Rose For Emily

Rose For Emily

Symbolism in A Rose for Emily

Learning to let go is a lesson everyone needs to grasp at some point in life.   William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” is a prime example in explaining the necessity of this concept.   Emily becomes too attached to her love and when she discovers he is gay, she losses control and is unable to let go. The house, the pocket watch, stationery, hair, and the rose all symbolize the theory of letting go.   By not accepting reality Emily decays, isolates herself, and becomes ultimately insane.
The house plays a major role in the theme and characterization of Emily.   In comparison, the house and Emily both wear down and dull as their life progresses. “Only Miss Emily's house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps.” (139). The narrator's description of it as an "eyesore among eyesores"(139).   The house is isolated, old, and moldy in reference to Emily’s life of dull and depressing.   Also, the house is an emblem of money probably earned in large part through the labors of slaves, or emancipated slaves. The final part, has to do with the fact that the house was allowed to decay and disintegrate.   The house is a symbol of the opposite of what it's supposed to be.   “But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood” (139).   Both have potential, but waste it, let it go and fall apart. Overtime the house has decays just like Emily.   Emily secludes herself from society and allows herself fall apart.   She thinks she might have this with Homer Barron, but something goes terribly wrong. Like most, Emily desires a house she could love someone in, and a house where she could be free. This something turns her house into a prison; she has nowhere else to go but home; and this home could never be shared with others. The house is a huge symbol of Miss Emily's isolation.
Symbols of time are also prevalent throughout the...