William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

William Faulkner is a famous writer of twentieth century, and he wrote novels, short stories, plays, poetry, and some essays. He is primarily known for his novels and his fiction short stories, and one of his most famous short stories is “A Rose for Emily”. This is a successful story not only because of its fiction, but also because of its unique narrative point of view. The first time we read this story, we would think the narrator is a man because the writer is a man; however, on close examination, we realize that the narrator is never identified as being either male or female. Michael L. Burduck, a English Professor at The University of Mississippi, said, “the tale-teller as being female”. He gave us three reasons why he tell the narrator …show more content…
While the men are described as respectful, while women are considered curious gossiping anytime they can. We can see that the narrator knows every things the woman say to each other, just like she is one of woman in community; moreover, we can see “she” discuss with other woman about the men, “just as if a man—any man—could keep a kitchen properly,” the ladies said” (Faulkner 731). The narrator enjoys the discussion of some ladies, so it is obvious the narrator is female. In that time, no man would sit with other ladies and gossip about other men, and just woman do that with other woman. Burduck found another thing to help us determine the narrator is female, “the narrative voice (the “we” in the story)” (Burduck). We can see the author uses “we” for the people who know many details about Miss Emily, and just woman can do that. When people opened the closed door, the narrator use “they”; the people who open the door has to be men because the door is closed for long time, and they have to break it. That is job for men, so if the narrator was a man, he would help to open the door not just stand and watch. The gender of narrator could be female by the tone of her voice and the way she connects to other community …show more content…
With people in the town “Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care” (Faulkner 730); Miss Emily’s family is a part of the town’s history, so it is normal when the people in the town look at Grierson family with a respect. Moreover, the way our narrator look at Miss Emily it is not just a respect, those are understanding and sharing. According to Burduck, “the ladies of Jefferson feel some degree of sympathy for her” (Burduck). It is easily to see the sympathy of the narrator through her descripsion about the picture of Miss Emily and her father, “Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip” (Faulkner 732). The narrator feel sorry for Miss Emily because her father kept her away from other man, and that is the reason why Miss Emily still single when she got thirty. The narrator said that, “we remembered all the young men her father had driven away”; the narrator hopes Miss Emily can have a man can take care her, so she attend every men wheedled Emily. This obvious is the understanding of woman, a man cannot understand and share the feeling like this. We can wonder whether the narrator is a man who wheedled Miss Emily, but her father drove him away; then, he attends any men want to wheedle Miss Emily. However, in part IV of the story when Homer Barron was gone, “We were