Don’t Be Manipulated! English Prof Cautions You Over Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" Analysis ☠️🌹

[@drwhitneykosters]

For more lectures on classic Gothic/Horror literature, visit my playlist here: kzbin.info/aero/PLrhV674J9MHoQKMX7Ed1OAdjnX-aB-nmD&si=4QEL1PxEwChETq1A

[@danyaslife96]

This lecture demonstrates how society plays a heavy role in people's lives. Although Emily was entirely crazy the lack of respect and care from society and those around her made her spiral and made her feel less than. When all those around you make you feel belittled and unworthy than you end up feeling worthless and uncared for. Society often disregards the complexity of someone's life and the issues they have going on, as they did with Emily.

[@drwhitneykosters]

Absolutely.

[@frolik8187]

When I think of this story, I think mostly about the community and of how they collectively view Emily. The community viewed her as some sort of anomaly while always saying something about her even after she died. To think that people were so curious about where she lived but were never friendly or felt affable towards her is rude. Yes, one can make the argument and say that Emily was an even worse and perhaps unstable and dangerous and murderous, but the title of Faulkner's short story is called "A Rose for Emily." Acknowledging this title, we the readers must have sympathy for Emily to some regard at least. Throughout the story I felt lost because I was not in a good mindset to read and then interpret this story, but after viewing your class lecture regarding Faulkner's short story, I felt uplifted. I admire these videos greatly because if a short story does not feel stimulating for me, I can click on videos like these and have my literary spirits uplifted and reinvigorated! Thank you once again Professor Kosters!

[@drwhitneykosters]

Thanks for sharing!

[@CindyLanyon]

I had never thought about any of this narrative technique that you discuss. It's pretty amazing how often I don't think about the narrator as a character who has his own motives. This was an eye opening lecture.

[@drwhitneykosters]

It’s pretty amazing what Faulkner has done!

[@vickyperez3602]

This story is very bittersweet it is sad that she never felt love or accepted but the fact that she was crazy in her actions make it easy to overlook. This is the reality for many excluding the fact of necrophilic acts to stop loneliness. Humans crave proximity and connections and feeling lonely can be detrimental for everyone. No one likes to be alone for a long time it forces oneself to truly face the reality they are in.

[@drwhitneykosters]

Yes, Emily deserves sympathy, too-not just our horror and disgust.

[@juniorreyes6368]

This lecture was interesting because it showed multiple perspectives of Emily. Her house was important as it represented her as a person, being described as a symbol of the past struggling to adapt and function in modern society. It also allows the reader to think about the complexity of Emily's character, besides being stubborn and morbid. Although she poisoned and slept with Homer's corpse for years, there is also this sense of sadness because Emily wanted to be loved and accepted.

[@drwhitneykosters]

Thanks for sharing!

[@ashleymelero2721]

Watching this lecture made me think about Emily and her actions. It makes me think about the idea of loneliness and not being able to let go. Yes, Emily’s actions were crazy but also understandable after knowing the isolation and deprived love she had gone through. Loneliness can be a scary thing or feeling. However most of my frustration comes with the towns people and narrator because of how they judge and gossip about Emily. They don’t respect her enough, and it’s seen within the story .

[@drwhitneykosters]

Yes, Emily is definitely a victim, despite being a perpetrator, also.

[@A-Dash315]

"A Rose for Emily" really is the most grim story for the class in my opinion given how Emily was treated and how Emily was married to a dead body for years. Like you said, she is a relic of the Ante Bellum South and is treated more as a relic of a bygone era for the townsfolk to look sadly at than an actual person. Perhaps it is that reason why Emily turned out to become slightly crazy necrophile, maybe if people socialized with her more instead of treating her as a trophy/relic she might of been more well off psychologically.

[@drwhitneykosters]

It’s really quite a sad story and it’s disturbing in a number of ways outside of Emily’s crime.

[@Selennetamayo]

I feel so much for Emily, although she did something terrible, I can't help but feel sad for her. In my opinion she just wanted to be loved and accepted. It is also obvious that she is probably suffering from a mental illness, or possible trauma from her relationship with her father.

