A Rose for Emily (Point of View)

The narrator of A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner tells the story of Miss Emily Grierson, a lonely woman who ends up with a tragic death. Miss Emily was portrayed as a woman who was unwilling to change. When she found out about Homer Barron’s lack of feelings for her, she killed him in order to keep the romance alive. There’s no doubt that the climax of her sleeping with Homer’s dead body can creep one out. But in this short story, Faulkner really wants to make the readers speculate on the psychology of the mind, or what made Miss Emily act the way she did. And by having the narrator know the whole story before he tells it, he is able to use flashbacks and foreshadowing, which changes the reader’s view on Faulkner’s purpose.

The narrator in this short story is a person who lives in Miss Emily’s town, possibly a neighbor. He constantly speaks collectively, as if representing the whole town. This is evident in the first sentence when he says, “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral…” (26). The “our” in that sentence adds him as a part of the town, along with the other times he says “we,” “ours” and “us”. So right off the bat, we know that the narrator has probably been around Miss Emily for quite some time (as long as he’s lived in the town), letting the readers know in advance that he will include the information necessary to get his point across.

Throughout the story, the narrator uses flashbacks and foreshadowing, but never speaks in the present tense, as if he was watching what he was describing. The first part of the story tells of the time “when Miss Emily Grierson died…” (26) which is explained in more detail at the very end of the story. Then it switches to telling the story of the events that happened right before she died; “Alive, Miss Emily…” (26). The act of changing the view makes our minds toggle back and forth, adding suspense to the story. At the beginning, we know that she dies, so there must be another important event that we still do not know, creating that suspense.

The point of view that Faulkner chose in this story was effectively beneficial. If the story was told chronologically, it would have been harder for the reader to make connections at the end. It would just seem like a story about a weird woman with a purpose to creep out. But the beginning flashback starts the mystery, like In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Everyone that reads the books knows in the beginning that people died, but Capote was more interested in why they died and the events and actions that led up to it. The same applies with A Rose for Emily. We know that she dies at the beginning, but the important part is why she died, what led up to her death, and the psychological processes that made that happen. Having the narrator tell us upfront about her death leads us to think about those questions rather than to keep us wondering if she was ever going to die.

Not having a chronological order also explained the gray hair reference. If the narrator was writing in present tense, why would he/she include the fact that Miss Emily’s hair “was turning gray?” (31). Or that “during the next few years, it grew grayer and grayer until it attained an even pepper-and-salt iron-gray?” (31). If this was written in present tense, it would seem obvious that as Miss Emily got older, that her hair would turn gray. But because the narrator is reflecting on the past, he/she adds that extra detail in to allow the readers to make the connection in the end at the climax of the story.
William Faulkner’s decision of the point of view was very effective. Mainly, he accomplished a change of purpose. This story shows how something as basic as point of view can change something as complex as an author’s purpose.