Critique on Emily Grierson (A Rose For Emily by William Faulkner ) through different lenses

Abstract

"The author, William Faulkner was not appreciated for his earlier works, but when A Rose for Emily was published, the work helped William Faulkner become successful and famous in times. A Rose for Emily is a breath of fresh air in Gothic-themed literature. The haunting and enigmatic short story A Rose for Emily by Faulkner has become one of the most iconic pieces of American literature. Many factors are worth being discussed in A Rose for Emily. Among those is the conflict between the Old South and the New South, which is depicted in A Rose for Emily about a woman's life and death. Faulkner personifies the Old South as Miss Emily Grierson, who represents the traditional figure in the South or the last descendant of the cultural values before the Civil War. Miss Emily Grierson, the only major female character in A Rose for Emily could be colorfully analyzed in the light of feminism, psychological theory, and reader-response criticism. Although much literary research has been conducted on feminism, and psychology in A Rose for Emily, studies consolidating how these themes were received by critics and academics are still relatively scarce. This study, therefore, aims to investigate feminist elements, psychology, and reader-response criticism in the work A Rose for Emily through a theory-based literary overview approach. The analysis through those lenses of literary criticism can enhance the significance and provide valuable and diverse information about the main character, Miss Emilly Grierson, in the famous story A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner. "