[@drwhitneykosters]

Most definitely. She is a legitimate victim.

[@rudolphspeaks2792]

This is undoubtedly one of the most memorable works of literature I have ever encountered, and its impact has remained with me. The narrative is profoundly compelling, offering a complex exploration of themes such as mental health, societal roles, isolation, and human connection-each of which holds significant relevance. The story is rich with layers that invite deep reflection on these issues. Interestingly, the ending evokes a sense of shock and sadness similar to the emotional response I experienced while reading The Bluest Eye. While I cannot pinpoint the exact reason, there seems to be a shared quality between the two endings, perhaps stemming from the emotional weight they both carry.

[@HovikG.]

This lecture was very encouraging it made me think more deeply about the story and the various interpretations of Emily's actions. Personally, I also wouldn't wanna be in this town because of how the people treated Emily. Looking forward to more videos Kosters!

[@drwhitneykosters]

Yes, it’s a pretty toxic community!

[@chelseytorres4214]

I feel like Ive seen a movie very similar to this plot of the story, i just cant remember the name. Emily was an innocent girl driven to be crazy, she didn't deserve any of the mistreatment she would get from the townspeople. I cant justify as to why Emily did what she did but i do get where she was coming from. Emily was raised completely different from most of the townspeople, she was never really exposed to the world, which is why most looked at her as weird and an outcast, no one really cared or liked her.

[@drwhitneykosters]

It’s a pretty sad story.

[@Elk1112]

I believe that the tragedy in this story is how Emily is rejected by absolutely everyone in the town. She is harassed without end, and when she finally meets someone who accepts her, she grows very attached very quickly, and can’t let go. I believe this is, in the end, why she kills him. After all, when her father dies, someone she was very attached to, the town takes three days to get his body back. After that, she’s alone until she meets Homer. With no one else in her life, it would make sense as to why she got so attached or became obsessed with the idea of him being with her. I have another idea about Homer as well which is this - maybe he symbolized what Emily knew in some way, or reminded her of her father. The beauty of this story and many others is that there’s no right or wrong answer. It is up to the readers to interpret.

[@drwhitneykosters]

Yes, it’s pretty terrible. What’s worse is that most readers don’t even see it; they only see Emily’s crimes.

[@elenafarhanifar9841]

what grief and loss of loved ones can do to a person is truly horrifying. I can't imagine how lonely Emily had felt when Homer left her that she would rather have him dead than not have him at all. I don't in any way think she was right for what she did, can you imagine if everyone killed their partner when they broke up with them? I believe Emily had a lot more hidden issues than it was mentioned in the story. A Rose for Emily will forever remain a mystery to me.

[@drwhitneykosters]

Yes, she has a lot of trauma.

[@alicabal7203]

I enjoyed this story a lot, though I found it quite sad. I believe that the tragedy in this story is that Emily was never given the decency of being treated like a human. She was basically isolated her whole life and was later shamed and judged for her relationship with Homer Barron. I think it sucks to see how the narrator is speaking on behalf of himself and the rest of the town when he talks about Emily. I find it frustrating whenever the narrator is unreliable, though it adds so much to the story when understanding why he is unreliable.

[@drwhitneykosters]

It keeps you on your toes!

[@nickbodemer6262]

I think the tragedy is that Emily never really had a chance to have much of a life of her own.

[@drwhitneykosters]

Yes, and this was the case for many women at this time.

[@rosiefranco2235]

I thought this was such a crazy story as Emily has kept both her father and lovers body. However, the way the community treated her was more like a freak show rather than an actual person. Its understandable why people were curious about her because as humans, we are curious about the unknown, but she just wanted love and acceptance. Due to Emily having issues with separation, maybe she suffered from a mental illness or PTSD from loss. Working with people who have mental health issues, I can see that in Emily as she suffered from her personal tragedy.

[@drwhitneykosters]

Thanks for sharing!

