A rose for emily formalist criticism

1. PROSE
FORMALIST CRITICISM
A ROSE FOR EMILY
By
WIILIAM FAULKNER
Class : 2012 A
Compiled By :
Fiwiar Atialfa HP.
Kholifah
Lydia
Siti Nurasiyah Amin
Lecturer :
Dyah Kurniawati M.Pd
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
UNIVERSITAS PGRI RONGGOLAWE (UNIROW) TUBAN
2015

2. Introduction
Biography of William Faulkner
William Faulkner was a Nobel Prize–winning novelist of the American South who wrote
challenging prose and created the fictional Yoknapatawpha County. He is best known for
such novels as 'The Sound and the Fury' and 'As I Lay Dying.'
Synopsis
American writer William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, in 1897. Much of
his early work was poetry, but he became famous for his novels set in the American South,
frequently in his fabricated Yoknapatawpha County, with works that included The Sound and
the Fury, As I Lay Dying and Absalom, Absalom! His controversial 1931 novel Sanctuary
was turned into two films, 1933's The Story of Temple Drake as well as a later 1961 project.
Faulkner was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature and ultimately won two Pulitzers
and two National Book Awards as well. He died on July 6, 1962.
About The Criticism
Formalist Ctiticism
According to the Formalism as new criticism video that made by Elissah, Kristelle and
Liezel. Formalism is a literary theory. Formalism emerged primarily and particularly out of
the work of Roman Jacobson, Boris Eichenbaum and Viktor Shklovsky. Formalism seeks out
meaning from a work by giving attention to the form or structure of a work and literary
devices operating in it.
Meaning, in examining a text through formalism, the social, historical, cultural, and political
realities inside the text is neglected. So, does it mean in formalism, we are like judging the
book by it’s cover? Yes, because in formalism, the one being examined is the text it self, it’s
form and structure.

3. Here is a tip in using formalism
1. Determine the form, structure and, literay devices used in the text.
2. Don’t check the biographical, social and, historical background of the author to unlock
the meaning of the text.
Glossary of major formalist literary terms
• Character : creation and representation of fictional persons and entires.
• antagonist — the main villain
• antihero — a central sympathetic character with significant personal flaws
• dynamic— changing, growing, active
• flat— not well-developed
• protagonist— the main character with whom the audience is expected to sympathize
• round— well-developed
• static— not growing or changing, an inactive personality
• symbolic— caricature that is representative of certain kinds of people
• Figures of speech —various expressive devices used in vivid writing.
• allegory—parallel story with underlying moral or message
• analogy—extended comparison of things or events with other things and events
• irony—paradoxical events, ideas, or attitudes that are played off against each other
• sarcasm—making serious fun of things, ideas, people, or events
• satire—synthesis of heavily developed ironies and sarcasms
• metaphor—brief or extended comparison of something with something else
• personification—comparing inanimate things to people
• simile—something or someone is "as a" else
• symbolism—using inanimate or imagined things to stand for real situations
• intangible—imaginary or "mental" symbols
• tangible—physical or "actual" symbols
• synecdoche—using the narrative of a large human issue to illustrate a smaller, more
particular concern; comparing a whole with one or more of its parts (as in saying "the
smiling year" to indicate spring)
• metonymy—using the story of a small, localized event to illustrate a larger social
concern; comparing a part with the whole (as in "he gave up the sword" to indicate
leaving a life of warfare)
• Imagery— specific details used to describe characters, things, ideas, or events
• hearing—images that make you hear sounds in your mind
• seeing—images that draw mental pictures
• smelling—images that bring the memories of odors and aromas to mind
• tasting—images that make you recall or imagine how something might taste
• touching—images that help you imagine how something might feel on your skin
• extrasensory—images that take you to an imaginary world of sensations

