The Use Of Narration In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner tells the tale of Emily Grierson’s murder of her lover Homer Barron. Both Emily and the town of Jefferson were in denial of Emily having killed her lover, Homer Barron. This is demonstrated by the following threes aspects: first, the town chose to disregard the connection between Emily’s previous behaviour of keeping her father’s body when he died and the disappearance of Homer. Secondly, the nonlinear narrative and the reactions of the town towards Emily after Homer’s disappearance demonstrate the town’s understanding of Homer’s murder. Third, Emily murdered Homer because she could not accept the possibility of him leaving her.

Critic James H. Picker once wrote, “To classify, to regard fiction as an object can be taken apart and then put back together, is only one way to approach and participate in the work of literature; but it is not the only way. Once students grasp this truth, literature becomes dynamic, alive and ‘available”. In the short story, “A Rose for Emily”, writer William Faulkner uses plot, character and setting to demonstrate Emily’s refusal to transition into the “New South”.

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.

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.

Faulkner, William.”A Rose for Emily”. Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Eds.Edgar V. Roberts and Robert Zweig. 10th ed. Boston: Longman, 2012. 91-96.

“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.

In “A Rose For Emily”, by William Faulkner, plot plays an important role in how

William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” is placed under the southern gothic or modernistic category of writing not only because the grotesque features of the house and the protagonists actions but also in the sense of the stories unique structure. If Faulkner had constructed this story chronologically the reader would not get a chance to see that the protagonist Emily Grierson is worthy of the town's people's “care” before discovering she is perverse and turning into her crazy overprotective dead father.

Readers can often times find that fiction starts prosaically, but ends unpredictably as shown in the short story “A Rose for Emily,” written by William Faulkner. This fictional story is an example of Gothic literature about the Antebellum South. It is narrated by an unreliable male character who represents the townspeople. It might seem like Miss Emily is the protagonist, however, the narrator and the townspeople are really the protagonists who stand for the force of the community. The narrator and the townspeople act on Miss Emily and her desire by denying her desire for love. In the portrayal of the Miss Emily’s role, the reader can see the conflict between her fantasy on love and the town’s fantasy on her. Miss Emily’s pursuit of her dreams, illusion, and community’s dysfunctional values lead to her destruction.

William Faulkner cleverly elected to tell “A Rose for Emily” in nonlinear chronological order for the purpose of creating a multifaceted piece that stirred away from conventional story telling. Emily’s story is only understood through the eyes of a condemning public, the residents of her town. Within the first paragraph of the story, it is clear that the townsfolk, portrayed by the narrator, were not very emotionally invested in Miss Emily, as “[the] whole town went to her funeral…mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house”(82). It is also within the first paragraph that the reader is privy to the indifference felt toward her. The next part of her life remembered by the narrator was about her unwillingness

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” concentrates on Emily Grierson, an old southern woman who is set in her ways as the town Jefferson progresses around her. The story continues by comparing Emily when she was a young lady to the woman she became. Faulkner explores the secret life of Emily, who is the center of the town’s gossip and unearths Emily’s past, and her hidden secrets. Faulkner presents Emily’s story through plural first person narration, which allows him to tell the story through different generations of the townspeople of Jefferson. Through Faulkner’s Southern Gothic style of writing he illustrates a time which would be otherwise unimaginable for the reader, the author uses these Gothic elements to create an

Melczarek, Nick. "Narrative Motivation In Faulkner's A ROSE FOR EMILY." Explicator 67.4 (2009): 237-243. Literary Reference Center. Web. 15 Mar.

In “A Rose For Emily,” William Faulkner imitates associative Southern storytelling style as an unnamed first-person narrator speaks for the entire town of Jefferson, relating what all the townspeople know or believe. Unlike typical Faulkner stories that employ multiple individual narrators, “A Rose for Emily” achieves the effect of multiple narrators by combining them into a single narrative voice, an unnamed (and not always consistent) narrator. First-person plural pronouns emphasize that this narrator represents the consciousness of the town. This style is similar to that used in Greek tragedy, wherein chorus and chorus leader provide the reader/audience with information, interpret the characters’ actions, and express public opinion; thus, the narrator in “A Rose for Emily,” whose age and gender are never identified, can be designated a choric character.

The literary works in the short story ¨A Rose For Emily¨ by American Author William Faulkner is an influential work because of the symbols, motifs, and theme that are expressed throughout the story, which are based upon love and relationships. Faulkner portrays the story in third-person limited which allows us to know the thoughts and feelings of a single charcter. The narrator is never identified throughout the story, but when we examine the tone we can understand there is this "we" person, who changes his/her mind about Miss Emily at certain points in the narration.

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” starts out in a very different way than most stories. “A Rose for Emily” is a short story about a spinster woman. The story is told from the point of view of many people in her town almost like gossip. It is continuously shifting from one perspective to the other painting a full picture and time progression for the reader. Faulkner’s story has a twist though, his writing and language suggests that appearances can be deceiving.