As i Lay Dying and A Rose For Emily Essay

This paper is going to compare and contrast different literary aspects of the works of William Faulkner. It will reference As I Lay Dying and discuss how he uses syntax and grammar to develop believable characters. It will also compare that to his character development in A Rose for Emily. Along with his character development, this paper will analyze his use of extensive description to create vivid scenes that can create a good setting within the mind of the reader. Finally, it will analyze the way he uses characters and settings to create a believable world that draws the reader into his greater theme.

William Faulkner has several re-occurring character types that appear throughout his novels and short stories. One of the most dominant character types is the unfit father figure. In the novel As I Lay Dying, the narrator leads the audience to believe that Anse is leading the family on a journey to bury his lost wife as her dying wishes; however, Anse is the exact opposite. He uses his family throughout the story to achieve selfish benefits. On several occasions he endangers his family by sitting on the sidelines while they take on the dangerous task of saving his dead wife from a barn fire and overflowing waters. He also puts his son Cash in danger by neglecting his injury and attempting to heal a broken leg by pouring concrete on it to set the bone. Anse gets away with all this by rationalizing the situation and putting the guilt on his children, so they feel obligated to do the right thing. He attempts to assume the position of authority, but this has long surpassed him due to the fact that he has never done anything to help the family. He relies on his promise to his wifes dying wishes to persuade the family into making the journey to Jefferson (Holt 34-43). One of the lines that first sets Anse as a selfish person is when his wife finally takes her dying breath and he responds by saying Gods will be done..now I can get them teeth (Faulkner 52). This line distinguishes Anse as having only selfish reasons because even when losing the one woman he is supposed to love, he is only concerned with getting his new set of teeth. His selfishness is reinforced throughout the story. When his son Cash buys a horse, he responds, [s]o, you bought a horse you went behind my back and bought a horse. You never consulted me; you know how tight it is for us to make by, yet you bought a horse for me to feed. Taken the work from your flesh and blood and bought a horse with it (Faulkner 69). From this line one can see that he is upset that the money, that should be his, went towards an object that he will never enjoy. Even though he realizes that his son worked hard for it and earned it himself, he still wants the money for himself even though he has never worked for it due to his condition.

Faulkner uses this character type again in the short story A Rose for Emily. Emilys father spends his entire life forbidding Emily to date any man, and she unquestionably complies with his demand. This in turn leads to Emily living a life devoid of her own youth and happiness. This leads to another character type Faulkner uses: the adolescent that is growing into adulthood and experiencing the challenges that are associated with becoming an adult. These characters usually find themselves awakening to the idea of sex and the loss of their innocence. Emily is an adult, but she still has many of her adolescent qualities and does not lose her innocence until her father diesdue to his overbearing nature. Once her father is gone, she begins experiencing what it is like to feel the need to be loved and begins dating. This all being new to her, she falls in love with a man that she can never have due to his personal preferences. Realizing that he is going to leave from her life, she does the only thing she can to keep him in it, kill him. This creation of innocence at an old age allows the audience to sympathize with the character and allowed Faulkner to achieve a shocking ending when the reader realizes the circumstances that led to Emilys unfortunate ending (Holt 47-52).

Faulkners creation of multiple perspectives on a series of events creates a very unique situation that separates the character as a living being from the characters consciousness. Throughout the story As I Lay Dying, Faulkner switches perspectives between all the members of the Bundren family. This allows the audience to view each member from multiple vantage points which, in turn, shows the reader that things are not always as they seem. As in the case of the older brother Darl, Faulkner created a character that can seem to be a horrible person from the outside, but the Darl on the inside is not so easy to judge. Showing Outer Darl as the brother who taunts his brother about his mothers death, as the brother who ignores his sisters dilemma, as the brother who lights a farmers barn on fire, creates a character that is jealous, vindictive, lacking in family responsibility and socially incompetent. On the other hand, the inner Darl is shown to have done these things because his brother needed to cope with the loss of their mother, and because his sister needed to just accept responsibility, and that he burned the barn in hopes that his mother be finally cremated rather than having to endure this unnecessary journey to fulfill Anses selfish desiresthrough reading directly Darls perspective. Faulkner helps the audience understand Darls quality of awareness with a statement that distinguishes his ability to deeply perceive a situation

When I was a boy I first learned how much better water tastes

when it has set awhile in a cedar bucket. Warmish-cool, with a faint

taste like the hot July wind in cedar trees smells. It has to set at least

six hours, and be drunk from a gourd. Water should never be drunk

from metal.

And at night it is better still. I used to lie on the pallet in the hall,

waiting until I could hear them all asleep, so I could get up and go

back to the bucket. It would be black, the shelf black, the still surface

of the water a round orifice in nothingness, where before I stirred it

awake with the dipper I could see maybe a star or two in the bucket,

and maybe in the dipper a star or two before I drank. (Faulkner 4)

Faulkners writing here creates an intense and vivid image, not for reasons to describe how much the boy loves water, but to emphasize the boys ability to observe and understand the depth of a situation.

In contrast to the characterization of Darl being intensely aware, the sister, Cora is created to be a character that is blinded by her moral preconceptions and in turn seems to be incapable of seeing into the inner ideals of any other human being. The Lord can see into the heart. If it is his will that some folks has different ideas of honesty from other folks, it is not my place to question his decree. This quote pales in comparison to the experiences of Darl. She sees the world for what it is and doesnt bother to question existence past what she has been told to believe. This difference in characterization creates a wide scope of people that each have their own ways of dealing with situations and adds to the believability of their personas. (Handy 2-5).

A Rose for Emily takes place primarily inside the interior of her closed-in house. Describing dim hallways and stairs filled with shadows portrays a gloomy existence for the protagonist, Emily. Living with dusty musk and dank smells, the reader can see Emilys level of seclusion and the symbolism of her feeling trapped by her fathers influence. Faulkner portrays the townspeople in such a way that they are more than just part of the setting. The townspeople become a character alongside of Emily that has been observing and passing judgment that influences Emily in her decisions and reactions. Faulkner did this by writing in a perspective that even included the reader as part of the townspeople. With his repetition of the word we he manages to involve the reader as being part of the town that is passing judgment upon Emily. Also this outside perspective allowed Faulkner to inform the reader of the feelings and understanding that may not have been available from the first person perspective of Emily. (Yang 73-74)

Faulkner describes Emilys house in such a way that you can feel the level of oppression that her father had upon her life just by her surroundings. The most prevalent of these descriptions would be that of the portrait of Emily and her father: Emily a slender woman in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her clutching a horsewhip (Faulkner 92). This picture leads to insight into the true nature of her father, who, in fact, actually controlled her much like one would control a horse.

The timeline of A rose for Emily was written deliberately in an interweaving order so as to enable to reader to develop a relationship with the protagonist before coming to a final conclusion on her as a person. This scrambled order also led to an emphasis on the overall theme of time and change within the work by reinforcing the townspeoples reluctance to live in the present, rather than stubbornly adhering to their ideals of the past (Yang 75).