Point Of View

William Faulkner’s “A Rose For Emily” is considered a great story not only for its dark, almost morbid plotline, but also for its unique and interesting point of view. Faulkner’s distinct use of the first person point of view, through the eyes of one narrator illustrating generations of townspeople’s thoughts, provides an insight into Emily’s life that can not be replicated by any other perspective. The story spans three generations and includes the opinions and outlooks of both male and female townspeople, as well as people young and old, making Faulkner’s successful use of a single narrator to express the collective beliefs of all of the townspeople impressive. Had Faulkner set up the story around any other narration, the character composed of the conglomerated thoughts of all the townspeople wouldn’t exist and the confessional tone created through the narrator’s gossip would not be portrayed. The narrator conveys the eternal view of Emily’s life by what her acquaintances see and think, providing a stance that is necessary to the central idea that it is a part of human nature to assume the worst about someone who lives a withdrawn life.
Faulkner created a unique point of view that really defines the idea that people are more likely to listen to or create rumors about someone who conceals their personal life versus someone who leads a normal, sociable life. The point of view is in the first person, but the narration is much more defining of the story than what one typically thinks when they imagine a first person point of view. The story is not told from the perspective of just one person, but rather an entire town. The narrator doesn’t switch from one person to another. Instead, the narrator is the thoughts and opinions of all t...

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...itude, or was maybe so lonely that she felt that Homer’s body was worth keeping so that he could keep her company forever. Either way, it is apparent that something deeper was the cause for Emily’s lack of desire to leave the house other than just being a crabby old lady, reinforcing the idea that even someone who you live around for your entire life can remain a complete stranger to you; images of the speculation that outsiders create to describe a mysterious person.
Faulkner exposes a very familiar idea in “A Rose For Emily” in a way that is individual and unlike any other story. Had the point of view been from any other perspective, the entire story would have been different and probably wouldn’t create the feeling of mystery that it does. It is the extremely unusual point of view that makes the tone, characters, and central ideas incomparable to other stories.