A Rose For Emily Analysis

A fascinating technique used by William Faulkner in "A Rose for Emily" was the use of an anonymous narrator whose role in the town and connection to Emily is a bit unclear. Within the story, Faulkner doesn’t rely on the standard linear approach when he acquaints his characters and their ambitions. There is a strong theme of death, beginning and ending the story with the death of Emily Grierson. The impact of this narrative, theme of time, and the power of death will be scrutinized through close textual analysis to determine the mental stability of Miss Emily. The reader cannot help but notice the way in which the narrator uses the word "we" to recount the feelings of the inhabitants of the town and their impression of the strange Emily Grierson. The narrator fulfills the role as the town’s collective voice and there has been much debate over whether it is a male or female—the boy who remembers Mr. Grierson with his whip in the doorway chasing off potential suitors; the town gossip, spearheading the effort to break down the door at the end; or perhaps the servant, Tobe, who would have known her intimately including her deadly secret. Several aspects of the story support the theory that Tobe is narrator such as Emily is being referred to as “Miss Emily” and the fact that a single detail that described the deceased mayor, Colonel Sartoris: the mayor enforced “the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron” (299). Either way, the narrator conceals