4. • Plot — a series of events or happenings that organize a text
• climax—the point of highest dramatic tension in a text
• complicated—characterized by many twists and turns
• conflict—plot features that demonstrate human rivalries and difficulties, whether internal
or external
• external—conflicts that are active, perhaps physical or overtly expressed
• internal—conflicts that are passive, perhaps mental or covertly expressed
• dénouement—final part of a play, movie, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are
drawn together and matters are explained or resolved
• foreshadowing—plot features that predict other events, such as the climax or
dénouement
• implausible—fantastic plots that are not acceptable in the everyday sense of reality
• inciting event—event that marks the beginning of a course of action
• plausible—believable, everyday plots
• recognition—events that reveal aspects of a character in a new light
• reversal—events that mark a turnabout of fortune for a character
• simple—arranged with few twists and turns
• Point of view — perspective of the controlling narrative voice
• first person—narrative voice that speaks with "I/we/us" pronouns
• limited omniscience—narrator who doesn't know everything
• objective—narrator who tries to tell the story from an impersonal point of view
• omniscient—narrator who presumes to know the ultimate truth of the story
• reliable—narrator who can be trusted to tell the truth and be objective
• subjective—narrator whose personal viewpoint has skewed the telling of the story
• third person—narrative voice that uses "he/she/they" pronouns
• unreliable—narrator who cannot be trusted to tell the truth or be objective
• Setting —atmosphere, historical period, physical setting, or mood of text
• place—physical or psychical locations of events, things, characters, and historical times
• time—physical or psychical progression of events
• ahistorical—not grounded in any "real" historical period; imaginary or fantastic
• chronological—linear telling of events
• backward—starting at the end and working toward the beginning
• forward—starting at the beginning and working toward the end
• circular—a reflection that begins anywhere, goes to the end, works its way to the
beginning, and eventually gets back to where it started
• Theme —a major idea or message in the text
• controlling idea—the organizing theme of a work
• related ideas—subthemes that contribute to the development of the main idea

5. • separate issues—ideas not directly related to the main idea or subthemes, but that are
nevertheless important and contribute to the overall success of the text
About the story of A Rose for Emily
There was a girl named Miss Emily Griersons. She was born as a respectable lady in a
white background. After her father died. She just became introvert and hide herself into her
house. She just lived with her servant ‘Tobe’. Two years later he met Homer Baron. Baron
was a northerner labourer. Miss Emily loved him at the first sight. Homer Baron interested
with her too, but it did not mean he wanted to marry her. Knowing if Homer Baron was not a
married man, then she bought arsenic. In that day Baron and Miss Emily had dinner together.
That was the last the neighbours saw Miss Emily and Baron together. Yearly Miss Emily
became older, she also ignored to pay the taxes, she finally died in 74th years old. The second
day after she died, her cousins entered her house, nobody entered her house except her
servant. Until they found a room that full with dust, dirty and mouldy. They were really
surprised when they saw a man skeleton laid on the bed. Who is he? Finally we can know if
Homer Baron was killed by Miss Emily with arsenic, when they had dinner in those evening.
She took Homer Baron’s dead body into her room and she slept with the dead body for 40
years until she died. The only person who knew that is her servant, but he never told
anybody. After miss Emily dead, he suddenly dissapeared.
10 important words and meaning
1. Edict : maklumat
2. Parlor : ruang duduk
3. Ebony : kayu hitam
4. Dusk : senjakala/kabur
5. Vanquished : menaklukkan
6. Gross : sangat buruk
7. Delicate : mudah pecah
8. Torso : tubuh
9. Nostril : lubang hidung
10. Disuse : tidak dipakai/ditinggalkan

6. A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
Title : A Rose for Emily
The title mention an object. a rose as a flower that is presented for Emily as a lady who live
in white background in Jeffersons. It contains an object that represented the main character of
Miss Emily Grierson.
Point of View :
Omniscient Point of View
The narrator used first person point of view that used ‘we’, The narrator’s point of view is
omniscient that know everything in the story.
The quotation :
And that was the last we saw of Homer Barron. And of Miss Emily for some time.
Now and then we would see her at a window for a moment.
Third person point of view
Miss Emiliy
The quotation :
She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers
calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body.
Homer Baron
The quotation :
........ because Homer himself had remarked--he liked men, and it was known that he drank
with the younger men in the Elks' Club--that he was not a marrying man
Tobe (Miss Emily’s servant)
The quotation :
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.
Two female cousins of Miss Emily
The quotation :

7. They held the funeral on the second day, with the town coming to look at Miss Emily beneath
a mass of bought flowers
City Authorities
The quotation :
On the first of the year they mailed her a tax notice. February came, and there was no reply
................... they could see that the leather was cracked
The ladies
The quotation :
so they were not surprised when the smell developed
Some men
The quotation :
They broke open the cellar door and sprinkled lime there, and in all the outbuildings.
The People
The Quotation :
At last they could pity Miss Emily. Being left alone, and a pauper, she had become humanized
The labor of paving the sidewalks
The Quotation :
The town had just let the contracts for paving the sidewalks, and in the summer after her
father's death they began the work
Judge Steven
The Quotation :
"I'm sure that won't be necessary," Judge Stevens said. "It's probably just a snake or a rat
that nigger of hers killed in the yard. I'll speak to him about it."
Miss Emily’s Father
The quotation :
We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with
nothing left
Dramatic Conflict

