A Bridge Between The Old And New Southern Values in Faulkner‘s “A Rose For Emily”
1. Introduction
William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” (1930) explores gender roles within the social classes in the antebellum South to a postbellum South. Men and women at that point of time in American history in the American South, in which the story is set, were embracing different social status and were put into different social classes according to their gender.
In my interpretation of the short story, I will focus on gender roles. First, I will give a little background on how the gender roles were defined in the American South. Secondly, I will go into detail about how gender roles are existent and portrayed in the story. After that, I will explain the significance the ...
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and new Southern traditions but also, especially the female role embodied through Miss Emily, develop throughout the story.
2. Gender Roles In The South – A Little Background
The antebellum South is powerfully traditional and known for the strong belief in their values. One of these strong values, probably the strongest of them all, is the bound of a family or put in other words a strong family unit. The Southerners were, and most of them still are today, very family-centered. According to Daniel R. Hurdley, a family unit is more important in the South than in any other regions of the United States. (Wyatt-Brown, 117) Within the family, the roles are clearly split and as Hurdley declared in 1860, the parents and their education are also more strict than in other regions. (Wyatt-Brown, 117) The father usually is the head of the family and has the right to decide in every family matter. In comparison, the expectations of women at that time were different. Women were expected ...
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plural using the pronoun “we”. The usage of the pronoun "we" indicates that it is not one townsperson that tells the story, but rather the whole town.
Not a single person because Faulkner uses a first person plural point of view, "we"; that "we" is townspeople, but only such as are in position to watch Miss Emily constantly for fifty or sixty years; they are anonymous townspeople, for neither names nor sexes nor occupations are given or hinted at; and they seem to be naive watchers, for they speak as though they did not understand the meaning of events at the time they occurred. (Sullivan, 160-161)
The townspeople are characters in the story, which is why the narrator is a ...
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A Bridge Between The Old And New Southern Values in Faulkner‘s “A Rose For Emily”. (2020, August 17). Retrieved April 24, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Bridge-Between-Old-New-Southern-Values/107415
"A Bridge Between The Old And New Southern Values in Faulkner‘s “A Rose For Emily”." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 17 Aug. 2020. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Bridge-Between-Old-New-Southern-Values/107415>
"A Bridge Between The Old And New Southern Values in Faulkner‘s “A Rose For Emily”." Essayworld.com. August 17, 2020. Accessed April 24, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Bridge-Between-Old-New-Southern-Values/107415.
"A Bridge Between The Old And New Southern Values in Faulkner‘s “A Rose For Emily”." Essayworld.com. August 17, 2020. Accessed April 24, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Bridge-Between-Old-New-Southern-Values/107415.
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