Coursehero >> Pennsylvania >> Kutztown >> ENG 010

Course Hero has millions of student submitted documents similar to the one below including study guides, homework solutions, papers, exam answer keys and textbook solutions.

Casner Professor English 010-090 Female Narrator in "A Rose for Emily" "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner is a tragic story. It is a tale of a woman who cannot accept the death of her father of her lover Homer. She stays secluded from her town. This makes all of the townspeople gossip about her. There is a debate over whether the narrator is a male or female member of the town. There are many valid points showing that the townsperson was female. Michael L. Burduck is one critic who writes on this issue. He brings up the point that the townsperson "appears very concerned with every detail of Emilys life" (Burduck). What makes this statement true is that the women are more likely to gossip over men, especially in that period of time. In the story it proves this when talking about the funeral. "The men [went] through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house" (29). This shows that the men did not care to gossip about Miss Grierson; they had a respect for her. The reader also finds out that the women at the time did not like Emily and her actions. They did not like the fact that Emily was having premarital relations with a man. Back during that time, a few decades before the Civil War, it was not common to do so. Also, they were not happy with the fact that Homer Barron was a northerner. Southern women were supposed to marry southern men. Emily is severely frowned upon for this. It is even stated in the book that "we were a little disappointed that there was not a public blowing off" (33). Only women would want to see this. They also go on to say they made up an excuse as to why Homer left. Since the men were out working all day, the women were the ones to sit on the porch or look out of the window and watch all of this happen. After the death of Emilys father, the women start to feel sympathy for Emily. They reminisce on Emilys life with her father. They realize that Emily is now a lonely person with only a porter to interact with. Women during that time were focused on having a husband and a family. Emily would never experience child-birthing or waiting for a husband to come home and the women pitied Emily. Michael Burduck states "If the ladies did not view Emily in a sympathetic way, would they have sent their daughters to her house for china-painting lessons?" (Burduck). This shows that the women sent daughters their to Emily out of sympathy towards her. One last clue that the narrator was a woman would be the use of pronouns. All throughout the story the pronoun "we" is used. That is used when there is discussion of Emily and the events that the townspeople thought happened in the house. At the end of the story, after Emily has died, the pronoun starts changing to "they" when the investigation of the house begins. When talking about the room upstairs, the narrator says "they waited until Miss Emily was decently in the ground before they opened it" (34). "They" signifies the men of the town. The men would be the first people to go and investigate the house before letting the ladies in. It states in the story "for a long while we just stood there, looking down at the profound and fleshless grin" (34). This tells the readers that women followed as the men went into the room first. Burduck uses the literary school of gender. This school "examines how sexual identity influences the creation, interpretation, and evaluation of literary works" (Bauerlain et al. 70). The fact that the narrator is a woman does influence the work in many ways. The reader sees a lot more sympathy towards Emily that the townspeople give her. Women would be the ones to gossip about Emily and make sure that this story is told. The men are the townspeople who take charge of the situation and are active in dealing with Emily. The women are the townspeople who watch all of this going on from their windows or porches and report it to all of the other women in town. Clearly the narrator of the story is a woman. The evidence of concern and details is one valid point. Another valid point would be the dislike towards Emily and then sympathy for her when the tragedy of her fathers passing happens. Lastly, the use of pronouns shows the difference of the mens actions and the womens. All of these examples show, very clearly, that the telling of the story is by a woman who wants Emily Griersons story to live on. Works Cited Bauerlein, M, D. Gioia, and X.J. Kennedy. Handbook of Literary Terms: Literature, Language, Theory. New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2005. Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." Fiction. New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2007. 2934. Michael L. Burduck, "Another View of Faulkners Narrator in ,,A Rose for Emily," in The University of Mississippi Studies in English, Vol. VIII, 1990, pp.209-11.

Find millions of documents here - Study Guides, Homework Solutions, Papers, Exam Answer Keys and more. Course Hero has millions of course related materials that will enable you to learn better, faster and get an A in all your courses.
Below is a small sample set of documents: