Analysis Of Faulkner's Short Story: A This Big, Beautiful House

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Women in the 1800’s had few obligations in life. Unlike now, young girls growing up were not sent to school to get an education. Instead, it was the job of a young girl to learn the roles of the housewife or mother. These girls would learn to do chores, clean house, cook dinners, and various other household activities starting a fairly young age. Girls were raised in this way so that one day they will make a decent wife to a husband, possibly of the parents choosing, so that she can keep her husband happy. Once a woman was married, her final obligation was to bear children for her husband and raise those girls as her mother raised her. It is obvious that times and everyday life has changed significantly for the better. In the short story, “A…show more content…
In 1850, a staggering 70% of the elderly lived in the same households as their children (Burkett). Emily’s house is described as being “A big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street” (Faulkner 451). This indicates that Emily, her father, and their Negro man servant lived in an incredibly large house, with an abundance of room for people and gatherings. Because it was only the three of them living in this house, it is suggested that Emily’s father had something like an aristocratic status with his peers. He is able to afford this luxurious, spacious house, and a man servant, and he is able to keep any man away from his daughter that may be interested in courting her or anything else of that nature. Positional goods is a term used to describe goods that limit gains from growth. This would cause the growth consumption to begin increasing, but this extra consumption because of this extra growth does not lead to extra income to provide for the extra consumption (Hirsch). Cotton Gins were very popular in and around the 1830’s, “A Rose for Emily” takes place mostly around the 1870’s and later. This proves that the house Emily lives in is very dated and its surroundings really have become engulfed…show more content…
After Emily’s death, and the townspeople begin to come to her house to pay their respects, or to just be nosy, the story says, “The Negro met the first of the ladies at the front door and let them in, with their hushed, sibilant voices and their quick, curious glances, and then he disappeared. He walked right through the house and out the back and was not seen again” (Faulkner 456). The way he walks out the door and is ‘never seen again’ strongly supports the idea that he truly was a slave, trapped in this house with this crazy lady and her corpse. At this point, he has a newfound freedom, after being stuck, just like Emily was, for all those years in this big, beautiful, house. There are several different examples throughout the story that support the idea that the house in “A Rose for Emily” is a symbol for various different feelings, thoughts, and ideas. Emily Grierson may have had a bit of a mental disability, given that she had a ‘Crazy Aunt’ in the family. But the extremes that she went to, as far as creating a bridal room for her and her corpse, as if for a honeymoon, take the term ‘crazy’ to a whole new

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