For A Rose For Emily, the narrator is an unknown person, most likely someone who witnessed Emily’s life. A few key clues are that the narrator never reveals his or her identity, that the reader learns about Emily after she has died, and that the reader finds out more about Emily through other characters’ dialogue than from direct narration. However, this is merely a judgment on the reader’s part, not necessarily on the author’s. The narrator of A Rose For Emily presents itself as an objective presence who does not intrude into or alter the course of events in Emily Grierson’s life; however, this is possibly untrue.
A possible subjective element is that the story begins with Emily, and therefore all of the information concerning Emily may be seen through her own perspective. The contents of the letter she receives about her taxes might also reflect her own subjective interpretation, but since there are no other characters to reveal anyone else’s perspectives, it is impossible to know whether or not Emily has correctly understood what it says.
This makes A Rose For Emily one of many stories where viewpoint character and narrator intersect, in the sense that Emily is both omniscient and unreliable. The A Rose For Emily narrator’s relationship with Emily appears to be complicated by their gender, since Emily does not seem surprised when this person says that he has come to tell her about the tax letter. This might indicate that she knows him or that women are often given messages of this nature together with information on what to do with them.
However, it could also be an attempt on the A Rose For Emily narrator’s part to present himself as one of several enforcers of patriarchy over Emily. This can be seen in how he claims no responsibility for any emotions shown between them, even though he brought her the news which would hurt her feelings most strongly. He also seems to be expecting sympathy for the trouble that his news has brought him. One of A Rose For Emily’s most significant themes occurs when Emily refuses to admit this A Rose For Emily narrator into her house after he brings the letter to her.
A possible interpretation is that she is trying to escape from patriarchy, since she seems unable to do so through leaving her home or even refusing certain guests entrance. She can only truly free herself at the end of A Rose For Emily, when she destroys the evidence which would lead to tax assessment against her—in other words, by killing Homer Barron and burning his body in order to conceal it from being identified as a Confederate soldier who had recently died abroad.
Whether or not this is an attempt by A Rose For Emily’s narrator to frame Emily for her own murder or an act of love is unclear, but either interpretation would demonstrate A Rose For Emily’s narrator being implicated in patriarchy. The A Rose For Emily narrative voice also appears to be somewhat emotionally involved with Emily at the end of A Rose For Emily. This can be seen in the way that the A Rose For Emily novel indicates that she has established a new kind of life in which Homer Barron can never leave her.
The A Rose For Emily short story also suggests that this A Rose For Emily character cannot really understand how she feels when faced with what seems to be impending death, since he contradicts his earlier statements about time running out for her when he says that it is almost as if she were not dying at all. A Rose For Emily’s A Rose For Emily narrator is therefore both an objective presence in A Rose For Emily, who has the power to make moral judgments against Emily but does not do so, and also a character in A Rose For Emily who is implicated in patriarchy due to his representation of it through his words.
A Rose for Emily tells the tale of a southern belle who lives her life sheltered and lonely. She never marries and is ill-liked by all of the town’s citizens except her servant (whom she pays in food rather than cash). She refuses to pay taxes or have anything to do with the townsfolk until shortly before her death when she gives out presents. When Miss Emily dies, the townsfolk discover that she has been dead for quite some time as well as being extremely obese from eating chocolate candy wrappers.
A further examination reveals that Miss Emily had been receiving regular shipments of chocolate from a company for years after they cut off business relations with her. A Rose for Emily is a story of southern Gothic literature. The protagonist is a lonely, isolated woman who never marries and has no meaningful relationships with anyone in town except for her servant. A Rose for Emily is told in the third person omniscient point of view with some parts being more objective while others are more subjective.
There are many examples of this throughout the work. A good example of the narrator being more objective would be when Faulkner better describes what Miss Emily looks like after she dies rather than getting too close to how it felt to see her dead body lying on the bed. A quote from A Rose For Emily that shows this objective tone is “She looked smaller somehow” (Faulkner). A subjective tone can be found in A Rose for Emily when the narrator better describes how Miss Emily feels about something rather than what she looks like or does.
A good example of this can be found when describing Miss Emily’s thoughts after Homer Barron moved to New York. A quote from A Rose for Emily that demonstrates this is, “she wanted it so badly that even the implied criticism failed to discourage her” (Faulkner). A Rose For Emily also contains many instances of symbolism, foreshadowing, and irony. A good example of symbols would be all of the chocolates that Miss Emily keeps filing away in her hope chest. This symbolizes how much she is craving companionship and love; chocolate is often associated with comfort food.
A good example of foreshadowing in A Rose for Emily would be when Miss Emily’s father died, “several neighbors… noticed that Miss Emily began to wear the heavy black dresses she had put away after her father’s death” (Faulkner). This can be seen as a sign that something bad will happen to Emily in the future because she always wears black after someone dies. A final example of symbolism could be when Homer Barron moves to New York and the townspeople are talking about it when they see Miss Emily standing outside her window listening.
