Foreshadowing in "A Rose for Emily"
William Faulkner's dark sultry tale, A Rose for Emily, relies heavily on foreshadowing to relay its overall theme. Society's tendency to allow special civil liberties to those with wealth or power is a valuable theme presented in this story. Faulkner's old southern town is a societal microcosm that lives oblivious to the odd behaviors and ulterior motives of Miss Emily Grierson. Simultaneously and subconsciously, they manage to maintain the hierarchy of noblesse oblige, because that is all they know. How Emily and her southern aristocratic family socially interact with the town is a fine example of this, and several events foreshadow the impending climax of the story. The toilet set and the men's clothes are the first elements of the foreshadowing, which leads to the surprising climax of this story. Furthermore, when Miss Emily went "...to the jeweler's and ordered a man's toilet set in silver, with the letters H. B. on each piece,"(Faulkner) everybody thought that she was getting married to Homer. When she bought "...a complete outfit of men's clothing, including a nightshirt..."(Faulkner) it was definite that they were getting married. After three days away Homer came back. However, that was the last time anyone would se
This use of foreshadowing is one of the most important details in the story. After telling about the smell, the narrator lets us know what all the townspeople knew: "That was when people had begun to feel really sorry for her. Shortly after the town sent for her aunts and they showed up, Homer was gone. The town's occupants felt that this was not behavior acceptable to someone of her class, dating a laborer. The author provides this description of Emily's hair so that people will realize that she has been sleeping with Homer's corpse for almost thirty years. The narrator seems as if this occurrence was public knowledge, yet no one suspected her of killing Homer, only herself. Homer Barron was a working class man, and a Yankee. When Homer disappeared and did not return, no one was suspicious of her actions. Grierson's death, women went to console Emily, and were greeted thusly: "She told them her father was not dead. "When Miss Emily developed a smell of something rotten outside of her house; the towns-people had to do something. After Homer's disappearance, Emily's hair starts to turn gray: "during the next few years it grew grayer and grayer until it attained an even pepper-and-salt iron-gray. When Emily's father died, officials had to take the body by force from her home, and for three days, she claimed he was not dead.
Common topics in this essay:
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Acceptance Essays
