As much as the rose symbolises a tainted idea of romance that brims on the boundary of necrophilia in this story, it also symbolises, in certain ways, a looming innocence that haunts the figure of Emily. As long as we associate roses with her, we are also associating it with her crippling mental health and her unnerving ignorance of the rules of the world - she is casually able to reject the law and not pay her taxes because she herself lives wearing rose-tinted glasses. Hence, this rose connects her to a more uncivilised world, a natural world that accepts her for who she is. A Rose for Emily is also a rose to signify her disconnection from an already disconnected and socially inept world that survives on broken conversations. This connotation is also visible in the setting where she resides. Southern Gothic as a genre is representative of the dark undertones of a community that adorns a false sense of harmony, and Faulkner makes us see this take place literally inside Emily's tiny abode. As mentioned in class, her gardens overgrow. She does not clean the house, whose stench starts disturbing the throes of civilisation around her. Even the use of 'lime' by the intruders is symbolic of a paradox she can't escape; they replace what is natural with another natural element, and Emily remains stuck in the same natural space. The explicit detailing of the furniture, covered in 'dust,' gives an anachronistic aura to the house - a house treading slowly in time - another way of seeing the contrast between the 'progress' outside and the stagnancy inside. It is also interesting to note that the murder she commits, is not a result of her own disillusionment, but a result of the longing that civilisation put in her; in the final scene, we are only given a glimpse of the various consumerist artefacts that she bought for a 'wedding,' and the rose imagery of course. However, in this scene, the rose colour is not for Emily, but for the reader, who can't escape from wearing rose-tinted glasses while viewing civilisation and failing to acknowledge their own neighbour suffering from declining mental health. All she ever needed was love, but nobody saw that. They only saw roses.
It's actually very interesting how the rose in this story symbolises what it usually would - love - but in an inverted sense; for Emily, the "rose" refers to absent love, or the absent dreams of love and romance. She seems destined to never experience true and innocent love, and she is closest to experiencing any sort of love is through Homer Barron. In the perverse and gothic sense, Emily tries to immortalise whatever feelings she experienced with Barron and (perhaps) kills him, and keeps his corpse.
I found a song called 'A Rose for Emily' (1968) by the Zombies. The tune of the song is very Beatles-like, only much more sombre. It dwells on the Emily's fate of loneliness and death. Just like the story, the song speaks of her pride; "Her roses are fading now She keeps her pride somehow/ That's all she has protecting her from pain". Similarly, the rose in the song is about love, which Emily shall sadly never receive; "While lovers come and go/ To give each other roses from her tree/ But not a rose for Emily" and the next stanza; "Emily, can't you see/ There's nothing you can do?/ There's loving everywhere /But none for you".
One thing that I noticed in the story was the recurring concept of decay. There is the decay of the house, decay of Emily's relationship with her father and Homer, Homer's literal decaying body and her decaying dignity which was the probably the first to be affected. The very concept itself has ecological undertones in the sense that every living creature that is born has to die and decay is something that is inevitable in every person's life. It can also be sometimes considered as an object of abjection but in the case pf Emily, she decides to embrace that decay. her attachment to the dead rather than the living first seen in the scene with her dead father acts as a foreshadow and introduces the idea of necrophilia that is to come. Another thing that I noticed were the bright flowers in the second scene where Emily and her father have some guests over. The colour in the scene contrasts with the somewhat dead eyes of Emily as if she can predict the father's actions. another observation that might be quite far fetched might be how the components of lime that the townsfolk were putting to get rid of the smell are similar to the chemical composition of bones. Both have high calcium content which might have some connection? Also the title of the story, in no point in the story is Emily actually given a rose. So this might be indicating to her inner desires for some love and affection that she fails to receive from anyone as rose symbolises love.
