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A Rose for Emily

• By William Faulkner

Written and developed by Mrs. Carol Hanes, Howard
College, Big Springs, TX http//www.howardcollege.
edu/homepages/chanes/engl_1302_tth.htm
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PLOT
Climax
Conflict
Resolution
Exposition

• Exposition
• Initial equilibrium
• complication (Homer)
• Setting

-Small town -South -late 1800s, early 1900s -Miss
Emilys house

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3. Characterization

• (What are the characters like?
  Protagonist/Antagonist? Flat/Round?
  Static/Dynamic? Stock?)
• -Miss Emily Grierson
• -Miss Emilys father
• -Homer Barron
• -townspeople
• -the Negro
• -the cousins

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Conflict

• ( Man vs. Man Man vs. Himself
• Man vs. Nature Man vs. Society
• Man vs. Supernatural )

-Miss Emily vs. her father -Miss Emily vs.
herself -Miss Emily vs. Homer -Miss Emily vs.
townspeople/cousins
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Climax

• (The point of the story where the main conflict
  is resolved.)

-Miss Emily dies.
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Resolution

• (What does the reader learn after the climax?)
• The room is opened.
• Homers body is discovered.
• The townspeople put all the clues together.
• What is the rose for Emily?

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POINT OF VIEW
1) 1st person Character (major/minor?
participant? reliable?) 2) 3rd person Narrator
(omniscient/limited/objective)

• When Miss Emily died, our whole town went to her
  funeral. . . . -First person minor character,
  participant, unreliable

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TONE

• Conversational, gossipy.
• Mysterious
• Bizarre, strange
• Grotesque
• Southern Gothic

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STYLE
(The way the author tells the story.)

• Long, complicated sentences. (See 1)
• -interruptions
• -big, bookish words (coquettish, 2)
• Lots of description. (See 6)
• Flashbacks. (See 3)
• Not much dialog.

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THEME

• (What general idea or insight does the entire
  story reveal? Must be stated in general words
  must apply to society in general and not just
  this story. May not state what the story is
  about.)
• People may resort to desperate
• measures to prevent being alone
• in life.
• Things, people, and events are not
• always what they appear to be.
• Others?

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SYMBOL

• (An object that suggests more than its literal
  meaning. An object that points or hints at
  deeper meaning. Always look at titles, inanimate
  objects, names, colors, and locales.)

• The rose color?
• The title?
• The toiletry items?
• The pocket watch?
• The dust?

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CRITIQUES

• The plots order and time frame
• Southern Gothic genre
• Her fathers influence his repression leads her
  to date a man he would not approve
  of and then take control in the
  only manner possible
• Necrophilia she loved and slept with
  the dead. In what ways?
• Passage of time Emilys denial of it