2. Read "A Rose for Emily," 470-474, and write about it: see last night's prompt. Note that you should wait to look at the blog until after you have read, or the plot will be spoiled for you, and you don't want that to happen.
have a good weekend.
Friday, September 18, 2009
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Katie Burch
ReplyDeleteOne piece of Faulkner's syntax that really caught my eye was "I want some poison," she said to the druggist. She was over thirty then, still a slight woman, though thinner than usual, with cold, haughty black eyes in a face of flesh of which was strained across the temples and about the eyesockets as you imagine a lighthouse-keeper's face ought to look. "I want some poison," she said. The way Faulkner describes that her eyesockets were like a lighthouse-keeper's face is so intersting to me because when I think of a lighthouse-keeper I think of someone who doesn't have much activity with other people. Ms. Emily also appears not to have too much contact with others. Another intersting point in this quote is why did she want poison? What was the poison being used for? Typically, people don't go around asking for poison. And why did Ms. Emily appear to look so exhausted? The word haughty means scornful. Faulkner states that her eyes were haughty, but why were they? Was did she need to be so scornful to the druggist? Especially when Ms. Emily wants poison why would she put up a fight? Why doesn't she say what the poison is for? Why then sell her arsenic if she is refusing to comply with the law?
The point of view of the story, feels like it is told from one of the towns people,like an observation of Miss Emily Rose, and her life. No judgments are made about Emily which does not create a character for the speaker. The point of view the story is told from feels purely factual, like in the observation of what Miss Emily became, "her hair was cut short, making her look like a girl, with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows." The phrase does not feel opinionated, there are no words that would reflect the feelings as to what she has become, and because of this the whole tone, and point of view of the work feels almost like a documentary. A documentary of this poor woman's life.
ReplyDeleteI want to comment on the urgency that Miss Emily has for wanting the poison, and how that is conveyed in the way that Faulkner wrote that section of the story. I noticed when reading that part, that almost all of the druggist’s lines were cut off by Miss Emily. She never really let him finish talking. She kept saying things like “I want the best you have. I don’t care what kind”. That shows how much she wanted the poison and sometimes the pharmacist didn’t even get to finish answering her question because she would jump right on top of it, “They’ll kill anything up to an elephant. But what you really want is –“, and he never gets to complete his statement. She really wanted the poison badly, but the reader, like the druggist, is not sure why she wants the poison, and especially why she feels so much pressure to get it so quickly.
ReplyDeleteI have read...
ReplyDeleteI have read!
ReplyDeleteKatie Burch
The sentance that interested me when finishing "A Rose for Emily" was the last sentance in part IV, "She died in one of the downstairs rooms, in a heavy walnut bed with a curtain, her gray head propped on a pillow yellow and moldy with age and lack of sunlight." The syntax of this sentance is particularly interesting because when Faulkner says "...yellow and moldy with age and lack of sunlight." you cannot tell if he is describing the pillow or Miss Emily. This leads me to believe that Faulkner is saying that the pillow and Miss Emily have no distinct difference; as if Miss Emily is just another old thing in the house.
ReplyDeleteI also found the section in which Miss. Emily is trying to buy the poison. The first thing I find interesting is the fact that everyone beleives the reason why she buys the poison is to kill herself. Everyone in the town seems to think that a woman like Miss. Emily has no one around her so she can only hurt herself. I also find it interesting that the druggist in the end is so willing to give Miss. Emily the poison. Like Scott had said before, Miss. Emily would always cut off the druggist and not allow him to finish what he was saying yet the druggist ends up giving her the poison anyway. And even though he ends up giving her the poison he trys to hide in by not actually handing it to her 'The Negro delivery boy brought her the package; the druggist didn't come back. When she opened the package at home there was written on the box, under the skull and bones: "For Rats"' Was it possible that the druggist as well thought that Miss. Emily was going to use the poison to kill herself like the rest of the town, and if so how could he be so alright by handing her, her death?
ReplyDeleteI believe the point of view in this story is a very interesting one for two reasons. The first reason is, it seems that the story is being told through the community's eyes. Because of the constant use of "We", this is very probable. However, without actually thinking about this, "We", I read it as one person's point of view. I believe the syntax is responsible for this. "Now and then we would see her at a window for a moment, as the men did that night when they sprinkled the lime, but for almost six months she did not appear on the streets. Then we knew that this was to be expected too; as if that quality of her father which had thwarted her woman's life so many times had been too virulent and too furious to die." Faulkner's point of view seems very personal with Miss Emily, speaking about her father and her own struggles are not topics that the entire town would be so knowledgeable about. This is why I believe that the person that is talking seems to be on a more personal level with Miss Emily than other members of the town might be.
