What is the writing style in "A Rose for Emily"?

"A Rose for Emily" is a short story by William Faulkner. It is narrated by a third person narrator who is not named and is assumed to speak as the voice of the Mississippi town in which the story is set. The writing style of the story is related to this narrative perspective, as it also determines the tone and structure of the story.

The story's tone is determined by the narrator and his/her attitude toward Miss Emily Grierson, the title character. The narrator is obviously curious and interested in Emily, but he/she also does not seem to know Emily very well. The narrative voice is gossipy, and most of the information in the story is based on rumor. The narrator and the town's observations from the outside provide the rest of the information. Emily has no voice in her story; we never get her perspective. As no one in the town knows her very well, they cannot report accurately on her life. The narrator tells us that Emily is "a tradition, a duty, and a care" in the eyes of the townspeople. Because of the family's history in the town (they apparently used to be very influential, they were once wealthy, and they once had special privileges in the town), the narrator and the community cannot simply ignore Emily as an eccentric old woman. There is something about her that they respect. 

Finally, the narrator determines the unconventional structure of the story. "A Rose for Emily" is organized into numbered sections. The first section announces that Emily is dead and that the town is interested in seeing the inside of her house. Then, the narrator goes back and tells us, in a rather disorganized manner, a series of details about Emily's life (again, gleaned from the outside, through observation and rumor). Eventually, the story ends up back in the house after Emily's death, where the people discover a decaying dead body in a bedroom that is decorated like a bridal chamber. It turns out that Emily had been sleeping with Homer's body for years, that she probably bought the rat poison to kill him, and that she fantasized about their wedding day, which was never to be. The way the story is organized creates suspense and leaves readers shocked at the ending. However, during a second reading, we can go back and see some clues that serve as foreshadowing (the smell at Emily's house, the disappearance of Homer, and Emily's purchase of the poison). At the same time, the narrator has already created some sympathy for Miss Emily through the story, so it is difficult for readers to dismiss her outright, even with the shocking final revelation.

The story could also be described as symbolic, in the sense that Emily as a character and her relationship with Homer (or rather his dead body) represent the decaying Old South and the extinction of the old values of the antebellum period. Some who had power in that time tried desperately to hang on to the past, but they too, like Emily, will die one day, as the world around them progresses.

What is the psychoanalytical criticism of "A Rose for Emily"?

A psychoanalytical criticism or reading of "A Rose for Emily" would seek to understand Miss Emily Grierson's psychology and use that to explain her bizarre actions in the short story.

Freudian psychoanalytical theory makes much of children's relationships with their parents, so we would definitely want to examine Emily's relationship to her father. We know that Emily inherits a sense of entitlement from her father, as she wants to continue the traditions of privilege enjoyed by her family in past generations, even as the world around her progresses from the antebellum South to the modern world. The first odd detail we hear about Emily and her father is introduced in Part II of the story, when we learn about her father's death. The narrator relates,

The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, as is our custom Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body. Just as they were about to resort to law and force, she broke down, and they buried her father quickly.

Emily is clearly in denial about her father's death; she refuses to accept that he is truly gone. She keeps this up for three days, and even though several people try to convince her that he is dead and they must take his body away, she refuses. It takes threats of "law and force" to make Emily eventually "[break] down" and let them in. The burial is taken care of swiftly. The narrator reflects that, at this point, they did not think of Miss Emily as insane:

We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that. We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will.

The community actually understands why Emily acted the way she did. The reason they give is "all the young men her father had driven away." This little detail tells us much more: Miss Emily had suitors, but her father did not approve of any of them. In a way, he made sure she was single, alone. Now that her father is gone, she has no one. The people of the town understand that "she would have to cling to that which had robbed her." In other words, they are doing some psychoanalysis of their own.

If we look at the parallel scenario of Homer Barron's death/disappearance, we can see Emily repeating some of her previous actions following her father's death. Repeated actions are sometimes seen in trauma survivors, as they replay the moment of the trauma. Further, we can see Emily trying to avoid loss a second time through her murder of Homer. Because we hear from an outside perspective, we have to put pieces together on our own, but the story suggests that Homer may have been about to leave Emily rather than marry her. In an effort to keep him with her, she poisons him and lives with his body for many years. Emily is able to replay the death of her father but with more success this time because she can keep the man with her instead of having him taken away. He is only discovered after Emily's death. Many readers are sickened by what they imagine to be Emily's necrophilia, but if we look at the clues to her psychology in the story, we, like the townsfolk, can understand that she is trying desperately to cling to what she has left to avoid loss, loneliness, and solitude.

What literary elements are used in "A Rose for Emily" and how?

Perhaps the main literary element employed by William Faulkner in this novel is that of Southern Gothic. This literary tradition of Gothic found its way into Southern literature, but in a different manner from Gothicism; the grotesque and bizarre elements are used less for frightening effects and more for what they uncover in the human psyche. That is, the Gothic serves to reveal the psychology of human beings on the fringes of society (the grotesques) and their underlying and dark motives.

While Faulkner's narratives are not normally confined to a particular genre, "A Rose for Emily" with its decay and forbidding old mansion where suitors and aldermen alike have been turned away, added to a character singularly odd in appearance and behavior, qualifies this narrative as Southern Gothic. As a character, Emily is a grotesque; for instance, she is damaged psychologically by her intensely patriarchal environment in which suitors have all been turned away, so she refuses to let her father be buried, insisting that he is not dead.  

We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will.

Of course, Emily's poisoning of Homer Barron and her necrophilia demonstrate further her bizarre character. After a long time of being shut away, she dies in one of the downstairs rooms in a large bed with a curtain, "her gray head propped on a pillow yellow and moldy with age and lack of sunlight." However, when the townspeople come into the house after her burial, they find upstairs the skeleton of Homer, what "was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt." On the pillow next to him "lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust," but also on this second pillow is the indentation of a head and "a long strand or iron-gray hair."

