A Literary Criticism of Rose For Emily [PDF]

Zitiervorschau

A literary Criticism of

A Rose for Emily By: William Faulkner

According to Marxist criticism theory founded by Karl Marx, Marxism gives us individuals a meaningful way to understand history and current events. The Marxism theory focuses its attention on that real forces that creates human experiences are the economic systems that structure human societies. This theory centers on the economic realities of human culture so that it may understand it properly. Marxist believes that getting and keeping economic power is the motive behind all social and political activities such as education, philosophy, religion, and etc. From the perspective of the Marxist Theory to the short story entitled “A Rose for Emily”, we see how Emily’s class, subsequent fall from affluence, and Tobe’s depressed socioeconomic status all relate to prosperity and the class system. The Grieson’s family belongs to Aristocratic and thinking that they are the last blood line of their ancestors. Many of the actions in the story defines Emily’s class, such as teaching china painting (an action that is mostly frivolous, and concerning something only middle to upper-class people had), and the way the town tries to protect her dignity – as with how she’s referred to as “a tradition, a duty, and a care.” Even as Emily’s financial situation unfriendly, which lost her respect with people of her class and higher, everyone made a point to maintain the citation of her status – since the back then before, the traditions reminds us that we can make a success of ourselves, but no one moves down in class. If she could only lived being poor, the decision, way of thinking and actions are different from what she had in her whole life.

Even Emily herself helped to preserve the image

of ‘the rich stay rich’, as she stayed at home more and more as she aged. She also may have been trying to feel more like she was still a part of her born class, while holding back some for fear of being seen as ‘slumming,’ when it came to her public relationship with Homer. He let her take her on carriage rides, as well as wine and dine her, while trying to show how behaved and proper she was – along with possibly

denying him formal commitment, due to him being of a lower class. And she was the gossips of the neighbor and people in the town because of her unethical behavior of having relationship to a lower class. They have been the issues and concerns especially of the high-class people that their children see them and might be influenced when they grow up. Before it was to believe that if you belong to class people, then you can only mingle to the class people also. But in the case of Emily, because of being longing for love, regardless with the social status in the society, she accepted Homer to be her lover and she expected that Homer will marry her. Another thing is that, the setting of the story is in South America. Emily had a black servant named Tobe--- considering that he’s the only black person in the story. This helps to show the shape of society, and racism. Society at the time, and not just in the South, was full of racist pressures – for Tobe to keep his head down and serve, for Emily to treat him the same as all other black people do. In the end, after all of Tobe’s service, he remained silent about what happened and remained faithful to the one he who served, being the witness of what happened to Emily’s life. He accepted the people’s perspective to him. Remained silent and gone forever, and of all he does people ever see is him being barely considered by the town, and treated no better than an object by Emily.

The Psychoanalytic Theory may be the most interesting way of accessing Emily Grierson, due largely to how mentally disturbed she turned out to be. First, in looking at Emily’s issues, she exhibits a massive fear of abandonment. Not only does she try to hold on to her father’s dead body, she does hold onto Homer’s. Also, her dependence on Tobe may be connected to her fear of abandonment. Next, she was extensive with denial. She seemed to deny Homer’s death (even though she killed him) in lying beside his corpse. She denied that her father died, even by way of assuming some of his personality traits. She denied that she could owe taxes. Also, she shows very significant signs of an Elektra complex, in the way she clung to her father – despite him having been dominating of her – and took an interest in another ‘man’s man’, in Homer. Finally, we see some imagery. The most obvious dream-related imagery is the bedroom in which Homer was kept – taking the usual place of a basement or attic, in being the storage place of her issues and ill-deeds. Lastly, there’s Deconstruction as a means to analyze Emily, and “A Rose for Emily.” Basically, the idea of the subject, deconstructed, is that this story shows the grim effects of the way we dictate our culture and interactions. Tobe was a shadow, an ephemeral entity who helped by did not speak, who was alluded to but was not immediately active…who came into the story, and left the story, as silently and seamlessly. Homer was Emily’s coveted possession – an object, or an ideal, she wants so much but is not allowed to have. Emily is turmoil, uncertainty, and conflict within oneself and against societal expectations. The story also portrays the comparison between the binary hierarchies of ‘new’ vs ‘old’, and ‘sane’ vs ‘insane.’