8. Social conflict between Miss Emily and City Authorities
Her voice was dry and cold. "I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me.
Perhaps one of you can gain access to the city records and satisfy yourselves."
I have no taxes in Jefferson. Tobe!" The Negro appeared. "Show these gentlemen out."
Social conflict between Judge Steven and citizen
The next day he received two more complaints, one from a man who came in diffident
deprecation. "We really must do something about it, Judge.
The internal conflict of Miss Emily
After her father's death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly
saw her at all.
The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and
aid, as is our custom Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of
grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead
"I want some poison," she said to the druggist. She was over thirty then, still a slight woman,
though thinner than usual, with cold, haughty black eyes in a face
She carried her head high enough--even when we believed that she was fallen. It was as if she
demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the last Grierson;
Theme
Obsessive
Miss Emily is really worried to lose his soulmate Homer Baron. So she poisoned Homer with
arsenic and he was killed. She took her dead body in to her room and slept with her until
almost 40 years.
Plot
Implausible : fantastic plots that are not acceptable in the everyday sense of reality
Start : Firstly it was explained when Miss Emily died the in seventy fourth years old then the
narrator retold Miss Emily’s past life when she was young. Miss Emily was a daughter from
Grierson that was well-known as a respectable woman that lived in Jeffersons.
Introduction of conflict : It was told after her father died she became very introvert. She just
lived with her servant , Tobe. She became very sad. Then she choosed to hide herself inside
her house . She also ignored to pay taxes until she died. And then two years later she met
Homer Baron, a northener labourer from construction company. From the first time they met,

9. Miss Emily loved him, and then they went out together. Homer Baron interested with her
too,but it did not mean he loved her.
Rising Action :Actually Homer Baron was not married man, it made Miss Emily despair, but
she could not leave Homer, and then she went in to a druggiest and bought arsenic. In the
evening Homer and Miss Emily had dinner in her house. After that Homer Baron was
suddenly lost. Citizen of Jeffersons never met him again. After that there were some
complaints from citizen for Judge Steven, they often complained about odor smell from Miss
Emily’s house, but the judge answer it wisely, the smell maybe from rats. The days later there
were some men who spread lime into Miss Emily’s yard. And some weeks later the smeel
lost. Daily, monthly, yearly Miss Emily became older and finally died, She died in seventy
fourth years old. She was waited by her loyal servant ‘Tobe’.
Climax, Falling Action and Ending : The second day after Miss Emily died, her two
cousins entered her room, They were very surprised after seeing a man skeleton layed on
Miss Emily bed, they twice surprised when they found a long gray hair layed on that pilow
behind the skeleton. It meand Homer Baron was killed by Miss Emily with arsenic and then
she brought Homer Baron into her room and slept with dead body until she dead almost in 40
years. Whereas her servant ‘Tobe’ suddenly went away after Miss Emily dead and no one
knew and saw where he gone.
Characterization
Miss Emily : a respected woman, well-known, charming, interesting, introvert, and
stubborn.
Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in
the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the
back-flung front door.
her hair was cut short, making her look like a girl, with a vague resemblance to those angels
in colored church windows--sort of tragic and serene.
She was over thirty then, still a slight woman, though thinner than usual, with cold, haughty
black eyes in a face
a small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into
her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head. Her skeleton was small and
spare; perhaps that was why what would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity
in her
After her father's death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly
saw her at all
a window that had been dark was lighted and Miss Emily sat in it, the light behind her, and
her upright torso motionless as that of an idol

10. At last they could pity Miss Emily. Being left alone, and a pauper, she had become
humanized. Now she too would know the old thrill and the old despair of a penny more or
less.
Up to the day of her death at seventy-four it was still that vigorous iron-gray, like the hair of
an active man.
Homer Baron : interesting, easy-going, popular, and charming.
Homer Barron, a Yankee--a big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his
face
Whenever you heard a lot of laughing anywhere about the square, Homer Barron would be in
the center of the group
Tobe (the servant) : he is loyal to Miss Emily, he was quite silent and mysterious.
and the only sign of life about the place was the Negro man--a young man then--going in and
out with a market basket.
Daily, monthly, yearly we watched the Negro grow grayer and more stooped, going in and
out with the market basket
Fell ill in the house filled with dust and shadows, with only a doddering Negro man to wait
on her
We did not even know she was sick; we had long since given up trying to get any information
from the Negro
He walked right through the house and out the back and was not seen again.
Two Cousins’ of Miss Emily : They respected Miss Emily and also curious
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
The ladies : They like in making gossip and always curious with Miss Emily’s life
Then some of the ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to
the young people
Setting
Place :
Grave

