"A rose for Emily" by William Faulkner

In "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner, we see how past events effect the main character Miss Emily, especially her mental state. She seems to live in a sort of fantasy world where death has no real meaning. Miss Emily refuses to accept or even recognize, the death of her father or that of Colonel Satoris. She does not want to acknowledge the fact that the world around her was changing therefore Miss Emily surrounds herself with death. What Faulkner tries to state in this story is that you should not let death overpower your life. A person should try and let go of their beloved ones after they have passed away.

Faulkner chooses to use third person narration in this particular story for a couple of reasons. He tries to show Emily's world to us as seen through the eyes of a respectable resident, so we can understand the town life as if we lived there.

English: William Faulkner's signature

English: Emily Rose

English: Emily Rose

This way we were able to understand how the people of Jefferson thought of her. If the story would have been told in first person we would not have been able to relate to Miss Emily. The reason for that would be, if she would have been the narrator we would have understood the story in a hole different manner. Faulkner used third person narration and from that we were able to find out many things about Miss Emily's past. For instance the death of her father, the love she had for Homer, and how she felt the need for affection. Those ideas she would have kept to herself, if she were to have told the story.

The language and dialogue that Faulkner provides Miss Emily with enables the readers to understand how she feels about the town. She...