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A Rose For Emily Analysis Essay

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“A Rose for Emily” is a piece about a southern, aristocrat woman who becomes increasingly less stable as she ages. Emily lives a more secluded and a more interesting life than the other people in her town. The narrator of the piece plays a large role in the meaning of the story and contributes to the overall whole of the story in various ways. We get to see Emily’s life from not only the narrator’s personal point of view but also from the viewpoint of the entire town. The way that the narrator structures the piece contributes to the overall meaning as well. To start, the narrator contributes to the overall meaning of the piece by telling Emily’s story in a different kind of structure. Instead of explaining Emily’s life in the order in …show more content…

In part two, the narrator starts telling about a strange smell …show more content…

The narrator writing as a bystander and as a regular person of the town lets us see Emily’s life from a more personal point of view, as well as all the opinions and assumptions that the people make about Emily. The people of the town make assumptions about the smell coming from Emily’s house, about Homer Barron, and about the poison that Emily buys. They also assume that “she will kill herself”, “she will marry him,” and that “she will persuade him yet.” Another effect of the narrator writing from a first person perspective is that we see, along with the people of the town, how Emily doesn’t leave her house. For example, the narrator writes, “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.” This adds to the gothic scene of the story because we see Emily as creepy and secluded from the alive town. From these personal assumptions and opinions of the town, we can feel sorry for Emily and we can see how secluded and lonely her life really is. Again, because of the assumptions and opinions of the narrator and the townspeople it becomes more understandable why Emily killed

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