Surname 1
Alyia Goudeau
Professor Hunter
Approaches to Lit
September 17, 2018
The Use of Irony in the Text A rose for Emily.
A rose for Emily is a literature text that depicts several themes or occurrences that are applicable in the modern society. The story is about Emily Grierson, a lady who is greatly isolated by the community that she lives with. The story is based on Emily's way of life and especially her love life. The troubles or the problems that Emily faces start after the demise of her father and they are connected to the way of life that she had to live when her father was alive. From the text, we can see that Emily never really experiences true love.
Even though the townspeople say that Emily’s father was a monster, Emily seems to be very attached to her father, and she is in denial for three years after he passes away. Emily is unmarried at the time that her father dies. She is over thirty years and hence the town people assume that she will never get married and to some extent they are correct. The reason that is given for Emily’s condition is that her father chased away any potential suitors that she had, saying that they were not good enough for her. The town's people rarely visit Emily's house, we are told that nobody had been to her home in over ten years. The theme isolation is depicted throughout this text and the effects of isolation both physical and mental isolation are felt (Faulkner). Another theme that is depicted in this text is that of love and compassion although the theme is not straightforward, the town's people had compassion for Emily since they exempted her from paying the taxes. Faulkner greatly employs irony as a narrative technique in the text irony is used to show the misconceptions and the misjudgments that the townspeople have about Emily (Faulkner).
Irony can be defined as having ideas or feelings that oppose each other or that are unclear. An ironical situation occurs when two streams of ideas in a story seem to be contrary to each other (Barnet et al.). Ironical situations in the text a rose for Emily depict how the townspeople are in the dark about the condition that Emily is in. Some of the examples of ironical situations include that, it’s ironical that the townspeople have not visited Emily for ten years yet they are all curious to attend her funeral when she dies. Emily was isolated from the community for a long time this was due to her unsocial nature and the fact that she did not go out to visit places much if at all. The author states that many of the men attended the funeral because they had some good feel...