Something that stood out to me during the entire narrative was the mystery with which Emily’s character was portrayed. Throughout the movie, Emily’s face remains stoic be it during her father’s death or the time when she enters a desolate state after Homer’s departure from her life. One can only form assumptions like the townspeople who proceed to dissect Emily’s character by describing her craziness without calling her ‘crazy’. After she is seen purchasing arsenic, their assumptions once again start pouring that the she might be purchasing the poison for herself, but this does not seem to be the case as discovered later on. People think they know Emily, but do they really? While drawing parallels with a rose the concept of mystery and unknown resides deep as people were attracted to Emily for different reasons be it curiosity, love, sympathy, etc. just as how people are attracted to a rose for different reasons. Some are enamoured by its beauty and preserve it for their loved ones, while some choose to bring roses to honour the dead. The story works on a similar theme as one remains in a constant flux over the purpose of the rose in “A rose for Emily” which remains unknown till the end similar to Emily’s end which is assumed to be due to old age.
The Emily of the movie seems to have more voice than the Emily of the book and the gothic vibe is more prominent in the latter because of the visuals and sound.In addition to the text being a perfect example of a gothic novel right down to literal skeletons in the closet, what I found interesting was the subversion of the genre as well. In a gothic story, it is usually the damsel who is threatened by the ultra macho villain but here, more than any outright threat, it is Baron who gets trapped by Emily and not the other way around.The subversion is most prominent in the title where the rose does not have a typical romantic connotation but implies something more sinister. Emily might not have agency in the narration but after her father's death she was able to achieve some level of agency and she wanted to take control of her fate, albeit in a very macabre way.It is also pretty ironic that in-spite of all the creative rumors that people made about her, none seems to have come close to the truth and this misrecognition of Emily adds to the mystery of the entire story.
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timeasmymeasure
Of the Unclean Facade over Natural Innocence
Date: 2020-08-05 05:36 pm (UTC)This connotation is also visible in the setting where she resides. Southern Gothic as a genre is representative of the dark undertones of a community that adorns a false sense of harmony, and Faulkner makes us see this take place literally inside Emily's tiny abode. As mentioned in class, her gardens overgrow. She does not clean the house, whose stench starts disturbing the throes of civilisation around her. Even the use of 'lime' by the intruders is symbolic of a paradox she can't escape; they replace what is natural with another natural element, and Emily remains stuck in the same natural space. The explicit detailing of the furniture, covered in 'dust,' gives an anachronistic aura to the house - a house treading slowly in time - another way of seeing the contrast between the 'progress' outside and the stagnancy inside. It is also interesting to note that the murder she commits, is not a result of her own disillusionment, but a result of the longing that civilisation put in her; in the final scene, we are only given a glimpse of the various consumerist artefacts that she bought for a 'wedding,' and the rose imagery of course. However, in this scene, the rose colour is not for Emily, but for the reader, who can't escape from wearing rose-tinted glasses while viewing civilisation and failing to acknowledge their own neighbour suffering from declining mental health. All she ever needed was love, but nobody saw that. They only saw roses.
no subject
Date: 2020-08-06 09:33 am (UTC)I found a song called 'A Rose for Emily' (1968) by the Zombies. The tune of the song is very Beatles-like, only much more sombre. It dwells on the Emily's fate of loneliness and death. Just like the story, the song speaks of her pride; "Her roses are fading now
She keeps her pride somehow/ That's all she has protecting her from pain". Similarly, the rose in the song is about love, which Emily shall sadly never receive; "While lovers come and go/ To give each other roses from her tree/ But not a rose for Emily" and the next stanza;
"Emily, can't you see/ There's nothing you can do?/ There's loving everywhere /But none for you".
A Rose for Emily
Date: 2020-08-07 05:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-08-08 08:41 am (UTC)While drawing parallels with a rose the concept of mystery and unknown resides deep as people were attracted to Emily for different reasons be it curiosity, love, sympathy, etc. just as how people are attracted to a rose for different reasons. Some are enamoured by its beauty and preserve it for their loved ones, while some choose to bring roses to honour the dead. The story works on a similar theme as one remains in a constant flux over the purpose of the rose in “A rose for Emily” which remains unknown till the end similar to Emily’s end which is assumed to be due to old age.
no subject
Date: 2020-08-08 01:01 pm (UTC)