POV Paper: A Rose for Emily

Tzivia Halperin
AP Lit
Mr. Gallagher
September 14, 2008

A Rose for Emily

A Rose for Emily is a short story constructed by William Faulkner that addresses the presence of isolation within a close-knit southern community. The protagonist, Miss Emily, is considered part of the aristocracy and therefore is constantly scrutinized, thus separating her from the other members of the community. Simultaneously, the old southern community is being usurped by newer, more contemporary ideas, which is viewed with great disdain. Faulkner notes the natural tendency to scrutinize and even reject differences through his use of point of view- participant of a minor character, creating a disparity between both social classes and social structure, ultimately noting the ruinous quality of isolating a minority for differences.

The narrator of A Rose for Emily participates in the story as a minor character. Through the use of the pronouns, “we” and “our,” the narrator succeeds in first establishing his inclusion in the community. The reader can understand the intimacy of the small southern community. First person plural (and first person generally) is employed as a means to provide ethos; in this case, the reader can trust the commentary of the narrator because he established that he was a part of the community. Even in the first sentence, the narrator conveys the closeness of the community as he states that “when Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral,” (Faulkner 26), creating a majority. The sense of community is used to juxtapose the sense of isolation that Miss Emily experiences at not being a part of this community.

The narrator expresses great disdain at the changes in the southern social structure that is established through a shift to third person. He describes “the next generation, with its more modern ideas…” (Faulker 26) and refers to the newer community members as “they,” thus isolating them from the rest of the community. He employs the pronoun “they” rather than “we” to suggest the degeneration from the traditional, old southern society to a more contemporary society. Rather than merely commenting on the changes in the structure of his society, the change in point of view helps the narrator to establish what he considers to be the perversion between old and new southern society and highlights his conservative and judgmental characteristics in terms of differences. The narrator goes to great lengths to establish, with a level of reverence, that Miss Emily is a part of the old aristocracy and therefore is not a constituent in the general community. With insight that only a participating character could offer, the narrator describes Miss Emily’s role within the town, that “alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care” and that upon her death, “the men [went to her funeral] through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house…” (Faulkner 26). He goes on to say that, “people had begun to feel really sorry for her. People in our town, remembering how old lady Wyatt, her great-aunt, had gone completely crazy at last, believed that the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were. None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such,” (Faulkner 28). Speaking with the credibility of the whole community, the narrator establishes that Miss Emily is isolated based on her class and therefore is under constant scrutiny from the rest of the community. The point of view of the narrator allows him to be subjective, infusing his judgmental commentary of Miss Emily, further establishing her isolation.

The isolation that Miss Emily experiences motivates her to murder her love- Homer Barron. She concludes that Barron will eventually leave her, like all her other human relationships, and believes the only way to prevent this is to poison him. Her isolation within the community compounded with the loss of her father produced this immense feeling of separation, ultimately leading to her degeneration. Considering the statement of murder, it is apparent that the narrator’s point of view highlights the folly of scrutinizing others for differences, through the examples of both class and structural differences.