A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
             A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner is about a girl named Emily Grierson who throughout the story becomes increasingly insane. In the story Emily is robbed of a life by her father, robbed of love by a Yankee, and robbed of her reputation by the town. Faulkner uses setting, foreshadowing, and characterization of Emily to trace Miss Emily's increasing dementia.
             Faulkner uses an elaborate setting to trace Miss Emily's mental state. The takes place after the Civil War and is set in a small southern town called Jefferson. The Grierson's live in an old, dilapidated, gothic-style mansion.
             The Grierson house was an eyesore. On the outside it was old, decayed, and weathered. Inside it was filled with dusty furniture and closed rooms. The souse seems to resemble Emily. Both the house and her body and "dry and cold" from disuse (337). The cold room is like her also. The room is shut off from the rest of the house, just as she is shut off from the rest of the world. "She no longer went out at all" (336).
             Emily's actions and appearance gives the reader insight into her mind. One of the first glimpses of Emily's mental deterioration is when her father passed away. She kept his body for three days and denied to the townspeople that her father had died. It was as if she did not know anything else and was holding on to what she was accustomed to.
             Her father robbed her of a life. He felt that all of the young men in the town were not good enough for his daughter. Therefore he ran them all off.
             Miss Emily met a northern man named Homer Barron. He was paving the sidewalk outside Miss Emily's home. The two eventually started going on Sunday afternoon drives unchaperoned. In those times it was unacceptable for young unmarried women to go out in public unchaperoned. " Ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town an...