Analysis Of The Narrator In A Rose For Emily

William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” and Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal,” a chapter from his novel invisible Man that is also sometimes excerpted as a short story in literary anthologies, are both set in the South in the early to mid-twentieth century. The characters, circumstances, and narrative voices are all quite different, but both shared the Southern setting and the theme of racial relations in the South.

“A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner, is a story about the main character Miss Emily. Told by the narrator the story starts off with her death and then skips across the pastime over the memories of when Emily was alive. The story goes over five different section of time, starting with the death of her father. When her father died leaving her all alone and single at the age of thirty, the town began to pity her. This is when Colonel Sartoris remitted her taxes so when the Board of Alderman shows up to her rundown house she refuses to pay taxes. The story then jumps to another time frame, describing to the reader of a time where a terrible odor was emitting from her house. At this point in time her father has died, and her lover has left her. The townspeople did not want to upset her so they sneak to her house and sprinkle lime to try to help the smell. The narrator also reflects on Emily’s aunt going insane, and compares the insanity to the time Emily refused to believe her father was dead. Until three days after his death she finally turns his body over for burial. The narrator next describes how Emily meets her lover Homer Barron, as he is hired to work repairing sidewalks. As their love affair continues the town seems against her being with him, as he is below her station. She is also seen at the drugstore buying arsenic, which she gave no explanation for. The town thinks that she will kill herself with it, they almost seem supportive of that decision. One day

"A Rose for Emily" is a successful story not only because of its intricately complex chronology, but also because of its unique narrative point of view. Most critics incorrectly consider the narrator, who uses "we" as though speaking for the entire town, to be young, impressionable, and male; however, on close examination, we realize that the narrator is not young and is never identified as being either male or female. The character of the narrator is better understood by examining the tone of the lines spoken by this "we" person, who changes his/her mind about Miss Emily at certain points in the narration.

William Faulkner, the author of the story “A Rose for Emily,” describes Emily as a very mysterious and murderous character. Towards the end of the story, the author makes it clear that Emily is mentally insane. She murdered the man she loved and locked herself away from society for many years. After her death, her neighbors found Homer’s dead body in her house. The narrator explains, “The man himself lay in bed. For a long while we just stood there, looking down at the profound and fleshless grin.” The narrator and the people with him were shocked from what they saw. This passage is important because it shows Emily’s mental instability and broken heart. However, Emily wasn’t crazy from the beginning. There were a series of events in her life that caused her to go mentally insane.

"A Rose for Emily," basically serves to tell the life story of Miss Emily Grierson, a member of one of the respected families in the town of Jefferson. However, Emily has a strict father who allows her very little freedom growing up, and he looks

Not everyone is raised the same, I lived in the middle class and I had friends that their parents were “very well off”. I also had friends who came from the foster program. In the case with Louis Mallard and Emily Grierson you can safely assume that both of them were abused, some time in their lives. Or it could have simply been the era that they both lived in, where men ruled the world. Louis Mallard was somewhat excited that her husband had passed. One can assume her marriage was not a good one. Miss Emily Grierson was abused at a young age by her father Mr. Grierson. Emily grew up under the shadow of her father and it haunted Emily for a long time. Many people grow up differently, and the way they grow up could affect the person they become

William Faulkner’s main character, Emily Grierson, in “A Rose for Emily” would seem strange by anyone who reads the story. A person could analyze her character in a number of different ways. It is hard for one not to see her in a psychological way. As the story progresses, Miss Emily’s behavior becomes increasingly bizarre. By the end of the story the townspeople, just like the reader, is left wondering how over many years Miss Emily has been living with a dead corpse in the house and even sleeping with it. Surprisingly, the corpse is her dead lover, Homer Barron. Emily was never diagnosed with a mental illness by a professional, but Miss Emily’s character and her erratic behavior certainly lead a person to believe there is a likelihood

I liked reading this short story because of the mystery. They say reading a  passage of fiction improves the mind of memory.

