"A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner

Blog about "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? Quote them and include page numbers.

From the very beginning, the view point is made clear by the tone, by the language. The person knew or knew of Miss Emily Grierson, but throughout the story there was never any mention of delving through internal thoughts of anyone but the narrator. It seems more like the narrator is explaining to someone – perhaps a relative or someone who was interested in the history of Miss Emily Grierson – with relative information regarding the fascinating snobs in his or her limited knowledge. This point of view is, by the absence of omniscient value, an objective one.

To choose a point of view, Faulkner perhaps wanted to draw a connection of rather than a snobbish woman with her head held high, above the town, to one of the town or in fact as I believe, a representative of the town. The narrator speaks of Emily Grierson as if she WAS a monument as put by the narrator him or herself: “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument…” (33) In this case, it is perhaps the most apt description for the attitude of the town. The narrator does not really display how high of a status that he or she stands within the town, so it gives an impression of common-folk that is easily understood. Nor does this narrator speak disrespectfully of Miss Emily Grierson; rather, the narrator attempts to only explain the fascinating spectacle of a woman as objective as he or she could.

In the order of events that the narrator goes over, it becomes more fitting as we are able to understand the town and the feelings of the town, rather than the typical overcompensated feelings of the rich individual. To present the story as if the enigma could only be discovered postmortem, it must be through the eyes of common people that we can identify. The story presented is as a feeling of being explained about through a personal manner to promote the imagination.