The Implications and Point of View Intended in “a Rose to Emily”

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18 November 2016

The Implications and Point of View intended in “A Rose to Emily”

This is a short story about a girl name Emily Grierson, who is quite mysterious with her behavior after the death of her father, who has kept her quite aloof from the society as such. He has not allowed her any courtships even. Such was the mental breakdown for her after he died that she never could fully accept his death for three days. She is believed to be the last surviving member of a rich and very aristocrat family. She comes in contact with a laborer and shows interest in her, despite his low social status. Though, after opposition from the society, she is silent about her activities with the laborer, who goes missing after last seen gong in her home. All these years she was only attended by her servant and she just stayed inside her home. But for a shocking revelation on her death, a man's skeleton is found on her bed that is believed to be around forty years old. The narrator apparently chooses his point of view as a strong literary device with the use of which he allows the readers to see only what he intends them to see.

So, we see that the story is full of trauma and the fascinating way of narration of the story adds more appeal to it. He is referring to himself as "we" and this "we" is being used sometimes for the men and other times for women of the town such as, "We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will" (Faulkner 172)

“This is a formidable task because Faulkner, through his narrator, is obviously describing a psychotic personality” (Scherting 397). These words of Scherting very well summarize the intention and the kind of efforts that have been put into this story by the author. He is a credible reviewer and the document written by him provides a rigorous analysis to the story “A Rose for Emily”. It is to be noted that Faulkner has used the point of view as a very interesting literary device in his story as he chose to let the readers see what he wanted the readers to see, and this has been elaborately explained by Scherting in his document.

The narrator has also given the clear version of the generation of the Jeffersonian that includes Emily's Father, her own and the newer generation. The narrator has given very tough stance of the first two generations of this rich and aristocratic family and has discussed how their behavior for Miss Emily has degraded and destroyed her. Though during this narrator is in the confessional tone. The narration has been done in the third person limited but the use of point of view is done well by the narrator. The point of view here is very useful to create a sense of mystery and always forces readers to build their viewpoint or do character assumptions. Like it was obvious to not be able to know fully about Emily since she is asked to stay alone.