A Rose for Emily: the Characteristic of Miss Emily

Emilys Rose The characteristic of Miss Emilys house isa symbol for her appearance as she starts aging and deteriorating with clipping and neglect. It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white Then it became an eyesore among eyesores. Miss Emily changed the same ways as her house did and she too became an eyesore. She had once been a slender figure in white and later she becomes bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water with eyes incapacitated in the fatty ridges of her face.During Miss Emilys death she had been referred to as a fallen monument, which could mean she was once something beautiful and prosperous provided with time she grew old and poor. These same changes from prosperity to poverty occurred in the South after the Civil War. (Faulkner 521-527) The mailbox is another symbol that leadsyou to believe Miss Emily is dormant living in her post bellum era when she was in her prime with her father. The mailbox is Emilys refusal to move forward, it is a visual representation of the communication she has severed, for her time stands still.She forget not allow the town to put a house number on her home for the free postal service. She too tells the tax collectors to talk to Colonel Sartoris (who has been all of a sudden for ten years) to resolve her problem that she doesnt pay taxes. This shows Miss Emilys, maybe even shows the Souths neglect of time and desire to live in the past. (SparkNotes Editors) The symbolism for the rose which in my opinion is the most intriguing symbol throughout the whole story is actually the symbol for the ending that includes Emily murdering her sweetheart that went forward.Homer is Emilys rose, roses are often acquainted with love, seeing that the rose was preserved we can take it to mean that Emily wanted to preserve the rose and thus also mean she would like to preserve her love. The rose for Emily was the way where she neatly placed the body of Homer Barron (her sweetheart), or possibly h owever Homer himself. The room was described as having rose-shaded lights and the curtains giving off a faded rose color.Knowing from having a girlfriend, many women like to dry out their roses in order to keep them forever, maybe in Emilys distorted mind she wanted to keep Homer forever. (SparkNotes Editors) Faulkner uses crafty symbolism for the sake of the story itself, and also takes it a step further by using the changes of Emily Grierson as a symbol for the changes in the post-bellum south. Creatively Faulkner uses the unordered chronology to set the stage of the fallen south, which just wants to keep holding on the past when it reigned. Work Cited