” (Faulkner 541), “we learned she had bought… and we said, ‘they are married’” (Faulkner 541) etc. If these women stopped merely gossiping about everything they saw, I’m sure they would have noticed that something was off in Emily’s actions. Furthermore, look at some of the symbols: rats, tax notice; everything revolves back to the idea of gossip and prejudgment. What does a “rat” do, in slang terms? He releases secrets that he was entrusted with, which very closely mimics gossip. If you don’t remember, rats are mentioned in the scene when Emily is buying arsenic; when the druggist asks what she wants it for, she says, “For rats” (Faulkner 541). Also, a tax notice is a perfect example of prejudgment; when will a tax notice be delayed in its issuing because the issuer doesn’t know the victim well enough? Never. The tax notice makes its appearance in the first scene when it was issued to Emily. In the end, all of the bad things relate to gossip and prejudgment, and I’m sure the worst thing in the story (the safeguarded corpse) also relates to the theme.
Works Cited:
Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” Literature: A World of Writing. Ed. Joseph Terry. New York: Pearson Education, 2011. 538-543. Print.