[@AngryNewAger]

Excellent commentary! I’m subscribing!

[@drwhitneykosters]

Thank you so much! I hope this was helpful!

[@mariamason1919]

I agree and also subscribed. Well done!

[@gvg.8785]

For me, this is one of the stories that resembles a story of monarchical governments, where the wealthiest families of a town or country have control of the entire village, exposing them to everyone's criticism and demands, in such a way that people influence the lives of these families, and that they demand even the slightest explanation for everything they do. In this story, even without respecting her father's grief thirty years later and the respect the town had for the Grierson family, the ending ends with the feeling that the village influenced Emily's devastated life, as well as her death.

[@drwhitneykosters]

Interesting comparison!

[@hilaengel]

Excellent!

[@sahilhossian8212]

Lore of Don’t Be Manipulated! English Prof Cautions You Over Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" Analysis momentum 100

[@drwhitneykosters]

🤍

[@JoeMamaBesser]

Great video, Dr. Thank you for the insightful and interesting lecture. Quick note: your audio is obviously processed using noise reduction. In order to prevent the "tweeting" artifacts, use less processing and back off on the threshold. Cheers.

[@drwhitneykosters]

Hello, there! Oh, my gosh, thank you for this advice! Yes, the quality of my audiobooks is a work in progress! I so appreciate this, though I have to admit that I will need to look up what you mean. I’m not quite tech savvy. Thank you, again.

[@JoeMamaBesser]

@@drwhitneykosters You're very welcome. I'm a recording engineer, so If I can offer any assistance, I'm happy to. All the best. P.s. Thank you, again. My English Lit background is lacking, so this was really helpful. Watching Cask of Amontillado next!

[@EliasNarvaez-n2g]

A Rose For Emily explores the themes of loneliness and isolation. Miss Emily had a difficult time letting go of her father’s body because then she would be left all by herself in full isolation. Loneliness impacts her emotionally considering the fact that the rest of her family was not living with her as they were in Alabama and had no contact with each other. So it seems like she did not want to remember the hardships she had when her dad was still around, but she did not want to be left by herself in the absence of her family.

[@VallerieFlores]

This is my third time reading this story during college. As much as this story makes me a bit sad, I still think it’s a very good story to read. Although what Emily did in the story was horrible, I still continue to feel sorry for her every time I read this. I do believe that Emily suffers from some sort of PTSD or mental illness given the fact that she’s been through so much and has experienced so much trauma in her life. I think it’s easy for readers to interpret Emily as someone who is “weird” because of what occurs inside her home.

[@drwhitneykosters]

Yes, she is terribly misunderstood.

[@arturoandmarizamancha4828]

I am currently teaching this story and I want to point out two things I think you might find interesting in determining the genius of the narrative form of this story, and then I want to ask a question. The first important thing to focus on is the story is told in a non-chronological sequence, just as you said. At the start, Emily is dead. Then she is alive. Then it's 40 years earlier. Then she's old. Then young. Et cetera. Et cetera. This tells me the narrator is an old man from the town telling the story through gossip he has heard. The textual evidence I can point to in order to support this claim is here: "and the very old men --some in their brushed Confederate uniforms--on the porch and the lawn, talking of Miss Emily as if she had been a contemporary of theirs, believing that they had danced with her and courted her perhaps, confusing time with its mathematical progression, as the old do". Here we can see it is the old men who, "confuse time with its mathematical progression", hence the confused progression of time in the narration. Second is the importance of gossip. The story is told through gossip. Think of it like this: Emily goes to the tailor and orders Homer's shirt. We/the narrator are not actually there to witness it. Instead, it is as if after Emily leaves the tailor, the tailor goes to the cafe and announces Emily just came into his shop and ordered Homer's shirt. Announcing it is gossip which contributes to the collective knowledge of the town. Now, with the fact the story is told through gossip/second-third hand hearsay for most of the story allows for something genius to happen. When the upstairs door is being broken down after Emily's death, we have to realize/acknowledge no one had been in that room except for Emily for years. No one knew what they were going to see. As the door is broken down, notice the narrative changes just a bit. It is no longer a story being told through gossip. The narrator is there with the other men, knocking the door down. At this point it is as if we are there with them, looking at the things being described along with the characters. The audience becomes a firsthand witness of what the men are seeing. But here is the real genius: once we realize what the big reveal/twist is, the moment we tell someone else about the story, we are gossiping. When a student leaves class and tells someone else about this crazy story about a woman who killed a man and kept him to cuddle with for 40 years, that student is gossiping just like a character in the work. Genius, I say. Faulkner created a narrative which allows readers to become a character. The last thing I have is a question for you. So, Emily's father kept Emily in an arrested state of development to the point she was like a child (as evidenced by the lack of artistic progression past the childlike "crayon" portrait of her father and evidenced by his refusal to allow Emily to grow into womanhood when he thwarts interested male suitors with his patriarchal intimidation though a horse whip). Now, since the room was decorated as for a bridal, as if it was a honeymoon room, and since during the honeymoon a marriage is consummated, was Emily having sex with Homer's dead body? When the men were slinking about the house with lime because of the smell and she appeared as a figure in the upstairs window, was she taking a breather/break from "becoming a woman?"

