Imagery And Symbolism In A Rose For Emily

A Rose for Emily: An Analysis of Theme, Imagery and Symbolism
A Rose for Emily is a prime example of the many themes of southern gothic literature. The story demonstrates not only the elements of southern gothic but the similarities of southern gothic and basic gothic literature such as Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. The author’s story is thus made interesting and catches a reader attention with its non-chronological telling and dialogue. Through the use of imagery and symbolism the author gets his point across to his readers about the fall of traditional southern values and ideals to the new ideas of the modern age using Ms. Emily as the means of which to do so. The author, William Faulkner, was able to fully incorporate many main points of southern …show more content…
Emily and a monument. By creating the comparison between Ms. Emily and a monument Faulkner establishes early on the role of Ms. Emily to symbolize the old south and its dated ways throughout the piece. The use of personification in the story shows how the house Ms. Emily lived in stands in relation to the coming of cotton gins and garages. The author sets up the theme of a dying southern culture, an important element of southern gothic, through use of personification in the lines “But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood;…, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps-an eyesore among eyesores”(Faulkner ). By giving the house and other structures the word encroach and obliterated the author proves and solidifies the idea that the modern world is effectively destroying the old ways and brashly claiming the town and the street, which used to be filled with respectable houses like how Ms. Emily’s house used to stand. The use of dialogue in the story is effective …show more content…
Emily and her falling family to represent their changing town and the changing times in the south the main theme of southern gothic and the main point of the story. The use of Ms. Emily to represent the old southern ways is very prominent in the excerpt, “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (Faulkner). This is where the narrator shows the reason for which the people are so concerned with Ms. Emily; not that they truly care but that she is their last connection to the old ways and the town people with their modern ways then feel superior. This is established in the analysis with the point, “Emily is a monument because she is a representative of the past southern tradition, people show respect to her and look down upon her very much,” (Song). More symbols lie in the line, “Now and then we would see her in one of the downstairs windows…like the carven torso of an idol in a niche … Thus she passed from generation to generation--dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse,” (Faulkner). In this line Ms. Emily is described as she watches over the town just as the dying traditions do; keeping watch over a world changing faster than the traditions can. The symbol used in, “It was as if she demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the last Grierson; as if it had