Faulkner's home in Oxford, Mississippi
Please note that this blog prompt assumes you've finished reading the story. It contains spoilers.
1. Find a sentence that draws your attention and quote it, and try to put into words what drew your attention.
2. Try to locate an instance of foreshadowing.
3. True or false: Emily's life included its grotesque elements. Not her appearance; her life.
4. In addition to being creepy and a tour de force of story-telling, this story might be satirizing (making fun of) or at offering a critique of (criticizing) something--what, for example?
5. Try to explain, in your own words, what happens in section V. Once someone has done so, feel free to offer emendations or add details, but don't just repeat someone else's explanation.
6. Notice something about the story that no one else has noticed yet.
14 comments:
Hey Everyone!
My answer is pertaining to question 5. In section V A funeral is taking place. Every townsperson came to Emily's house to bid a last good-bye however they were awestruck upon finding a mysterious thing in the upstairs room. It had been said earlier in the book that the house had a rancid smell and that no one knew how to tell Emily. Now the reader figures out that the awful smell was indeed her father. The confusing part came into play when they talk about the indention beside him. I would like to think, even though unpleasant, that this meant that Emily slept beside this man. Within the last line of the book,"One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acridin the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair." my theory would be proven correct. I enjoy reading what everyone else thought of this book. There was definitely not a dull moment and I look forward to learning more tomorrow as well as reading further works from this author!
Hey Everyone.
My answer is to question 1. The passage " Already we knew that there was one room in that region above stairs which no one had seen in forty years, and which would have to be forced." was the first quote that really caught my eye. The word forced really caught my attention at first. When you think about Miss Emily and how she seemed almost stubborn and anti-social, force would be an appropriate word to use. People in the town were "forced" to deal with the smell, or at least try to for as long as possible. The government was also forced to deal with her stubbornness towards paying her taxes. She was so stubborn that the government never even had the chance to explain to her that Colonel Sartoris was dead, therefore they were forced to keep sending her notices and receiving them back after about a week. THe negro man in a way was forced to forever stay working for her, because he probably would have felt bad to leave her, since she depended so much on him. Simply because she was so stubborn many people were forced to deal with things they didn't like. Many of the women felt forced to send the priest to her and talk with her, but the priest said he wouldn't go back again. She caused a lot of turmoil throughout their little town.
I look forward to reading what others have to say!
Hey dudes and dudettes...yeah that was lame.
Anyway, I'm going to address the question about Emily's life and whether or not I see anything grotesque about it. I think she does have some gross qualities of her life being shown. When she buys the arsenic, she uses it to kill Homer. Killing is not a very kind action to do upon anyone, and killing someone slowly with arsenic is rather grotesque. Also, in speculation, it infers that Emily had intercourse with the dead corpse...Suggesting that she could have been sick in the head and so deprived sexually that she was willing to do anything. The fact that she committed such an action leads me to the conclusion that she can be grotesque and the things in her life are grotesque. However, she was fortunate enough to not have paid taxes prior...But it appears to have backfired and put her under this unusual lifestyle. Also I have a question for everyone. What does the title have to do with anything in the text? Could someone answer that...I'll check in later to see if anyone answered or attempted to answer! Thanks!
Mason
"And so she died. Fell ill in the house filled with dust and shadows, with only a doddering Negro man to wait on her."
These two sentences are in the second to last part of the story. I think that it could be said that the dust and shadows are not only literal but metaphorical, which is proved at the end. In some ways the dust has built up as a way to hide some of what is contained in the house. Shadows can be considered spooky at times, as if they are hiding something. In this case, the shadows could represent the dead man Emily had been keeping in her house. She kept herself very closed in her house, and clearly the Negro man did whatever she asked. I think with her death, the dust and shadows were exposed and the rest of the story builds up to this discovery at the end.
My answer is pertaining to question 3. It seems like Ms. Emily has some grotesque elements in her life. Her house stank due to the repugnant smell of her father's corpse. No matter how many times people say that he was dead, she was clearly in denial. Although she was insane, the author defended her, arguing that Emily had to believe her father was not dead because she did not had anybody else to emotionally depend on. All her life, her father had been very protective of her and he left her emotionally disabled. I found this to be gross but sympathetic to Ms. Emily because she lived her life in misery and nobody was allowed to be near her. Living life under family's desires and expectation is gross because people are not puppets.
Good evening :)
It's funny, because I was actually wondering the exact same thing when I finished the book, Mason. I couldn't quite figure out why the title was what it was at first, but I thought about it and here's my best guess:
There are two references to anything "rose colored" or a "rose." The first is when her sisters come to her funeral. "...Miss Emily beneath a mass of bought flowers..." The second is in the description of the abandoned room. "Upon the valance curtains of faded rose color, upon the rose-shaded lights..."
I don't feel as if the first has much relevance, especially because it is not specified that the flowers are in fact roses. The second passage actually caught my attention though. Most other elements in the story have a very dingy and dark feel to them. Her house smells, the pillows are yellow and moldy from a lack of sun, and even her gray hair and "pallid hue" suggest dreariness. Then, something of a completely different nature is discovered. It is a room with pink curtains and lamps, filled with crystal and silver. All of these things are so different from the dingy nature of many other elements. Likewise, it is a room in which she keeps her dead lover, and it is symbolic of past and lost happiness (if it could be considered that...).
Also, when reading that section, I thought of the idiom "Looking through rose-colored glasses." That means to see the bright or pleasant side of something that may not in fact be quite so wonderful. Although Emily seemed to have a depressing, lonely, and unfortunate existence, the one thing that made her feel alive and real was Homer. Is it possible that when she was with him everything seemed as if she was seeing it through rose colored glasses? I don't know, but it is a connection I thought I would try to make.
