House of Grierson

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House of Grierson In the short story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, the Grierson's house is a symbol with many different meanings, and several possible interpretations revealing information about the characters and story line that one wouldn't initially think of. The house is not just an emblem to the Grierson family and it's previous greatness, but a token of the past, tradition, and of Emily herself. This powerful symbol helps to enrich the story's themes of isolation, death, and tradition versus change by creating parallels into the life of Emily Grierson, representing the changing times and culture of Southern society, and refining the story's sense of death. The Grierson house is described in the first passage as “a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated... heavily in the lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most selective street” (Faulkner 91). Just like Emily and the Greirson's, the house had once been prestigious, beautiful, and well respected by the people of this southern town. As a woman of high standing, Emily Grierson was often under scrutiny and surveillance from the townspeople, “Miss Emily had been tradition, a duty, a care” (Faulkner 91). She was supposed to represent what a real lady from the South was, and what a real lady was supposed to do, upholding deep rooted traditions in life and love despite what the modern crowd was doing. “Even grief could not cause a lady to forget noblesse oblige” (Faulkner 94). While the town watched Emily's family die off and her lovers fall by the wayside, they noticed that she had become increasingly reclusive. Rarely being seen outside the house, she remained true to her roots as a Southern aristocrat, denying the pressure of a changing modern world. We eventually see Emily's mental, and physical conditions worsen as time passes, and as she
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