A ROSE
FOR EMILY
WILLIAM FAULKNER
Plot Analysis
 Most good stories start with a
fundamental list of ingredients:
the initial situation, conflict,
complication, climax, suspense,
denouement, and conclusion.
Great writers sometimes shake up
the recipe and add some spice.
Initial Situation
 Death and Taxes
Benjamin Franklin: "In this
world nothing can be said to
be certain, except death and
taxes“.
Conflict
 Taxes aren't the only thing that stinks.
 The taxes seem tame compared to
what comes next. In Section II, we
learn lots of bizarre stuff about Miss
Emily: when her father died she
refused to believe it (or let on she
believed it) for four days (counting the
day he died);
 the summer after her father died,
she finally gets a boyfriend (she's
in her thirties); when worried that
her boyfriend might leave her, she
bought some poison and her
boyfriend disappeared, but there
was a bad smell around her house.
 We technically have enough
information to figure
everything out right here, but
we are thrown off by the issue
of the taxes, and by the way in
which facts are jumbled
together.
Complication
 The Town's Conscience
For this stage it might be helpful
to think of this story as the
town's confession. This section is
what complicates things for the
town's conscience.
The town was horrible to Miss
Emily when she started dating
Homer Barron. They wanted to
hold her to the southern lady
ideals her forbearers had
mapped out for her.
She was finally able to break
free when her father died, but
the town won't let her do it.
When they can't stop her from
dating Homer themselves,
they send the cousins on her.
Climax
 "For Rats"
Even though this story seems
all jumbled up chronologically,
the climax comes roughly in
the middle of the story,
lending the story a smooth,
symmetrical feel.
 According to Faulkner, Homer
probably was a bit of a rat, one which
noble Miss Emily would have felt
perfectly in the right to exterminate.
Yet, she also wanted to hold tight to
the dream that she might have a
normal life, with love and a family.
 When she sees that everybody – the
townspeople, the minister, her cousins, and
even Homer himself – is bent on messing up
her plans, she has an extreme reaction. That's
why, for us, the climax is encapsulated in the
image of the skull and crossbones on the
arsenic package and the warning, "For rats."
Suspense
 Deadly Gossip
As with the climax, Faulkner follows a
traditional plot structure, at least in terms of
the story of Emily and Homer. Emily buys the
arsenic, and at that moment the information
is beamed into the brains of the townspeople.
This is one of the nastiest sections.
 The town is in suspense over
whether they are married,
soon will be, or never will be.
Their reactions range from
murderous, to pitying, to
downright interference.
 We also learn that Homer Barron was last
seen entering the residence of Miss Emily
Grierson on the night in question. So, we
can be in suspense about what happened
to him, though by the time we can
appreciate that this is something to be
suspenseful about, we already know what
happened.
Denouement
 The Next 40 Years
At this point, we've already been given a
rough outline of Emily's life, beginning with
her funeral, going back ten years to when the
"newer generation" came to collect the taxes,
and then back another thirty some odd years
to the death of Emily's father, the subsequent
affair with Homer, and the disappearance of
Homer.
The story winds down by filling us in on Miss
Emily's goings on in the 40 years between
Homer's disappearance and Emily's funeral.
Other than the painting lessons, her life
during that time is a mystery, because she
stayed inside.
Conclusion
 The Bed, the Rotting Corpse, and
the Hair
The townspeople enter the
bedroom that's been locked for 40
years, only to find the rotting
corpse of Homer Barron.
 Adapted from:
http://www.shmoop.com/a-rose-foremily/plot-analysis.html