Importance of Setting in A Rose for Emily :: A Rose for Emily, William Faulkner

Importance of Setting in A Rose for Emily In William Faulkners A Rose for Emily, Faulkners details about setting and atmosphere put on the lector background as to the values and beliefs of the characters, helping the proofreader to record the motivations, actions and reactions of Miss Emily and the rest of the town, and changing the mood or tone in the account. The setting in A Rose for Emily is Faulkners fictitious post- civil war removede Jefferson, a small town in the deep south of the get together States. Faulkners use of this particular time-period or genre, is successful in giving the reader an understanding or background to the values and beliefs of the characters in the story. The town of Jefferson is a fallen legacy. The hierarchical regime of the Griersons and the class system of the time where by ordinance of the mayor- Colonel Sartoris, a Negro women could not even walk the channel without an apron, had changed into a place where even the street on which Miss Emily lived, that had erstwhile been the most select, had presently been encroached and obliterated, her house an eyesore among eyesores. Both the town and Miss Emily herself, now looked upon Miss Emily as the only remnant of that greater time. This fact gives the reader an understanding of the mindset of the town, who is narrating Miss Emilys story to us in a form resembling a gossip circle, where stories of various townspeople are pieced together and of Miss Emily, the protagonist who lived alone except for her lone servant. The actions of Miss Emily set off from eccentric to absurd but it is the readers understanding of the setting that keep the story believable. Miss Emily becomes reclusive and introverted after the death of her father and the alienation from the Yankee- Homer Barron. It is also revealed at the end of the story that she went as far as poisoning Homer, keeping his dead body in his house, and dormancy next to him as well. Sh e is doing what she feels necessary in response to the pressure hardened on her by the town.