A Rose For Emily Conflict Analysis
Written in 1931, William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a first person plural narrative short story about Miss Emily Grierson mysterious life, and the personal conflict finding out her identity. The short story begins and ends with the death of Emily Grierson. Emily is a strange figure of the Jefferson town, no one really knows her, and she has that psychotic behavior with everyone. Emily’s unusual behaviors launch after her father’s death and all the neighbors complained to the mayor that strange smells are coming from her back yard. But, everyone is too afraid and don’t want to bother Miss Emily, so the mayor sends four men and they sprinkled lime all over the lawn to cover the smell (Faulkner 84). Even though the narrator sometimes is for Miss Emily, but other times
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he/she is against Emily. The unnamed narrator used second person pronouns “We” to make him/herself belong with the townspeople in Jefferson and it felt like the whole town is telling the story. By hiding the identification of the narrator, it helped the audiences get a better understanding of Miss Emily’s behavior and what townspeople think of Emily. Since Faulkner used first person plural, it also benefits the reader because they got to find out the same mystery as the townsfolk discovered step by step at the end of the story. The story begins with the death of Miss Emily and how every man went to her funeral to give respect and women went to see what Emily’s house look like from inside (Faulkner 82). The narrator somewhat said Miss Emily is not the biggest fan of the changes going on with her life and as everyone can see what happened at the end of the story. When her father died, the whole town felt sorry for her and wanted to shows their acceptance, but Emily refused that her “father was not dead” (Faulkner 84). When Miss Emily started to hang out with a Yankee from the North, the narrator knew Homer was not perfect for Emily.
As the reader reads in the middle of the story, she went to buy some poison and the narrator stated “poor Emily” and “she will kill herself” (Faulkner 85). From that statement, readers have experienced a bitter feeling from the narrator for Emily. As the narrator and the townsfolk entered the room and they saw the body of Homer laying on the bed and beside him was Emily’s long strand of iron-grey hair (88). Towards the end, the narrator used “we” to tell the readers he/she knew about the room above the stairs, but the narrator is surprised as the townspeople. According to Alice Robertson, “The Ultimate Voyeur: The Communal Narrator of “A Rose for Emily”” explained that first person plural narration present a suspense environment (157). This statement is true because everybody had a different point of view about Emily and when she brought the poison everybody thought she was going to kill herself, but thus Homer was killed. The first person plural narration helped strengthen the short story because the reader and the narrator went through the mystery ride from the beginning to the
ends.
he/she is against Emily. The unnamed narrator used second person pronouns “We” to make him/herself belong with the townspeople in Jefferson and it felt like the whole town is telling the story. By hiding the identification of the narrator, it helped the audiences get a better understanding of Miss Emily’s behavior and what townspeople think of Emily. Since Faulkner used first person plural, it also benefits the reader because they got to find out the same mystery as the townsfolk discovered step by step at the end of the story. The story begins with the death of Miss Emily and how every man went to her funeral to give respect and women went to see what Emily’s house look like from inside (Faulkner 82). The narrator somewhat said Miss Emily is not the biggest fan of the changes going on with her life and as everyone can see what happened at the end of the story. When her father died, the whole town felt sorry for her and wanted to shows their acceptance, but Emily refused that her “father was not dead” (Faulkner 84). When Miss Emily started to hang out with a Yankee from the North, the narrator knew Homer was not perfect for Emily.
As the reader reads in the middle of the story, she went to buy some poison and the narrator stated “poor Emily” and “she will kill herself” (Faulkner 85). From that statement, readers have experienced a bitter feeling from the narrator for Emily. As the narrator and the townsfolk entered the room and they saw the body of Homer laying on the bed and beside him was Emily’s long strand of iron-grey hair (88). Towards the end, the narrator used “we” to tell the readers he/she knew about the room above the stairs, but the narrator is surprised as the townspeople. According to Alice Robertson, “The Ultimate Voyeur: The Communal Narrator of “A Rose for Emily”” explained that first person plural narration present a suspense environment (157). This statement is true because everybody had a different point of view about Emily and when she brought the poison everybody thought she was going to kill herself, but thus Homer was killed. The first person plural narration helped strengthen the short story because the reader and the narrator went through the mystery ride from the beginning to the
ends.