The peculiar thing is that she killed him. Perhaps this rose colored room is representative of the irony of the situation. Maybe by making everything in the room somewhat glamorous, she was trying to be sarcastic in a way. Her life wasn't all that great, (through her own choice, for the most part) and maybe she, in some sick and twisted way, was almost trying to make a joke out of love and how she sees it as cliché or over rated.(Prompt #4??) Perhaps she figured love wasn't worth the trouble, so she would kill her lover and then make an outrageous display of his dead body to make her point clear to whoever would discover it.
I guess I still don't really know exactly how the title relates, and that was more just me "thinking out loud." I hope it made a little bit of sense though. Basically, I feel as though the title is filled with irony and cynicism, because, at first, the phrase "A Rose for Emily," seems pleasant rather than dreary and creepy.
Good Night!
Yeah...answering Mason's question. I saw the same quote that Kacie did and related that back to the title. I was just going to point those quotes out also, but realized Kacie had already, so yeah I guess pointless blog but I do agreeand noticed those two quotes also.
Good Night Everyone.
hey,
Throughout the story Emily is seen as a delicate women to look upon. Her life however, is filled with strange gross events. First off, the rotting of her own father presents not only a gross side to Emily but a emotion problem. She has trouble letting go of her father and wants him to stay with her. His rotting dead body doesnt rott in her mind. Furthermore, having sex with a dead body brings real problems. Emily's actions prove her character to be other than what seems to be portrayed.
"The front door closed upon the last one and remained closed for good."
This quote was interesting to me because I just like the syntax. I think that is what syntax is at least? The phrasing sounds powerful. It says how no one except the black man went into the house. She shut everyone out of her life and life itself!
Hello,
"She died in one of the downstairs rooms, in a heavy walnut ed with a curtain, her gray head propped on a pillow yellow and moldy with age and lack of sunlight."
This quote caught my attention mostly because of the part about sunlight. I feel that the idea of light is a huge undertone throughout the story. Even at the beginning of the story, Faulkner claimed that her house was full of shadows and on her death bed there is still commentary about the lack of sunlight. Perhaps this is just me thinking out loud but I feel that the recurrence of shadow could have an underlying meaning for the way Emily leads her life. Perhaps Faulkner is trying to emphasize how dark and lonely and solemn Emily's life was through the repetition of darkness and shadow. Emily clings to her father's memory and keeps his corpse in her house. Perhaps the shadows in her home play a part in Emily's unwillingness to let go to her past and enclose herself in her home.
Hi everyone,
Let me start off by just saying I was completely and utterly horrified when I learned of the dead father, still in the house. I literally couldn't speak and almost cried it is so repulsive and weird and strange that I'm scarred for life. Just thought I'd let you know.
Now, in response to number 2, I feel like there was one major use of foreshadowing for the horrific ending. In part II, when the author explains Emily's inability to believe that her father was dead. "She told them that her father was not dead". This foreshadows the fact that the body is in the house, because she is emotionally and mentally messed up and is making herself believe that her father is not dead. If she thinks her father is not dead then this gives her reason to keep him around and foreshadows the fact that he has been there. Also, the description of the smell shows that it is indeed a terrible smell. It indicates that it was so bad that neighbors wanted to involve the law. Not many things can give off as rank of a smell as a dead body, so in a way this is a foreshadow as well.
I just wanted to add that I find it a bit confusing that it says "she broke down, and they buried her father quickly". If they buried him how come the body is still in her house? The only conclusion I can come to is that she gave them a fake body to bury, or she DUG UP THE DEAD BODY OF HER FATHER? Oh my goodness what a sick, sick, sick, sick woman. Clearly she was very emotionally and mentally traumatized. I am still in shock.
Thank you, goodnight.
Answering question #2,
I find that the most visible form of foreshadowing is seen when Emily goes to buy the rat poisoning. While we automatically are lead to believe that someone will likely die, I find that I feel like Faulkner is NOT foreshadowing for Emily to die, but rather for Homer Baron to, as we later find out is the case. This is because on page 361, line 62 it reads "And that was the last we saw of Homer Baron". This line automatically lead me to foreshadow his death.
Eric
Hey
Adressing questiong 3 i feel that emily's life is very grotesque. She used arsenic to kill homer and also left her dead father rotting in her attic for three days. She clearly has mental issues and is messed up in the head. Thus she lives an extremely grotesque life.
""Then we knew that this was to be expected too; as if that quality of her father which had thwarted her woman's life so many times had been too virulent and too furious to die."
I thought this quote was powerful from the moment I read it. I left a dot next to it, not knowing I would write about it later, but because in my mind it stood out and gave me an erie feeling.
It seems to confirm the reader's possible inference that Emily was tormented by her father. We talked about how her father would beat the young suitors who called upon his daughter, with the reasoning that none of them were good enough. He isolated her, making her into the lonely and pitied woman that she became so that she then relied on him. Once he was gone, Emily took on the role of punishing herself and stayed in exile. Her loneliness is not entirely her own fault, and the gossiping people of the town know this. Because of the trauma caused by her father, she became detached from society.
This quote gives the reader all of this information, but also shows how the people of the town interpret and react to Emily. They know about her troubles and yet do nothing but gossip about her. They call this gossiping pity, and by spreading rumors of her whereabouts only taint her image even more. This cycle has made Emily into the pitied woman she has become, since her days of high status and rank in the town faded.
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