Narration can be used to manipulate a story. The author chooses who and how a story is told. It can manipulate the reader’s views of characters and situations in the story. The point of view that “A Rose for Emily” was written in was third person. It served as a collective town voice and let the reader in on the thoughts and opinions the townspeople had on Miss Emily. This type of narration can be used to detach a reader from the story or characters, but in Faulkner’s case he wrote it in a way that the narrator is slowly pushing us to feel empathy for Miss Emily. The narrator is an unidentified voice that seems to work as a collective voice for the townspeople. The narrator is unbiased and gives out the town gossip with no side note on his/her thoughts. The reader can then take the information and do with it what they please. The unbiased thoughts can bring us closer to Miss Emily. They let us hear her story from an outsider’s view and we as readers are making up our own thoughts and opinions on Miss Emily as we read through the flashbacks of the story. The narrator conveys his/her disgust in the way they look at Miss Emily through the opening line of the story. “The men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen …show more content…
The narrator uses he said, she said type of voice when talking about the town gossip about Miss Emily. In “A Rose for Emily” Faulkner writes, “ So the next day we all said, ‘She will kill herself.” We had said, “She will marry him.” Then we said, “She will persuade him yet.”.” [35] I see that the way the narrator presents the information he or she does not side with the gossip all the time. Seeing that can make us as readers feel empathy for Miss Emily. Having rumors and gossip sent around about yourself could be quite upsetting, and for that we feel compassion for Miss Emily, just like the Narrator
Desperation for love arising from detachment can lead to extreme measures and destructive actions as exhibited by the tumultuous relationships of Miss Emily in William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily” (rpt. in Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 9th ed. [Boston: Wadsworth, 2006] 556). Miss Emily is confined from society for the majority of her life by her father, so after he has died, she longs for relations that ironically her longing destroys. The despondency and obsession exuded throughout the story portray the predicament at hand.
2) What does the title of the story suggest about the townspeople’s feelings toward Miss Emily? Why do they feel this way about her? (Or: What does she represent to them?) Is there anything ironic about their feelings?
In "A Rose for Emily," William Faulkner's use of setting and characterization foreshadows and builds up to the climax of the story. His use of metaphors prepares the reader for the bittersweet ending. A theme of respectability and the loss of, is threaded throughout the story. Appropriately, the story begins with death, flashes back to the past and hints towards the demise of a woman and the traditions of the past she personifies. Faulkner has carefully crafted a multi-layered masterpiece, and he uses setting, characterization, and theme to move it along.
William Faulkner has done a wonderful work in his essay “A Rose for Emily.” Faulkner uses symbols, settings, character development, and other literary devices to express the life of Emily and the behavior of the people of Jefferson town towards her. By reading the essay, the audience cannot really figure out who the narrator is. It seems like the narrator can be the town’s collective voice. The fact that the narrator uses collective pronoun we supports the theory that the narrator is describing the life of “Miss Emily” on behalf of the townspeople. Faulkner has used the flashback device in his essay to make it more interesting. The story begins with the portrayal of Emily’s funeral and it moves to her past and at the end the readers realize that the funeral is a flashback as well. The story starts with the death of Miss Emily when he was seventy-four years old and it takes us back when she is a young and attractive girl.
Many critics have claimed that the narrator is not a member of the community, but a person who had been told the story. However in my opinion this is not possible at all as in the story we have several dialogues, we have the words that the characters said. So it is very difficult to believe that the story has been told from generation to generation and we have the exact words said by Miss Emily or some of the inhabitants in Jefferson.
Communication is what connects billions of people around the world. Industries are built on improving technology for sharing information; however, there were much simpler times. News spread through the gossip of townspeople before the creation of cellphones or the Internet. Speculation often caused miscommunication that could harm one’s character and create a negative atmosphere. The first person point of view in “A Rose for Emily” sways the reader to believe the narrator when he or she recounts the downfall of Emily Grierson, but the erratic storytelling indicates the mental instability of the narrator.
Why do other people’s opinions affect ours? Every time you hear another person’s perspective yours is effected in even the slightest bit. In stories or novels, the narrator is the one who affects our perspective with their own. The narrator in a ‘Rose for Emily’ is a perfect example of a perspective changing ours. In the short story by William Faulkner, the narrator approaches the story in his own perspective, which affects the reader's reception of the story. This is shown through diction and characterization.
The story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner would be drastically different if it was written from the point of view of Miss Emily. Her intentions and thoughts would be more pronounced, and because of this, the ending of the story may not come as such a shock. In addition, Miss Emily would be less distanced from the audience, and they would be able to understand her character in a way that the townspeople could not. Miss Emily being the narrator would immensely change the reader’s perception of the story’s ending and her character.
Another prime example of Faulkner's effective writing is his use of narration. Of course, in most stories the narrator is a key asset. In :A Rose for Emily" Faulkner uses the narrator not only as a story teller, but as an observer from the crowd as well. The narrator's point of view, which is third person, had a positive effect on the way a reader views the story. "Through out the story the narrator uses "we" instead of I revealing to us the way the townspeople judge Emily" (Madden 1988). The narrator thinks back in time throughout the story remembering particular events that occurred in the past. This is important to the reader in that it helps aid the understanding of how the townspeople viewed Emily. The narrator as one of the townspeople viewed Miss Emily as impervious, tranquil, and perverse. If the story had been narrated by anyone else, it may not have been as easy for the reader to completely understand. "With this spectator as the narrator, describing the events of the story through his eyes, one can detect a general impression of Emily" (Madden 1987). The view of the narrator is beneficial in understanding the things that Emily goes through. Also toward the end of the story the narrator gives the reader a feeling if sorrow and pity for Emily. It is apparent Faulkner's use of narration is critical to the enhancement and clarification of the "A Rose for Emily." After analyzing the
It was still a very important matter for the townsfolk, that Emily’s father had cruelly interfered in Emily's happiness, and even the town’ people additionally isolated her out of concern and disgust. Everybody pitied Emily, even though, that was lots completely different than the way they could charm her. Maybe the last scene was a verification of her last saying about life.
Even the townspeople assume that she is going to kill herself so they call a Baptist minister to personally speak with Emily. The minister tried his best to help but he couldn’t so his wife writes to Emily’s two cousins that live in
Faulkner guides us through his short story “A Rose for Miss Emily”, with his own unique form of third person limited narration. This narration allows the audience to follow the opinions of the narrator and develop the mindset the author desires his audience to have. Specifically, William’s choice to begin the story with the description of Emily’s funeral gives the reader a sort of inherent sympathy for Miss Emily, which we, the readers, naturally carry through the story as we build our opinion of Emily.
“Who is the narrator? Not a single person because Faulkner uses a first- person plural point of view, "we"; that "we" is townspeople, but only such as are in position to watch Miss Emily constantly for fifty or sixty years; they are anonymous townspeople, for neither names nor sexes nor occupations are given” (Sullivan, 160).
The point of view of each story is told from a firsthand account of the events that occur. In “A Rose for Emily,” the story is told from an outsider’s point of view, someone who has watched and observed all that is written down. Perhaps the narrator is one of Emily’s past lovers or someone who has heard these stories simply from small town gossip. Either way, we immediately trust this narrator because they are speaking directly to the reader. Faulkner uses words such as “we” and “everybody,” a communal point of view. In doing so, the narrator automatically appears to be more reliable because this is what “everybody” thinks.
The author was very objective on how he wanted the story to develop. Both the reader and the narrator discovered the truth at the end when the secret was revealed. Only author Faulkner new the mystery in this story. A far as who the narrator was, Faulkner made it almost impossible for us to decipher, but thanks to literature experts, we made it possible to discover the narrator as close to our availability. The narrator in A Rose for Emily was not an archaic consciousness, nor Emily’s ghost. The narrator is an important person in town that observed Emily for three generations and gathered information from people in town. Therefore, the narrator is a first person plural point of