What was the theme of

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner : Major Themes

A Rose for Emily ' is a short story written by William Faulkner and initially published in 1930 . This is a story of an eccentric spinster Emily Grierson , and her life . The strange circumstances alongside with odd family relationships with Emily 's father and lover are being uncovered throughout the story . Emily was manipulated and strongly controlled by her father and now , in the upstairs , she hides the corpse of Barron , her lover , which explains the gossips of the townspeople of Jefferson . The story

is distinctive for the first person plural point of view whereas non chronological of the events further complicated the matter . A Rose for Emily ' has a lot of themes - the extreme psychosis of the heroine , the role of women in the South and their relationships with society , and , most importantly , the society of South overall . Due to complexity of the work and a lot of secondary themes present in the work , we will focus on the image and role of society in the story

Even though Faulkner does suggest a psychological cause of Emily 's sickness , a number of factors remain unexplained if one chooses to concentrate of psychological factors rather that of society . Firstly this is plural narrator secondly , the complicity of the town in the murder of Barron thirdly , the awareness of the townspeople of the room that is locked in the house finally , the title of the short story itself (Hamblin and Abadie , 2000

At the same time , the final macabre scene taking place in the bedroom tomb , which reveals Emily 's necrophilia , also suggests necrophilia of the entire society . Society lives in the dead , but still unburied past Emily essentially becomes the sickness of the town inherited from the past , which is fostered upon the town by Sartois , who ed the freed female slaves to appear in the streets and in such way symbolize submission to the whites : Alive , Miss Emily had been a tradition , a duty , and a care a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town (Thomas and Corbett , 1970 ,

. 9 . The new generation does puts effort in shrugging off the burden , but it cannot , as Emily is part of the society and Emily 's pride is the pride of townspeople : a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument (Thomas and Corbett , 1970 ,

. 9 Obviously , plural narrator sympathizes with Emily . The Grierson house is , in turn , the symbol of the past : as Emily is trying to retain what belongs to her at any cost and regardless whether it is dead or alive the society - South follows the same pattern . Chronological of the story is also destroyed by Faulkner - in to extend the significance of the events that are taking place and at the same time reveal the human tendency to tie oneself to the past . In the story , the major heroes are being manifested in such a manner in to become the symbols of the...