The story of A Rose for Emily begins with a scene of a funeral when Miss Emily Grierson died. In your opinion, what does A Rose stand for?
Rose, Forever a Symbol of Love
William Faulkner was known as a prolific writer of short stories. His first short story collection These 13 (1932) includes many of his most acclaimed and most frequently anthologized stories, and also A Rose for Emily. A Rose for Emily recounts the story of an eccentric spinster, Emily Grierson with the strange circumstances of her life and her odd relationships with her father, and her lover. After her death, townspeople discovered that Emily killed her lover and slept with his corpse through years. Although readers can not find out any rose in this story, it was still named A rose for Emily. In my opinion, a rose stands for the love between Emily and her father, and her lover Homer Barron, and her Negro servant Tobe.
First of all, a rose is used as a symbol of the love between Emily and her father. Emilys father loved her so much that he did not let her love any man. He had driven away all the young men that were in love with her. Maybe to Emilys father, she was the most precious stone and a noble lady that no men could deserve to be her husband. That made young beautiful Emily become a spinster when time went by. On the other hand, Emily also loved her father too much that she could not accept his death. Emily refused that her father was not dead and she did it for three days. Until the doctors were about to resort to law and force, she broke down and let them burry her father. She was so afraid of being alone that she could not let go of him. For this reason, with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her. An odd love between father and daughter did spoil Emilys life from her first days.
The second point, which is easy to see, is a rose stands for a couples love Emily and her lover, Homer Barron. Firstly, this love could be considered as an one-way or unilateral love from Emily to Homer. She met him after her father died and she did not have any moral support. Homer was also the first man that Miss Emily had a chance to love. As a result, she wanted to live with him forever. However, Homer did not because he was attracted to men and was not a marrying type. Secondly, Emilys love was selfish and possessive. Although she knew that Homer did not love her and marry her, she still bought a suit, a night-shirt and a mans toilet set in silver with the letters H. B. on each piece. She did anything to prove that they were getting married and also to cling Homer. Emily just knew that she loved him so that he had to live with her forever. That led to Homers death by arsenic which Emily bought from the druggist. Once more the blind love of Emily to her lover did spoil the following days of her poor life.
Finally, a rose is a mute love of the Negro servant, Tobe for Emily. Firstly, he took care of Emily until she died. After the death of Emilys father, the only sign of life about the place was he, a young man then. The phrase the Negro men went in and out with a market basket was repeated as regualrly, slowly and even softly as his appearance throughout Emilys life. Tobe did it day by day, month by month, year by year without saying a word so that his voice had grown harsh and rusty, as if from disuse. I myself think that Tobe might want to spend all his lifetime to take cae of her as well as to love her in mute. Therefore, it might be the reason why he did not leave Emily alone when her family situation fell down. Secondly, Tobe still took care of Emily after she died. This detail can be see clearly in The Negro met the first of the ladies at the front door and let them in, , and then he disappeared. He walked right through the house and out the back and was not seen again. It meant that Tobe loved Emily so much that he let eveyone in and take care of her when he was too old to do this, and was about to go away. It was the simple love of the Negro servant that gave a grain of comfort to the last day of Emilys life.
In conclusion, readers can see that a rose here stands for many kinds of love. It may be an odd love between father and daughter that spoils Emilys first days; or a blind love of a couple that kills Emilys lover and also spoils her following days; or a simple love of a servant Tobe for his young mistress that comforts her last day. Morever, the author did want to describe Miss Emily as a rose a young lady with her beauty. Hence he expressed his affection to her, a rose at her funeral at the end of the story. The story did close but leave the readers filled with compassion for Miss Emily, who never had a chance to know what a real love is until she dies.
In the story A Rose for Emily, we did not see any rose even in a smallest detail, so the question here is that what a rose means or what a rose stands for. In my own feeling, a rose is just the symbol and it has many colors. In general, we all know that rose is a symbol of love and beauty. It is called the the Queen of flowers, and it has many color represent many state and sentiment of people. In this story, the readers can understand a rose as the authors commemoration to Emily in overall the story; or through the creation of the author in the details, we can see the symbol of a rose was represented as the Yankee named Homer Barron, the old Negro, the mayor Colonel Sartoris, and the respect of the townspeople to Emily.
The first meaning of a rose is the love. The love is also the tragedy in this story. Emily loved the Yankee named Homer Barron very much, but she did not have a happy ending. She could not hold the heart of that man, thought she killed him and kept his body with her for years. In my subjective idea, I think the character Homer Barron is not a real rose in the life of Emily because this man brought the hope also the big hurt and was the reason for the tragedy ; but I think the author and his Emily should thought that Homer Barron is a rose, the rose of love. However, the intolerant love of Emily made this rose became the most terrible rose. Barron was a bloody red rose with many thorns in Emilys life, a haunted rose.
The second meaning of a rose is the old Negro who was always beside Emily and took care for all her life. He was very loyal and did everything for Emily with all of his mind and his love. Maybe he was not confident enough to advice Emily to do the better thing, but he had finished his responsibility excellently. If he did not exist in Emilys life, I am sure that she could not live long like that. Somebody think that this old Negro loved Emily, or he did like that to repay the help from Emilys family Maybe these are right, but I love to think that he is an unusually servant who can do everything to save his owner. He is like a pure yellow rose always beside Emily in all circumstances.
The third rose in Emilys life is the mayor Colonel Sartoris. His family and Emilys family had a good relationship. He knew clearly that Emily totally depended on her father. When Mr. Grierson had died, Mr. Sartoris decided to do something to help Emily. Finally, he created a fabrication that she was spared the tax because that was the repayment for a loan given to the town by her father. He was generous knew how to use his power for his purpose effectively. In general, this character was good and had full of power like a velvety rose that the author brought to Emilys life.
The fourth rose stands for the sentiment of the townspeople. In fact, not all of them love her, but at least they still respected her as the last state of an old passed time. They had the breath of the new age, and also had the curiosity about the life and the house of Emily. When Emily died, they are persons who celebrated the funeral for her. After a tragedy and lonely life, Emily still had many people attended her funeral. This is a little strange, but at a side, we can think that it is the intention of the author to make the life of Emily has something warm at the end. In general, the sentiment of the townspeople looked like a new orange rose adorned for the life of Emily.
The last meaning of a rose is the commemoration to Emily from the author. The story started with the scene of Emilys funeral and then back to over early forty years to tell all the tragedy of Emilys life. The readers absolutely do not see any rose in this story, so one of the explanations for the title A Rose for Emily is that rose represented for the sentiment of the author to Emily. This sentiment of the author is as a white rose used to respect the deceased person.
In brief, as I express above, there are many roses with many colors in Emilys life. A haunted rose named Homer Barron, a pure yellow rose old Negro, the velvety rose Colonel Sartoris, a new orange rose from the townspeople, and a white rose in the funeral for all her tragedy life. A Rose for Emily can be understood by readers in many ways depend on which rose they love. In my opinion, a rose, at last, is the white; because after many color roses she had in life, there was only the white rose in her funeral. One more reason, the white is said to be the container of all colors, so A Rose for Emily, at the end, is the white.
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