Formalistic Approach

 refers to critical approaches that analyze, interpret, or evaluate the inherent features of a text.
 Regards literature as “a unique form of human knowledge that needs to be examined on its own
terms.” All the elements necessary for understanding the work are contained within the work itself. Of
particular interest to the formalist critic are the elements of form—style, structure, tone, imagery, etc.
—that are found within the text. 

Writing Formalist Literary Analysis

Point of View - Allegory - Symbolism
Setting - Analogy - Intangible
Characters - Irony - Tangible
Plot - Synecdoche
Symbols - Metonymy
Themes - Metaphor -
Imagery - Personification
Figure of Speech - Simile

A Rose for Emily by: William Faulkner

• born in New Albany, Mississippi, on September 25, 1897
• His family moved to Oxford, Mississippi, just before he was five. Belonged to a once-wealthy family of
former plantation owners.
• He was a high school dropout, but he nevertheless developed a passion for literature, originally planning to
be a poet.
• Faulkner earned fame from a series of novels that explore the South‘s historical legacy.
• Faulkner‘s major works:
- The Sound and The Fury (1929)
- As I Lay Dying (1930)
- Light in August (1931)
• Faulkner‘s writing was particularly interested in exploring the moral implications of history.
• Those stories he wrote serves as lens through which he could examine the practices, folkways, and attitudes
that had divided and united the people of the South since the nation‘s inception. • ―A Rose for Emily‖ was the
first short story that Faulkner published in a major magazine.
• This story‘s chilling portrait of aberrant psychology that draws reader into dark, dusty world of Emily Rose.

Characters
EMILY GRIERSON
• Perverse woman, a tormented continuously by her father.
• After her father died, she said during three days he is not dead. This is the time when Miss Emily started the
negation of the change in the world.
• Miss Emily was raised in heart of an aristocratic family. These story were told after the Civil War. Mr.
Grierson 
• Emily's father, the patriarchal head of the Grierson family. His control over Emily's personal life prohibited
her from romantic involvement. It could be that he is overprotective because he loves Emily too much. It could
be because he believes that there is not a man good enough to marry his daughter. It could be that he is set in
his ways and does not want Emily to become distracted from her societal duties. Whatever the reason, Mr.
Grierson shapes the person that Emily becomes. His decision to ban all men from her life drives her to kill the
first man she is attracted to and can be with, Homer Barron, in order to keep him with her permanently.
HOMER BARREN
• A Yankee construction foreman who becomes Emily’s first real love.
• His relationship with Emily is considered scandalous because he is a Northerner and because it does not
appear as if they will ever be married. Colonel Sartoris 
• The former mayor who remitted Emily's taxes. While he is in the story very little, his decision to remit
Emily’s taxes leads to her refusal to pay them ever again, contributing to her stubborn personality. The reason
for Sartoris remitting her taxes is never given, only that he told Emily it was because her father loaned the
money to the town.
Tobe
• was the servant of Emily‘s house. He was the only connection of Emily with the outside world,he goes to the
market every day with the shopping cart, but he decides to keep her with the time stopped in a lie. 

Settings
A creepy old house in Jefferson, Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, 1861-1933 (approximately)
"A Rose for Emily" is set in the county seat of Yoknapatawpha, Jefferson and as you know, focuses on Emily
Grierson, the last living Grierson.
The main situations were on miss Emily house and the writer focus in the valuable details inside the house
After American Civil War(1861-1865)
The town of Jefferson as a urban society moving into industrial period.
Before seventies, economic based on agriculture and slavery
After seventies economic based on industrial and abolition.

Plot Of the Story

Exposition
Miss Emily Grierson has a problem with paying her taxes as well as feeling loved or a sense of belonging. 
Rising Action
- Some of the townspeople complain about the smell emanating from Miss Emily's house.
- Miss Emily refuses to pay taxes.
- Homer Barron arrives in the South as a Yankee laborer to fix the sidewalks.
- Miss Emily and Homer are seen together throughout the town.
- A man's toilet set is purchased with the initials "HB" engraved on it.
- Miss Emily's kin arrive from Alabama.
Climax
-Miss Emily goes to the local pharmacy and seeks arsenic, although she does not explain her purpose for
needing it.
Falling Action
- Some of Miss Emily's kin from Alabama came to stay with her.
- Miss Emily bought a man's toilet set in silver with the initials H.B. on each piece.
- Homer Barron suddenly disappears.
- Lime was sprinkled around the house to get rid of a noxious smell.
- The door to Miss Emily's house was shut for good.
- Miss Emily dies at the age of 74.
Resolution
- The man servant admits the townspeople into the house.
- The one room upstairs that had been shut off for the last 40 years was forced open.
- A man's toilet set was found tarnished and the monogram was not easily recognizable.
- Homer Barron's corpse is found lying in the bed.
- Next to him, an outline of another body is seen, with the indentation of the head and a long strand of gray
hair. 

Symbols
Faulkner uses rose to symbolize love and secrecy.
In the story, Homer is the rose or love for Emily.
rose also represents secrecy.
The rose stands for Emily‘s secret; that Homer is her rose that she loved and kept to herself even after his body
was decaying
Themes
DEATH
The story begins in section one with the narrator‘s recollections of Emily‘s funeral. He reminisces that it is
Emily‘s father‘s death that prompts Colonel Sartoris to remit her taxes into perpetuity.‘‘
This leads to the story of the aldermen attempting to collect taxes from Emily. The narrator‘s description of
Emily is that of a drowned woman: She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and
of that pallid hue.‘‘ One of the reasons the aldermen are bold enough to try to collect Emily‘s taxes is that
Colonel Sartoris has been dead for a decade. Of course, this doesn‘t discourage Emily she expects the men to
discuss the matter with him anyway.

Point of view
It is the third person of view because the town’s people know all about Emily’s life, even though she was a
very secretive person. If Miss Emily wrote the story, she would have given more detail and we would have
been seeing her world around her in her own thoughts and we also would have received a much more bitter
story and perhaps we would know the reasons why she did what she did, like for example, whether or not she
killed Homer or if she slept by his body. Maybe she would be able to justify her actions so that we could
understand them. By using third person we only get a judgmental view where we can only draw conclusions. If
Tobe were to tell the story, the truth might actually come out. He might be able to tell readers what actually
happened without any emotional connection. The twist is that Emily would have a very innocent and oblivious
portrayal rather than the criticisms like the townspeople.

Imagery
 Seeing :
- a big and seventies house, a funeral, a respected lady, shadow, rose, arsenic as poison, a market basket,
man’s toilet in silver, with the letters H.B, complete outfit of men’s clothing, including nightshirt, a long grey
hair, and skeleton
Smelling :
- odor smell from a dead body.
Hearing :
- a silent place of Miss Emily’s house, a whispering from neighbor, invisible watch ticking at the end of the
gold chain

Aslor,Pamela Jane B.
Manga, Mike
BSSE 4A2-2