"A Rose for Emily"

What is the point of view of the story? Who is telling this story? How is this unusual? Why would Faulkner select this point of view? How does the point of view fit with the theme of the story? What specific lines in the story give you clues about who is telling the story?

William Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily" appears to be in the limited omniscience third person view. The narrator uses the words "he" and "she" often and "sees into one character" (29) throughout the short story. The protagonist's name is Emily who is narrated by an unnamed narrator. The narrator plays a big role throughout all the events in the story but seems to know mostly about Emily and her life rather than everyone elses.

Even though it is difficult to tell who exactally is narrating the story, I imagined the narrator being one of Emily's neighbors in the town while I was reading. The narrator refers to the setting as "our town"(33) while indroducing the scene of Emily's funeral. The narrator also uses "we" quite often giving the reader a sense that there is some kind of unity within the characters. The narrator makes numerous comments about
For example, after discussing the death of Emily's father, the narrator starts sentances off with "we did [...] we believed [...] we remembered [...] and we knew"(36-37) justifying the fact that he isn't only talking about himself, but is also representing others. It is unusual that a story so focused on one character is written in this perspective. However, this perspective brings great mystery and suspense to the plot. It makes the reader wonder why this narrator, out of everyone else, is narrating the story. One of the specific lines in the story that gave me clues to the narration was "we did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that"(36) referring to the taking away of her father's corpse. Another that really stood out to me was "so the next day we all said 'she will kill herself' and we said it would be the best thing"(38). These quotes also proved the fact that the narrator was speaking for others as well as themself.

Faulkner uses this point of view with the ongoing theme of death and distance because we feel a sense of space between us and the main character of the story.  By distancing us from Emily it puts us in her shoes since she was separated from everyone she loves. First with her father's death and then with her husband to be leaving her. While mentioning the desertion of her husband to be, the point of view helps us feel her distance and abandonment by stating "the one we believed would marry her-had deserted her"(35). In addition, during the funeral then women came "out of curiosity to see the inside of her house"(33) proving that she was distancing herself from the rest of the community. Also, with the narrator being an onlooker of the protagonist it makes the reader more curious. It gives us a sense that we are spying and watching the protagonist just as the neighborhood is with her.

I enjoyed Faulkner's organization of the plot. By dividing the story into sections, it made everything more suspensful and interesting to read. I also enjoyed the flashbacks because they gave us more detail about Emily and her past. We can often tell alot about people and their personalities by learning about their past.