A Rose for Emily, Questionnaire Example

Question 1: In the first paragraph Miss Emily is described as “a fallen monument.” A monument to what? What is the significance (and there can be more than one) of this description of her?

In Faulkner’s story, Miss Emily exists as a “fallen monument” primarily because she represented in her life Southern traditions and ideologies with no place in the changing world.

This is a reality made relatively plain: “Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care” (Faulkner), and this emphasizes that the town simultaneously embraced and reviled her as symbolic of ways of life that had dominated – and established social distinctions – for so long. In one sense, she was and is a monument to a culture with meaning to the people, and something of a source of pride. She was of old stock with the appropriate elements of family insanity and fierce, aristocratic arrogance within it. If this was a type doomed to die out, it nonetheless reflects ideals once cherished, and days when superiority was in place due to breeding and old money. It is also important to note that it is not Miss Emily’s death that makes her “fallen”; she represents this ongoing state of doom all through her life, and her death only closes the chapter on an end long coming.

Question 2: The text is narrated by ‘we’ – who do you imagine this narrator(s) to be? Male?Female?Older?Younger? Also, what values and people/group does the narrator(s) represent?

There is a strong sense conveyed that the “we” of the narrator is male. This is partly due to the distanced tone taken in most of the narrative, indicating a traditionally masculine, removed perspective. Then, there is a direct reference setting the narrator apart from the town’s women: “’Just as if a man—any man—could keep a kitchen properly,’ the ladies said.” It seems likely that, were the narrator a woman, she would include herself in this collective opinion. There is as well the sense that the narrator is of at least middle age because he speaks of the past in a way reflecting some actual experience with it. Certain episodes are recalled as hearsay, but there is an immediacy to the recollections of the adulthood of Emily’s life suggesting his actual presence and adult awareness during these years. This being the case, the narrator is both as one with the voice of the town and somewhat removed from it. He reports, rather than narrates, and moves in and out of the actual perceptions and values of the town. The reader understands that he lived them, as he relates the feelings of frustration, impatience, and grudging admiration he himself shared in during Emily’s life and fall.

Question 3: What is the conflict in this story? If Miss Emily is the protagonist (main character), who/what is (or are) the antagonist(s) (a character or force that acts against the protagonist, denying his or her desires)?

More than one conflicts exists in the story, even as all center around the protagonist of Emily. To begin with, there is a foundational conflict of her relationship with her father, and one that has power even after his death. There is the sense that the young Emily was less than pleased by the restraints of her father’s aristocratic rule, denying her any chance of romance. Then, there is the core conflict between Emily and Homer, which is complex and mysterious. It is in fact not presented as conflict, but the reader understands that Homer’s disappearance is not ordinary, just as his relationship with Emily generated conflict regarding her own status: “It was as if she demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the last Grierson.” Beyond this, however, is the ongoing and potent conflict between Emily and the town, both pragmatic and ideological. She defies the rules and new order, just as the town watches and waits to see her fall, and is, as noted, ambivalent about her decline.

Question 4: Women of the old South and of a ‘good family’ were often put on pedestals as paragons of virtue and respectability – and given special treatment as ‘ladies.’ How have these attitudes shaped Miss Emily’s life and how people view her? 

The tragedy of Emily’s life is not that she is placed on a pedestal of old Southern virtues and ideals demanding respectability; it is that she exists in a limbo between these ideals and a new world uninterested in them, and yet unable to fully discard them. That Emily loses her mind is in fact virtually promoted by the opposing forces defining her existence. On one level, she is powerfully shaped by the antiquated attitudes of her father, which are still reflected in the town’s combined reverence and impatience with her. She needs to hold her head high before the ladies who judge her because these traditions are a part of her idea of self. At the same time, the judging of this changing world shapes her as well, in that her adherence to these influences becomes militant, if not maniacal. She fights the town about taxes because the approach to her is unacceptable, but the crucial fact is that she fights, forced into a distasteful behavior at odds with her upbringing. Emily’s aberrant preserving of Homer’s body, as well as his murder, are more extreme effects of this clash of influences. Two opposing realities create in her desperation going to madness, as her need to assert her dignity and protect what she feels belongs to her is fueled by the disregard of those around her.

Works Cited

Faulkner, W. “A Rose for Emily.” n/a. Web. 25 Oct. 2013. <http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/litweb05/workshops/fiction/faulkner1.asp>