[@drwhitneykosters]

Hi! Yes! I mention much of this in the lecture. In fact, I call it the greatest tragedy from which Emily suffers-that we, as readers, perpetuate the gossip that renders her a spectacle to be disrespectfully gawked at and surmised over. It is genius of Faulkner, for sure! In order to answer your question, I must engage in that very gossip! But, there’s just no way around it. Yes, I do believe that she was committing necrophilia with Homer’s body. I think so due to her circumstances. She was a stifled, traumatized, and extremely lonely but heavily judged woman who really did not truly know healthy love or companionship. What do you think? Good luck in teaching this!

[@Kiskitaa]

It must have been very difficult to be a woman during that time period especially in the south right after the civil war. I believe Emily was a good person who was having a hard time coping with the circumstances in her life. The community was very harsh to her and judgmental which is how I would have expected it to be in those times. In a way, I see Emily as a symbol of the old south in how the community treated her with less respect as time went on.

[@drwhitneykosters]

It’s been challenging being a woman for much of history, I think.

[@alyssalopez5823]

She's depressed and out of touch; she hasn't left her house in ten years. Her partner left her because her father was so domineering. Since dad oversaw every part of her life and her death would mean she was genuinely alone in the world, which is a sign of victimization, she refused to accept that her father had passed away. Emily's home is a symbol of death, mental illness, and alienation, but she definitely was dealing with so much behind the scenes.

[@drwhitneykosters]

Yes. She’s absolutely a victim, too.

[@ashleygharbi]

Throughout the lecture, I believe the tragedy that William Faulkner was speaking about was how the community and the unreliable narrator created a crazy description of Emily. Don't get me wrong, Emily was crazy on her own, but the community never treated her with respect. She was belittled by the community and the narrator. They tore into her home, invading her privacy, and were never satisfied with her choices. It was like nothing was ever good enough for them. Additionally, the narrator did not allow us as the readers to analyze Miss Emily. We were told what to believe about Miss Emily and we are manipulated to think she's just simply crazy. Also a major aspect of Emily's isolation is how she has been controlled by men for her whole life and really has not had the opportunity to part take in her own actions/choices.

[@drwhitneykosters]

Yes, she’s definitely a victim of sundry things!

[@Calegend1]

My take on this story was that the community disliked Emily, they kept bothering Emily and entering her home like breaking and entering, trying to get her to pay taxes, and the people are intrusive just to be nosey, rude, and basically spy around Emily’s life and her home. Otherwise the community did not want anything to do with Emily. Emily did not want to make any changes after her family member passes away.

[@KathrynKruger-id3bl]

Miss Havisham and Nemo!

[@drwhitneykosters]

Miss Havisham, for sure!!