11. WHEN Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a
sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument
A big house
It was 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
Jeffersons as A City where Miss Emily lived
Miss Emily had gone to join the representatives of those august names where they lay in the
cedar-bemused cemetery among the ranked and anonymous graves of Union and Confederate
soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson.
Stairway
They were admitted by the old Negro into a dim hall from which a stairway mounted into still
more shadow
Miss Emily’s yard
So the next night, after midnight, four men crossed Miss Emily's lawn and slunk about the
house like burglars, They broke open the cellar door and sprinkled lime there, and in all the
outbuildings.
The town
The town had just let the contracts for paving the sidewalks,
Downstrair’s room
.............. during which she gave lessons in china-painting. She fitted up a studio in one of the
downstairs rooms,
She died in one of the downstairs rooms, in a heavy walnut bed with a curtain, her gray head
propped on a pillow yellow and moldy with age and lack of sunlight.
A room above the stairs
The violence of breaking down the door seemed to fill this room with pervading dust. A thin,
acrid pall as of the tomb seemed to lie everywhere upon this room decked and furnished as
for a bridal

12. A druggstore
"I want some poison," she said to the druggist. She was over thirty then, still a slight woman,
though thinner than usual, with cold, haughty black eyes in a face
Time :
in the 1894
dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris, the mayor--he who fathered the edict
that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron-remitted her taxes,
Style :
Diction (the choice of words) including, denotation (the meaning according to the
dictionary) and connotation (the meaning between the lines according to the context).
When the next generation, with its more modern ideas, became mayors and aldermen, this
arrangement created some little dissatisfaction.
They rose when she entered--a small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending
to her waist and vanishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head
Imagery : specific details used to describe characters, situations, things, ideas, or events
Seeing : a big and seventies house, a funeral, a respected lady, shadow, rose, arsenic as
poison, a market basket, man’s toilet in silver, with the letters H.B, complete outfit of men’s
clothing, including nighshirt, a long grey hair, and skeleton
Smelling : odor smeel from a dead body.
Hearing : a silent place of Miss Emily’s house, a whispering from neighbor, invisible watch
ticking at the end of the gold chain
Figure of Speech :
WHEN Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: symbolism
the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument : symbolism
Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation
upon the town, : symbolism
She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. :
simile

13. "Just as if a man--any man--could keep a kitchen properly, "the ladies said; so they were not
surprised when the smell developed. It was another link between the gross, teeming world
and the high and mighty Griersons. : metaphor
A window that had been dark was lighted and Miss Emily sat in it, the light behind her, and
her upright torso motionless as that of an idol. : simile
People in our town, remembering how old lady Wyatt, her great-aunt, had gone completely
crazy at last, believed that the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really
were : analogy
The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and
aid, as is our custom Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of
grief on her face : analogy
Then the newer generation became the backbone and the spirit of the town, : metaphor
Synopsis
The story opens with a brief first-person account of the funeral of Emily Grierson, an
elderly Southernspinster. It then proceeds in a nonlinear fashion to the narrator's recollections
of Emily's archaic and increasingly insane behavior throughout the years. Emily is a member
of a family in the antebellumSouthern aristocracy; after the Civil War, the family has fallen
on hard times. She and her father, the last two of the clan, continue to live as if in the past;
neither will consent to a marriage for Emily to a man below their perceived status. Her father
dies when Emily is about thirty; she refuses to accept that he has been dead for three days,
behavior written off by the community as part of her grieving process.
After her acceptance of her father's death, Emily revives somewhat; she becomes
friendly with Homer Barron, a Northern laborer who comes to the town as a contractor to
pave the sidewalks. The connection surprises the rest of the community: the match would
have been far below her earlier standards, and Homer had himself claimed that he was "not a
marrying man." The town appeals to Emily's distant cousins; they are her closest remaining
relatives, but they have been on bad terms with Emily and her father, and had not even been
present at her father's funeral. The cousins arrive at Emily's house, but quickly gain a
reputation even worse than that of Emily; the sentiment of the town rallies behind Emily in
opposition to the cousins. Indeed, during this time, Emily buys arsenic from a druggist's shop
without giving her reasons for needing it; neighbors believe that she means to poison herself
with it. However, her relationship with Homer appears to solidify, and there is talk of
marriage between the two. Homer leaves the area for a time, reputedly to give Emily a chance
to get rid of her cousins, and returns three days after the cousins have left; one person reports
seeing Homer walk in the house at night, which is the last contact the neighborhood has with
either of them for a long time.

