Point Of View In A Rose For Emily By William Faulkner

In William Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily” his main character Miss Emily Grierson’s deranged behavior leaves the reader questioning her mental status.

William Faulkner once said, The article describes the fate of a southern town after the American Civil War. As the patriarch of the family, Emily's father leaned heavily to maintain the rank and dignity so he drove all the courtship to love Emily and deprived her of her right to happiness. After the death of her father, Emily fell in love with a foreman northerner that was building the railway for the town. But Emily still did not get rid of the shackles of family dignity and her father's influence on her approach. When she found that Homer Barron had no intention to marry her, she poisoned him with arsenic. Since then, Emily closed herself in the old house, and lived with his dead father for 40 years, until she died. The town residents found the secret at the funeral of Emily. William Faulkner is a pivotal figure in the history of American literature, known as the head of the Southern Renaissance and the leader of the Southern literature. "A Rose for Emily" is Faulkner's most classic short story. In this novel, Faulkner used a symbolic, like rose, Emily and the shadow of father, to reveal the contradictions and conflicts between the American old-age cultural minds and the northern industrial civilization after the civil war. He shaped a fallen southern aristocratic lady “Emily “in the tragedy of personal and social, realistic and traditional tragedy.

In “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner uses symbolism, imagery, simile and tone. Faulkner uses these elements to lead his characters to an epiphany of letting go of out-dated traditions and customs. The resistance to change and loneliness are prominent themes within “A Rose for Emily”. Faulkner uses “A Rose for Emily” to caution his readers that things are not always what they appear to be.

In William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily,” the main character of the story is Miss Emily Grierson. To analyze and examine her character, it is almost impossible not to look at the psychological aspect of it. Through the narrative of Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” Miss Emily’s behavior and character is revealed as outright strange from any average standard of characters.

In the story “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner, the author talks about a life of a woman and the town she lived in.

Rather than stating the true meaning of his works, William Faulkner generally uses symbolism to portray the depth of his tales. Throughout the story “A Rose For Emily,” time is a continuous theme that is portrayed through symbols. The past, present, and future are represented by different people, places, and things. One of which such symbols, the main character herself, represents the essence of the past through her father, her house, and her lover.

The townspeople are very interested in everything about her it seems and this is just another topic they gossip about. Another example of Miss Emily’s character change and how it relates to the mystery surrounding her is at first she starts going out “on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy and the matched team of bays from the livery table.” Then, later on, she wants poison for some odd reason and says “I want arsenic, The druggist looked down at her. She looked back at him, erect, her face like a strained flag…. What you are going to use it for. Miss Emily just stared at him.”(pg.651) Miss Emily is performing many strange actions that spark the interest of the townspeople. The inhabitants of the town try to give any explanation for the mystery of why she’s buying the poison, such as she is going to commit suicide. Her actions are just encouraging the townspeople to gossip about the mystery.

One way that Faulkner manipulates the point of view within the story is by having the narrator use an omniscient first-person narration that tell us the events from the perspective of the townspeople. The narrator relays information about Emily to the readers in a gossip-like manner, where they only receive small bits and pieces of information. An example of this is when the townspeople are talking about the reason as to why Ms. Emily Grierson went and bought arsenic. The townspeople had thoughts that “'She will kill herself'”, but little did they know of the true intentions she had for the poison (Faulkner 35). There is also the time when Ms. Grierson is seen being intimate with Homer Barron, and the townspeople

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.

William Faulkner used a great deal of symbolism in this story. His use of symbolism captivated the reader until the shocking end of the story. Some of the symbolism was blatant while some was vague and disguised. While Faulkner’s use of the color white in this story wasn’t obvious at first it soon becomes clear that the color white represents innocence and youth. The Grierson house was white and when Miss Emily was a young girl she wore white dresses as opposed to the black attire she wore in her latter years. This represents the innocence of Miss Emily before she becomes a victim of herself and her refusal to change. The yellow color of the wheels of the buggy Miss Emily and

“A Rose for Emily” opens with a line that immediately tells the audience that the main character, Emily Grierson, lived a life that was on display; “When Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral” (Faulkner 119). The voyeurism that is evident throughout the story, following the life of the main character through the perspective of her watchful community, is introduced by the very first line. In Donaldson’s essay, she explains that many classic southern gothic tales “bring attention to the spectacle of a woman” (Donaldson 2), which is precisely what any reader of “A Rose for Emily” will find. Emily Grierson is a spectacle as well as a burden to her community. She is judged based upon her appearance, her actions, oddities and

However, she was the centre of furious gossip in the entire town especially when her relationship with Homer Barron started.

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

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner is a unique piece of literature. It has a plot which seems somewhat bland, and it is not particularly exciting. However, the ending is quite suprising, and for me it made the story worth reading. I think there are some interesting aspects of this story if you look at it from a feminist point of view. The feminist movement has attempted to elevate the status of the woman to a level equal with men. Feminists have fought for the right of women to be free from the old social restraints which have been in place for so long. A feminist believes a woman should be strong and independent. In some ways the main character, Emily, is this kind of woman, but for the most part she is

In “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner tells the story of an sad and lonely lady, stuck in her time. Because her father died, she never fully recovered from it and was not able to find herself. Emily’s house was in the past was considered elegant and was built on the best street in town in the 1870’s. Now the house is old and an unattractive building to the neighborhood. People in her town begin to bad mouth her because of her lost soul. Homer Barron, an employee of a construction company, begins to begins to date Emily. The townspeople do not seem ecstatic about this, because they think she is doing it out of being lonely and depressed since her father died. Later on, she