L-Getty

Faulkner's A ROSE FOR EMILY By Laura J. Getty

http://www.letras.ufmg.br/profs/marcel/data1/arquivos/Rose2.pdf

a) List important ideas.


 * The chronology manipulates and delays the reader’s opinion about the main character
 * There are many possibilities for the meaning of the rose of the title
 * According to the author, the entire story operates “sub rosa”

 b) Identify the key terms and the relationship between them. Rose, title, Emily, meaning, possibility, confession, secrecy, sub-rosa concept The rose given to Emily present in the title has been studied for a long time, coming with multiple possibilities as to the real meaning behind it. The author then introduces the sub-rosa concept, and how it is relevant to the text. The rose can act as a confession or as an act of secrecy.

 c) Summarize important quotes taking the key term into account. “What is not under debate, however, is that the chronology deliberately manipulates and delays the reader’s final judgment of Emily Grierson by altering the evidence.” “In one sense, Homer could be the rose (Fenson and Kritzer).” “In another sense, it might be the narrator offering a rose to Emily: either as “a final tribute” by preserving the secret of Homer’s murder (Nebeker, “Emily’s Rose” 9); or, conversely, the narrator, “unwittingly”, offer little more than ‘bought flowers’ in tribute to Miss Emily” by not recognizing the truth until the hair on the pillow is found (Garrison 341).” “upon Venus while she was making love wth a handsome youth, and Cupid (…) bribed the god of silence to keep quiet about the affair by giving him the first rose ever created. This story made the rose the emblem of silence, and since the fifth century B.C., a rose carved on the ceilings of dining and drawing rooms where European diplomats gathered enjoined all present to observe secrecy about any matter discussed //sub rosa,// or “under the rose” (…)The rose was also carved over the Roman Catholic confessional as a symbol of silence, and //sub rosa// became well known (…) as a term for “strict confidence”, “complete secrecy,” or “absolute privace.” (Hendrickson 167-68)” “(…)I would arguee that the entire story operates sub rosa to conceal that iron-gray hair on the pillow until after Emily is dead.” “The “Rose” represents secrecy: the confidential relationship between the author and his character, with all of the privileged information withheld.”

 d) What are their positions in relation to the topic? The author begins by showing possible interpretations for the rose mentioned in the title, only to propose that whole story works under the sub rosa concept. Later on, she provides arguments to support her claims.