What literary elements are used in "A Rose for Emily" and how?

There are several important literary elements in this story.  The first one is point of view. This story is told in a flashback, but the actual narrator is unknown.  This makes the reader question not only the identity of the narrator, but also the "trustworthiness" of this person--how does this narrator know these things? Is he/she telling the truth about Emily, her family and her situation?

Faulkner also uses foreshadowing.  He drops hints along the way to make the readers believe that can predict the ending, and in doing so, builds suspense.  But this ending, the surprise ending, can be considered an element in itself! Very few of my students have guessed the ending of this short story as they were reading.

Faulkner also weaves the setting and conflict together to create Emily's situation.  The setting is the deep south where pride, honor and family name are of the utmost importance.  Because of this, Emily finds herself in an uncomfortable situation more than once as her family money and name begin to age and decay along with her and her home. She and her choices truly are a product of the environment!

What literary elements are used in "A Rose for Emily" and how?

This question is asking about several things, so I would like to focus on themes. One theme of this story that I feel can't be ignored is the theme of death and/or mortality. Death hangs over this story right from the very beginning because readers are told in the first sentence about Emily's death.

When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old man-servant—a combined gardener and cook—had seen in at least ten years.

The story then moves forward and backward in time as fluidly as a person's actual memory might flow through various memories, but we do see that Emily has a unique relationship with death. Corpses don't bother her, and we first see that when she refuses to have her father's body taken out of the house.

I think another strong theme of the story is the theme of isolation. The town viewed Miss Emily as a bit of an oddity all throughout her life, and that served to isolate her in many ways; however, Miss Emily kept herself separate, too. She didn't make efforts to connect with others as she was, and her isolation increased as she got older. Again, the first paragraph is a source of solid evidence of this theme.

. . . the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old man-servant—a combined gardener and cook—had seen in at least ten years.

What literary elements are used in "A Rose for Emily" and how?

A prominent theme in William Faulkner's 1930 story is that the traditions of the South were disappearing as modernity encroached. This is seen in the situation in which the new tax collector refuses to honor the gentleman's agreement for tax exemption that Emily Grierson's father had enjoyed.

Symbolic elements that support this theme include the letter Emily Grierson sends to town officials in "flowing calligraphy in faded ink," in which she studiously ignores the request for tax remittance. When town officials come to call, her home is filled with dust and cracked furniture; she employs Tobe, "the Negro," and Miss Emily wears clothing from another age. Miss Emily, her home, and her servant are all relics of the antebellum and postbellum South and have as little to do with modern life as the china-painting classes she once taught.

A literary device that Faulkner employs is seen in the way he organizes the narrative. The story begins in the recent past and works backward to a time when Emily was a younger woman, until the final section, in which the narrator returns to the outer story frame of his more recent reminiscence. Moreover, much of the action of this story related in past tense is conveyed through dialogue; some of it is between Emily and others, while some is dialogue about her. The narrator uses "we" as his point of view.

Write a literary analysis of some aspect of "A Rose for Emily."

You might want to approach this question by examining one of the themes in the story and its development in the tale. The theme of isolation is an interesting one to look at, as Emily Grierson is part of this tightly-knit community where clearly everybody knows everybody else's business, and yet somehow, Miss Emily remains strangely isolated throughout her entire life. Note how at the beginning of the story Miss Emily is described as "a fallen monument" for which the men have a respectful affection for. She is likewise described as a "tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town." This is a rather strange statement to make when we consider how little Emily has been involved in the town and how defiantly she has kept herself to herself. In her childhood, it was her father who kept her isolated, but after his death, this is something that she continued herself, apart from her few shopping trips, jaunts with Homer Barron and the art classes that she gives.

However, although it appears Miss Emily couldn't care less about the town, she is clearly a topic of hot gossip. Again and again, the narrator talks of how her actions excite comment from all of the townspeople, especially concerning her relationship with Homer Barron:

So the next day we all said, "She will kill herself"; and we said it would be the best thing. When she had first begun to be seen with Homer Barron, we had said, "She will marry him." Then we said, "She will persuade him yet," because Homer himself had remarked--he liked men,and it was known that he drank with the younger me in the Elks' Club--that he was not a marrying man.

Throughout the story then, the townspeople hotly comment on her life and actions, revealing an interesting conflict. Even though Miss Emily regards herself as separate from the rest of the town, they regard her as one of their own.

What are your critiques on "A Rose for Emily"?

A critique essay presents a critical analysis of a literary work, in this case William Faulkner's short story “A Rose for Emily.” Such an essay determines the overall message of the story, what the author means for it to accomplish, what lessons he means to show and teach, and then discusses how each element of the story contributes (or not) to that overall message.

Your first step in preparing this assignment, then, is to read the story closely and determine its message. You might, for instance, decide that the story is all about the need to let go of the past, or about the conflict between the past and the present, or about the desire to have control over everything including death (or some combination of these). This main message will form part of your thesis statement along with your claim about how well the story presents the message (extraordinarily well, perhaps, or somewhat well or not well at all).

The body of your essay will cover the literary elements that support the message (or not). You might talk about plot, conflict, characterization, setting, figurative language, theme, point of view, and resolution. For instance, if you are arguing that the story presents its message in a highly effective way, you might focus in on the character of Miss Emily as a representation of someone who refuses to let go of the past and make a change even if that means killing someone to keep him with her.

Your essay will end with a conclusion that restates your thesis and presents your readers with a point to ponder, perhaps with regard to their own desires to live in the past or their own inabilities to accept change.