Jezebel
Ap English
Miss Emily’s Secret
Faulkner uses the first person narrator a participant P.O.V. through a town member in “A Rose for Emily” to demonstrate the town’s feeling of Miss Emily and of the events that transpired in her home, to build curiosity and suspense, and to shock and unnerve the reader. Miss Emily Grierson is the protagonist of hte story who has little interaction with the town members and by using a first person P.O.V. through one of the town member’s eyes, Miss Emily is seen as they see her: A mysterious neighbor, almost a stranger. Faulkmner builds an air of mystery and suspense aorund Miss Emily’s house in that no one goes in and not a soul save Miss Emily’s manservant known what happens inside of the house. The reader acquires a sense of curiosity concerning Miss Emily and her house along with the rest of hte townsfolk and also wonders what happens inside of her house.
The townsfolks’ feelings for Miss Emily are those of curiousity, sympathy, but they also think her family arrogant. Miss Emily does not interact much with the town and no one has even been inside of her house for years, which was why the women came mostly out of “curiousity to see her house.” Already, the reader sees Miss Emily as a character he knows almost nothing of and is curious to learn more abomut. From the first person participant P.O.V., the reader senses that Miss Emily is an outcast in the town. The town used to send their children to her; but they stopped and eventually abandoned her. Miss Emily is als oa character that the town feels burdened withi, especially since Colonel Sartoris “remitted her taxes.” The town feels a sort of obligation towards her as Miss Emily had been “ a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town.” Miss Emily had a strange smell in her house which the cause of is not revealed until the end and the townsfold took it upon themselves to resolve the problem; the narrator notices that people had “begun to feel really sorry for her.” The reader has already experienced sympathy for Miss Emily when the narrator describes that her father chased all suitors away and it can be seen from the town’s perspective how lonely Miss Emily was. Miss Emily experienced tramautic events such as her father’s death and a later on her “sweetheart” had “deserted her”. Faulkkner chose this point of view so that by the end of the story the reader sees Miss Emily’s struggle with loneliness and is sympathetic of her but also curious.
At the end of the short story, the reader is shocked to discover the source of the smell the townsfolk had complained about and that Miss Emily was more than just dysfunctional. When Miss Emily dies, the townsfolk attend her funeral held at her house and the P.O.V. of the story is most crucial at that point. For the first time in forty years, they enter Miss Emily’s bedroom to find a horrible and appalling sight. Miss Emily’s lover who everyone believed had deserted her, was found decomposed on the bed, having already been dead for twenty years. The indent of Miss Emily’s head was apparent on the side of the bed which suggests she had been sleeping beside him. The P.O.V. was crucial during this moment because no description are given of how the townspeople felt upon that discovery. The reader is left to infer the townsfolks’ feelings and to form their own opinions of the ending. The P.O.V. allows the reader to arrive at his own conclusion in the end towards Miss Emily’s mental state and then his feelings towards the protagonist. Faulkner’s purpose at the end is to shock and unnerve the reader at the reveleation Miss Emily has been sleeping with a dead man.
Faulkner used the first person P.O.V. in a “Rose for Miss Emily” to influence the reader’s view of Miss Emily, to describe her status as an outcast, and to shock the reader with the revelation of Miss Emily’s activities in the end. Miss Emily had always been a lonely figure who had only heer father nad upon his death had no one left. Everyone always left Miss Emily, and her lover was assumed to have left her as well, until his dead body was seen resting in her bed. Miss Emily murdered her lover with poison before he had a chance to leave her as everyone seems to have left her. The P.O.V. through a townsmember’s eyes shows the reader the lonely life Miss Emily led and it helped to build curiousity for Miss Emily. The reader is shocked during the end but reaches his own conclusions of Miss Emily and is left to wonder what lied inside the recesse of her mind.
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