Emily Point Of View

Emily’s behavior takes another dramatic strange twist when she visits the druggist and requests some poison. The druggist asked Miss Emily “What kind? For rats and such?” (33). to which Emily responds “I want the best one you have. I don’t care what kind” (33). It is at this point that we truly begin to question if Miss Emily has foul intentions.

In “A Rose for Emily”, Charles Faulkner used a series of flashbacks and foreshadowing to tell Miss Emily’s story. Miss Emily is an interesting character, to say the least. In such a short story of her life, as told from the prospective of a townsperson, who had been nearly eighty as Miss Emily had been, in order to tell the story from their own perspective. Faulkner set up the story in Mississippi, in a world he knew of in his own lifetime. Inspired by a southern outlook that had been touched by the Civil War memory, the touch of what we would now look at as racism, gives the southern aroma of the period. It sets up Miss Emily’s southern belle status and social standing she had been born into, loner or not.

Brooks and Warren begin by approaching the story from the psychological mindset of Miss Emily. They point out without finding the meaning behind Miss Emily’s actions, the story is merely a story of abnormal psychology. By being able to understand where the motives came from for Miss Emily’s actions the reader is much more able to see that Miss Emily was not just a mentally disturbed individual with no real cause for her condition. The idea that Miss Emily refuses to submit to the group mentality of

The point of view of the story is a third person. The amount of information the reader knows would be somewhat that of a typical townsperson, since we do not find out right away what is really going on inside of the house, or have a deep view into Miss Emily’s feelings. From this point of view, we see things as how they would appear to a townsperson or viewer.

The very beinning of the story is extraordinary. It begins with the burial of Emily, the residents around her coffin did not feel anything, most of them were curious. There were neither friends nor relatives, nobody who was in mouring for her, only inquirers. The readers can ask, what kind of person was Miss Emily? Why the others did not feel sadness? Perhaps there is a bigger question: what was the reason that nobody went to her house more than ten years (except her slave, Tobe).

By the story’s conclusion, the reader can go back through the story and identify many episodes where Miss Emily behavior

In “A Rose for Emily” author William Faulkner, uses the literary element, point of view, to show the town’s feelings as it reacts to the events surrounding Miss Emily, create a suspenseful tone, and convey the theme that oppression can cause someone to reach their breaking point.

Emily is not the protagonist. Not once is the reader given any details about Emily or her motives in the story. Emily lacks the characteristics of a protagonist; a main character in a work of drama, fiction, of narrative poetry. She is a foil character;

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.

The story "A Rose for Emily" is one of first William Faulkner’s publications. The action of this story takes place in a time filled with social and political turmoil, when Southern came into a historical lethargy, and when its glow start faded. The elements presented in "A Rose for Emily" make reference to that time and are a tribute to Mss. Emily Graiser. A dominant tone is shown by a footprint of the past and loneliness to which was added symbolism and melancholia. The author showed us through his words issue of life, love and death, a sensitivity which gets us closer of characters' life and struggles.

In Faulkner's story, an onlooker tells of the peculiar events that occurred during Miss Emily's life. The author never lets the reader understand Emily's side to the story. Instead, the reader is forced to guess why Emily is as strange as she is. In the story, Emily had harbored her father's dead body in her house for three days (par. 27). The reader is told of how the town looked upon what Emily had done, but the reader is never able to fully understand Emily's actions until the end of the story.

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

Throughout the story, “A Rose for Emily” the narrator tells the story from an unnamed narrator's perspective while sharing the town's feelings. This makes the reader feel immersed in the town they are reading about

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

Certainly if the story was told from Miss Emily’s point of view, her version of the events would be extremely different from the established narrator’s version. Conversely, if the story were told by a specific person in the town would interweave his or her own experiences and opinions into the story. The fact that the narrator is not a specific, singular, or highly opinionated person achieves several things. For example, the southern small town feeling is better conveyed through the first person plural point of view. Because we learn much about Miss Emily’s character through gossip and rumors the town as a whole becomes a character in the story. This strengthens the view of the small, southern town as a unified group deep-rooted in culture and tradition rather than free-thinking individuals.