ReplyDeleteFrom the time Miss Emily's cousins visited, she seemed to want to stay with Homer Barton forever. Miss Emily did not want to be with her cousins, townspeople, or church goers, but with Homer Barton. Mr. Barton was rumored to be gay. Barton might of not of wanted to stay with Miss Emily forever. Miss Emily wanted to change this. She had a plan of how to stay with him forever. Miss Emily had bought rat poison. The druggist did not know what the poison was for. But Miss Emily knew precisely what she was going to use it for. “We learned that Miss Emily had been to the jeweler's and ordered a man's toilet set in silver, with the letter H.B. on each piece." From when Miss Emily started buying things for what the town thought was a "wedding" she was really going along with her plan. Emily grew old until her hair turned "vigorous iron-gray." Years past and people from the town had found a man's body in the house. He was lying in a bed surrounded by things for a bridal. This was what Miss Emily planned. She had wanted to stay with him forever. "One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, the faint and invisible dust dray and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair." Miss Emily had been lying next to him on the bed. This was her solution for being with him forever.
ReplyDeleteI agree with these points. I find that the conversation Emily had with the druggist to get the poison summed up many of her characteristics. Because Emily had such an overprotective father she did not get the chance to be independent and free: “We had long thought of them as a tableau; Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip,". This led to her having many social problems both while he was alive, and especially after he died. We can see in the conversation with the druggist her lack of good social behavior: "Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye,". Also the reason Emily wanted the poison in the first place is very absurd. She has felt so isolated and deprived her whole life that when she finally when she has someone to be with (Hommer Baron) she does not know how to react. In turn she is delusional and thinks the only way to be happy, and have him is to poison him so his body will be with her forever.
ReplyDeleteMore than the conversation Emily has with the pharmacist, I find the point of view very interesting in this story. We know for a fact that this story is told by an outsider, assumed to be someone who lives near Emily, but we do not know who Emily really is. The narrator observes Emily very well but we actually do not know her characteristics nor what happened during her absence from the streets. The "we" assumes/believes that a lot of events happened, just like how we readers assume and infer. When Homer Barron disappears, the narrator "believed that he had gone on to prepare for Miss Emily's coming..." Even when the narrator "daily, monthly, yearly we watched the Negro grow grayer and more stooped," they don't know what is happening inside Emily's house.
ReplyDeletei have read!
ReplyDeleteTo me, the most interesting sentence was the last sentence of this novel: “we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair” It inferred that Emily slept with the dead body for 40 years. At first, I thought that Emily is insane, but after, I felt sorry for her. Her father didn’t allow her to meet anyone and although, finally she fell in love with this guy, ‘Homer’, he trying to left her. In that situation, how can she make another choice, but killing him so that she can hold the dead body of Homer.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel, Emily is the ‘old culture of the South.’ Although the world is changing fast, it’s still there and getting older and older. The ‘dust’, which is in her room, represents her ‘stiffness’. As the last generation of the fallen monument, she was too proud of herself and cut off every relationship between her and outside. It symbols her stagnant, and denial of the present. And the ‘Homer’ was her fantasy that she wanted hold until her death. However, that fantasy was broken at the end, and she left alone. To that lonely woman, we can’t do anything, but give a rose for her.
The sole sentence that really impacted me was, "The man himself lay in the bed." That single word-- "himself." It's so emphatic. The word is eye-catching, and that sentence, when read aloud, draws attention to the image created by the words Faulkner chose. Without that "himself," that sentence would say a completely different thing, and would create a completely different feeling. It would be a pedestrian sentence, and it certainly would not deserve its own line. But with "himself," it's a powerful sentence, with meaning in each word, but especially that one.
ReplyDeletethe tone of this story is eerie and curious. It makes you wonder why everyone acted weird toward Emily. Or why they all would always try to pry in her business. It was eerie because of when she asked for arsenic, or when the last scene took place:
ReplyDelete"Already we knew that there was one room in that region above stairs which no one had seen in forty years, an which would have to be forced. They waited until miss Emily was decently in the ground before they opened it...... Upon a chair hung the suit, carefully folded; beneath it the two mute shoes and the discarded socks.
Than man himself lay in the bed.
... The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the grimace of love, has cuckholded him.
... Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair."
- Katherine Nemetz
I think that it's interesting the way Faulkner reveals the setting through implications in his syntax. While nowhere in the story does it clearly state that it is taking place in the south, descriptions of "noblesse oblige" and the social class of the Grieson's are clues pointing towards southern culture.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the story is told from a point of view that seems pretty gossipy. The narration singles Emily out as the so-called "other", and has no shame in pointing out the buzz she causes around the town. Everyone is aware of her personal life, they all say "Poor Emily".
Another really interesting moment in Faulkners syntax is when emily intimidates the druggist into giving her poison. She "looked back at him, erect, her face liike a strained flag". The reference to a flag here is another one of Faulkners clues about southern culture and the era in which this story takes place. Combined with the reference to a man wearing a Confederate uniform durring her funeral, the use of a "strained flag" as a metaphor could be a historical reference to pre and post civil war tensions.
Faulkner's syntax expresses much imagery and adds flavor and tone to the Gothic setting of "A Rose for Emily." Some of the words Faulkner uses, such as "strained flag" and "the man himself lay in the bed" show the mysterious nature in which the story is written. Ms. Emily's obsession to get the poison is yet another flavor which adds to the mysterious nature of the story. The reader is left uninformed to why Ms. Emily wants the poison, but it is just assumed it will be used for suicide. However, this is untrue, for we find it out it is truly for rats.
ReplyDelete