14. Despite these turnabouts in her social status, Emily continues to behave haughtily, as
she had before her father died. Her reputation is such that the city council find themselves
unable to confront her about a strong smell that has begun to emanate from the house.
Instead, they decide to send men to her house under the cover of darkness to sprinkle lime
around the house, after which the smell dissipates. The mayor of the town, Colonel Sartoris,
made a gentleman's agreement to overlook her taxes as an act of charity, though it was done
under a pretense of repayment towards her father to assuage Emily's pride. Years later, when
the next generation has come to power, Emily insists on this informal arrangement, flatly
refusing that she owes any taxes; the council declines to press the issue. Emily has become
arecluse: she is never seen out of the house, and only rarely accepts people into it; her black
servant does all her shopping for her. The community comes to view her as a "hereditary
obligation" on the town, who must be humored and tolerated.
The funeral is a large affair; Emily had become an institution, so her death sparks a
great deal of curiosity about her reclusive nature and what remains of her house. After she is
buried, a group of townsfolk enter her house to see what remains of her life there. The door to
her upstairs bedroom is locked; some of the townsfolk kick in the door to see what has been
hidden for so long. Inside, among the possessions that Emily had bought for their wedding,
lies the horribly decomposed corpse of Homer Barron on the bed; on the pillow beside him is
the indentation of a head, and a single thread of Emily's now-gray hair

15. Conclusion
• Formalism refers to a style of inquiry that focuses, almost exclusively, on features of the
literary text itself, to the exclusion of biographical, historical, or intellectual contexts
• New Criticism, incorporating Formalism, examines the relationships between a text's ideas
and its form, between what a text says and the way it says it
Title Point of
view
Dramatic
Conflict
Theme Plot Characterizat
ion
Setting Style Figure of
Speech
The title
mentions
an object
that
represente
d the
main
character
of Miss
Emily
Grierson.
Two
point of
views :
Omnisci
ent
point of
view
Third
point of
view
Social
conflict
between
Miss Emily
and City
Authorities
Social
conflict
between
Judge
Steven and
citizen
The
internal
conflict of
Miss Emily
Obsessive Implausible
:
fantastic
plots that
are not
acceptable
in the
everyday
sense of
reality
Miss Emily : a
respected
woman, well-
known,
charming,
interesting,
introvert, and
stubborn.
Homer Baron :
interesting,
easy-going,
popular, and
charming.
Tobe (the
servant) : he is
loyal to Miss
Emily, he was
quite silent
and mysterious
Two Cousins’
of Miss Emily
: They
respected Miss
Emily and also
curious
The ladies :
They like in
making gossip
and always
curious with
Miss Emily’s
life
Place :
Grave
A big
house
Jefferso
ns
Stairwa
y
Miss
Emily’s
yard
The
town
Downstr
air’s
room
A room
above
the
stairs
Druggst
ore
Time :
in the
1894
Diction
Imagery :
Seeing
Smelling
Hearing
symbolism
simile
metaphor
analogy

16. "A Rose for Emily"
Author William Faulkner
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Southern Gothic
Published in 1930
• "A Rose for Emily" is a short story by American author William Faulkner first published
in the April 30, 1930 issue of Forum. The story takes place in Faulkner's fictional city,
Jefferson, Mississippi, in the fictional county of Yoknapatawpha County. It was Faulkner's
first short story published in a national magazine.
References
Wikipedia . 2014. A Rose for Emily. 28-11-2014.
ExampleEssays. 2002. Free The Formalist Approach to Literary Analysis
Essay. 08-12- 2015.
Charles May.2012. New Criticism and Russian Formalism.
18-12-2015.
Elissah, Kristelle and Liezel. 2015. Formalism_New Criticism. 18-12-
2015.
Formalist Approach pp. 2014. 08-12-2015.