The narrator includes himself along with the town when he says “At first nothing happened. Then we were sure that they were to be married” (Mays 633). The narrator along with community members assumed that Homer and Emily were going to marry soon because for months the couple had been together. The narrator in A Rose for Emily also talks about elapsed time since they the last time the community had seen Miss Emily saying, “When we next saw miss Emily, she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray.” (Mays 634). Once again, the narrator gives us evidence that time passed by telling us that “Daily, monthly, yearly, we watch…”, indicating that the narrator is first person plural because the information the narrator knows, is also known by the group of people the narrator hangs out with. Something very interesting is that the narrator shifts from just a community outsider to a respected authority by saying that “each December we sent her a tax notice which would be returned by the post office a week later, unclaimed” (Mays 634). This is a very important clue that helps us find out who the narrator really is. The narrator is present in the three generations and shifts from we to they because the story is not told in chronological order. The narrator is still first person throughout the story. Another opponent to this idea comes from the article In Search of Dead Time: Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily’ that claims that, Emily … comes off as a ghost that haunts still…” (Harris 174). Many critics believe the narrator is not a human and that the narrator is a ghost of Emily telling her life in a different dimension. The author also believes that “the narrative is on one level written as a chronicle of Emily’s life: it opens with the phrase “when miss Emily Grierson died” …” (Harris 172). Although that sounds convincing, this does not explain many scenarios in the story like when the tax

After reading and analyzing “A Rose for Emily” I have a better understanding of narration of and how it can be used in a story to complicate the story line. Faulkner tells the story in the third point of view. We don 't ever figure out the narrator 's name but that may help him remain unbiased throughout the story. The way Faulkner uses the narrator to tell the story through the different points of view makes and his narration style makes “A Story for Emily” an exciting story to read.

Symbolism in literature is using an object to portray a different, deeper meaning in a story. Symbols represent ideas or qualities that the author has schemed into their story that has meaning. It is up to the reader to interpret the meaning of the symbols and their significance to the story. William Faulkner wrote, “A Rose for Emily,” which was published April 30, 1930. He used a great deal of symbolism in this story. Faulkner’s use of symbolism captivated the reader until the shocking end of the story. There are several different symbolic subjects in this story such as the Griersons house, Emily herself, dust, a rose and Miss Emily’s hair. In many different ways, symbolism has a very deep and essential insight to the story of “A Rose for Emily.”

The power of words can steal the reality of another’s mind. In the beginning of the work Emily is a heartbroken daddy’s girl and in the end, she winds up sleeping with a corpse. The tone of “A Rose for Emily” is gossip and great sadness. The townspeople tell us about Emily’s life. There is no way to know the truth. All one can do is draw conclusions. During one point in the story the townspeople talk of Emily and Homer being unmarried and riding around town in a carriage and how inappropriate this was of her. The townspeople reach out to Emily’s family whom she has no contact with, to speak on their behalf. Then, when Emily purchases a men’s nightgown; they assume she married and are happy for her. Emily

William Faulkner is a well known author in the early twentieth century; his literary work “A Rose for Emily” is especially well known. Emily Grierson, the protagonist in “A Rose for Emily” is a woman in the short story that lives in Mississippi in the late nineteenth century. Emily, was raised in an “old” money household by her father, has a superior outlook on life due to her father filling her head with how significant their family is supposed to be considered. Throughout the story, Emily goes through subtle transitions in her life that slightly modifies the way that she is viewed by the readers.

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a profound short story about Emily Grierson, who is a woman in a southern county after the Civil War that grew up under her father’s strict social dictatorship. The story, narrated by a member of the community, follows Emily Grierson as she copes with the death of her father and the abandonment of her husband. Later leading to the crude conclusion of Emily poisons her fiancé’ and preserving his rotten body in the bed in which she sleeps. It was Emily’s personality traits that formed her to kill and preserve her fiancé in order for her to keep a man in her life. Emily Grierson’s various emotions and actions come from her unwillingness to change and insanity.

Faulkner tells the story of “A Rose for Emily” through a scattered, nonsequential plotline. The contrast between these mismatched events and her twisted perception of the world helps develop a better insight of Emily Grierson’s character which augments the theme that time does not always hold an importance in the way that people think and behave; rather, if a person does not make an effort to change his or her ways, reform should not be expected. The death of Emily Grierson is written out in the very first sentence of the story: "[when] Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral" (1) Furthermore, in the beginning of the story, we are first given hints as the author chooses to allude to the physical and mental state of Emily