Short Story Analysis Using Various Literary Elements

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Introduction with thesis : The short story "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner, is set, as are most of his other works, in a southern town. The "southernness" of this town, its people and its culture, has an impact upon the story and the way its various characters behave. (Thesis) It is unlikely that Miss Emily Grierson would have been able to perpetuate her personal desires, had she lived in any American culture other than the southern one in which she lived and died.

Relevant quotations and citations from the texts:

"Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town, dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris, the mayor--he who fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron-remitted her taxes, the dispensation dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity." This quote explains how Miss Emily was able to avoid paying taxes, a social obligation of a property owner.

"So she vanquished them, horse and foot, just as she had vanquished their fathers thirty years before about the smell. And "Dammit, sir," Judge Stevens said, "will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?"

These quotes explain how Miss Emily triumphed in the matter of "the smell" and effectively avoided any prying into her private affairs. That was when people had begun to feel really sorry for her." This quote helps explain why people were unwilling to "bother" Miss Emily when issues came up.

"The men did not want to interfere, but at last the ladies forced the Baptist minister--Miss Emily's people were Episcopal-- to call upon her. He would never divulge ...