A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner

Introducing the Story

Literary Focus: Setting

Reading Skills: Making Inferences About Characters

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A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner

If one judges love according to the greatest part of the effects it produces, it would appear to resemble rather hatred than kindness.

François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld

Do you think there is a grain of truth in this cynical statement?

What kind of “love” might lead to harmful effects?

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner

• Proud and eccentric, Emily kept to herself—especially after the man she loved disappeared.

This story is set in the small town of Jefferson, Mississippi.

• She also, it turns out, kept a horrible secret.

• The story begins with the funeral of Miss Emily, a woman who inspired a mixture of respect, pity, and curiosity.

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A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner

The setting of a story includes

A Rose for Emily Literary Focus: Setting

• the time and location in which the story takes place

• the customs and social conditions of that time and place

The setting of this story is a racially segregated town in the rural South at the beginning of the twentieth century.

A Rose for Emily Literary Focus: Setting

• Some of the characters use offensive racial slurs that reflect the social conditions of the time.

• As you read, keep in mind that Faulkner’s aim was to portray the setting as realistically as possible.

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As you read about Miss Emily, think about whether her bizarre behavior is merely madness or an extension of qualities admired in her community.

Miss Emily creates a fantasy world to escape the harsh realities of her life.

A Rose for Emily Reading Skills: Making Inferences About Characters

As you read the story, take notes on

A Rose for Emily Reading Skills: Making Inferences About Characters

• Miss Emily’s characteristics

• your ideas about the motives for her strange actions

Characteristics Motives

emotionally fragile

denied her father’s death because she’d become totally dependent on him

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