Different Perspectives and Points of View in Emily for Rose
“A Rose for Emily” directed by William Faulkner is a compelling narrative due to its straightforward complex sequence of events, and because of its excellent storyline point of view. Moreover, most detractors mistakenly reflect the storyteller, who makes use of “we” as if speaking for the whole town, to be of tender age, easily influenced, and male. Nevertheless, after proper scrutiny, we comprehend that the speaker is not young and is not recognized as being either a man or a woman. The personality of the speaker is adequately known by observing stanza tones articulated by this “we” individual, who shifts his or her thinking concerning Miss Emily at some points in the story. Reflect the inaugural line of the story, as well as the explanations provided for the towns-folks’ attending the funeral of Miss Emily:”…the men (went) through some kind of respectful affection for a fallen monument.” The reader is left wondering if the town treats Miss Emily with respect, and if the men in the city recall her with love. The reader is also left thinking what Miss Emily has done to earn the decency of being termed as “monument.” However, when we realize that Miss Emily has poisoned her husband and afterwards slept with his copse for an identified period, one wonders how the speaker would still have regard for her. We are also left reflecting why the narrator had to tell us the story about her. Generally, the narrator is compassionate to her; that is why he never accuses her deeds. Most of the times, unabashedly and other times reluctantly, the narrator esteems her skill to practice her noble attitude to subdue the associates of the town council or to purchase toxic. The storyteller also regards Miss Emily’s aristocratic reserve, particularly in her contempt of such mutual issues as settling taxes or connecting with inferior-class persons. Nevertheless, for the love of life, she prefers Homer Barron, a person of the inferior-class besides being upsetting than his social rank is the point that he is a Yankee. Ironically, the storyteller esteems her great-and-huge behaviour as she detachments herself from the uncultured, uncouth, and swarming realm, even while obligating one of the future actions of worry-necrophilia-with an inferior-life Yankee. Besides, the narrator, who never condemns Miss Emily for her obsession with his man complains that the Griersons “held themselves a little too high.” Nevertheless, even this disapproval is unstiffened: Remembering the time Miss Emily, along with her dad, rode throughout the city in a scornful lower-class way, the speaker unwillingly acknowledges. “We had long thought of them as a tableau”, which is as a creative work too advanced in the detail that, at age thirty, Miss Emily is never married: “We were not pleased exactly, but vindicated.” Following the demise of Miss Emily’s dad, the storyteller’s unclear feelings are apparent: “At last (we) could pity Miss Emily.” The towns-people seem glad that she is a pauper; because of her new economic status, she becomes “humanized.”
The speaker, William Faulkner, builds a feeling of intimacy amongst readers and his narration by the use of “we”. The city denotes Miss Emily as a tumbled tombstone and at the same time as a woman who is extraordinary, who is best for the mutual towns-individuals. While the speaker esteems her extremely- the usage of the term “Grierson arouses a specific type of refined activities- the towns-folks hate her pride and her power. As they long to place Miss Emily on a dais above each one, simultaneously, they desire to observe her pulled down in dishonour.
References
Faulkner, W., & Polk, N. (1970). A rose for Emily. Merrill.
Xia, H. O. U. (2019). A Study of Class Discrimination in a Rose for Emily from the Perspective of Western Marxist Criticism. Journal of Literature and Art Studies, 9(9), 929-934.