Narrator in A Rose for Emily

Small-town gossip and general societal nosiness are common themes in most every Faulkner novel. They are also used as a means of relaying the stories themselves, as in Absalom, Absalom, Light in August, and even Soldiers’ Pay. A Rose for Emily, with its nameless, faceless narrator, is no exception.

As Professor Ethridge said, much is conveyed in the opening sentence of any Faulkner work. In A Rose for Emily, Emily Grierson herself is, off the bat, presented as a “fallen monument.” A monument in any community is often a centerpiece. This idea is enhanced by the implication that Miss Emily, despite being a recluse, is a highly known – the women were curious to see the inside of her house, the entire town attended her funeral.

The story, as shown in the very first sentence, is told from the perspective of the town itself. Although the reader cannot know from the first line that the narrator will never be developed as his/her own person, he/she is presented as part of a collective from the very beginning (“our whole town”). The fact that the narrator never develops an identity of his/her own enhances the idea of small-town gossip and nosiness. All of the information attained by the reader is told by the voice of this narrator, this faceless member of a community. Therefore, everything the reader learns about Emily herself is presented through the eyes of the community. We do not see the inside of Miss Emily’s house after all of those years of solitude until the community itself enters and sees for itself the dead man and the gray hair upon the pillow.

I cannot say why Faulkner chose to tell the story in this way, nor why he titled it A Rose for Emily. A rose implies passion, romance, and danger. For the most part, Miss Emily is seen as a passionless person. She is a person lacking vivaciousness. She is in that claustrophobic, dusty house, hidden. People disappear through the front door; they disappear out the back door. I suppose the point is, nobody knows what goes on in Miss Emily’s home or, even more, in her mind or heart. We only know that we see the iron-gray hair on the pillow beside a presumable lover.