[@clairebug]

How meta! The fact that the narrator in this story is *so* unreliable, they actually manipulate *us* as readers into believing the false spin of events. Immersing us into the story whether we like it or not, because now we're complicit in this negative perception that's forced on Emily. We're now characters that live in the town. Haven't seen/read much fiction like this! It's pretty interesting. In the modern day world, where most people have such poor media and news literacy that they immediately believe the first perspective of an event that they read about, this concept is pretty topical.

[@drwhitneykosters]

Totally meta!

[@ZingenSS]

William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily": As always, as I've read it in several other classes, this story is creepy, but it's based on things that really do happen in the news. People who have mental health issues keep bodies in their homes without reporting them for whatever reasons. Miss Emily definitely falls into the probably mental health issue category to be someone who would do something like keep a dead body in their bedroom for 40 years. To me, the narrator is the town itself - alive, gossipy, recounting town histories - a collective brain. Maybe it COULD be someone who sat outside the general store for years watching everything, but it seems to be a collective consciousness bystander. My role as the reader of this story is to listen to the gossip, which includes me in the small town collective consciousness. I'm supposed to believe everything the narrator says, but should I?

[@drwhitneykosters]

No, you shouldn’t!! 😊

[@TJLavinUnlimated]

Couldn’t Emily sell the house and move elsewhere? It’s hard to sympathize with her even though, you’re right, she was a victim to her father’s oppression. You cannot discount the fact that she’s an adult and succumbed to her evil desires instead of taking inventory, realizing the toxicity of her community, and made the adult decision to leave. Instead she chose to stay in isolation after her father’s death, she chose to kill HB, and she chose suffering in silence.

[@drwhitneykosters]

She is absolutely a perpetrator, no doubt. And, she should not get any passes, but neither should the community. And, while she could up and move, it’s kind of unfair that she’d have to uproot her life because the community can’t be respectful. She’s definitely a complex character who can make you feel morally compromised.

[@czarinc.6971]

Didn’t the towns people go out of their way to talk to her and communicate, but she would close the door in her face? How you gonna blame the townspeople for that

[@drwhitneykosters]

I’d argue that they went out of their way to pry into her life. They’re really not the most gracious people to her.

[@jannatulferdous4794]

Is homor baron homosexual or not? Ma,am, Can you please clear me about this elaborately.😢😢😢

[@drwhitneykosters]

Hi! It’s suggested and implied, but there’s no evidence that definitively says he is. Faulkner leaves it open ended, I think, to add to all the ironies and tragedies from which Emily us subjected (I.e., that she finally finds a human she connects with and trusts, and he can never be her partner/lover).

[@brendasalazar1263]

Overall, I felt terrible for Emily's mental wellbeing. She isolated herself, & was clearly treated unfairly by her own community. Not to excuse her for her murdering Homer, let's make that clear. I know the story is taken in a different time era, but why was mental illness look down upon? What do people get out of this when mistreating those who are unwell? I understand the frustration on how she wasn't taking care of her own house & stinking up the neighborhood, but wouldn't that have been a cry for help? Whether Emily wanted to acknowledge the scenario or not, someone should have asked her "Are you okay?" Rather than saying that she should kill herself, my jaw dropped to the floor when I came across that page, because who even says that? I'm glad in this era, mental illness is being uplifted nowadays but it's clear as days that they are a few people out there that still see it as taboo because to others you are expected to "get over it." Whenever I do come across someone saying that I usually end up saying "That's not how trauma works." Isn't that true? Correct me if otherwise.

[@aurikagrebeniuk9240]

The very disturbing tale Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" challenges us to consider how society expects shapes our impressions and the accuracy of the storyteller. From a psychoanalytic perspective, Emily's transgressions personal and social are terrible, especially when one considers how the demands of the society skew her mental condition by means of the deceptive narrative style. Faulkner's use of time and place to confuse the reader intrigues me especially as Emily's life seems to be a strange puzzle put together in fragments. In what ways do you believe Faulkner's use of time and the fractured story influences our knowledge of Emily's mental state and behavior?