William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

In ‘A Rose for Emily’ by William Faulkner, he tells part of the story from the point of view of the townspeople to give a feel for what people think about Emily and her life rather than from a standard third person point of view. William Faulkner uses this point of view to illustrate how people in small towns act. “So the NEXT day we all said, ‘She will kill herself’; and we said it would be the best thing” (Faulkner 6). William Faulkner illustrates that the people of the town have their own opinion about Emily and have made a prediction on her situation. They believe that she will commit suicide, and they think it will be for the better. Faulkner uses the words ‘we all said’ and ‘we said’ to represent how the townspeople are all together

He also uses the word ‘will’ as in “She will kill herself” to show how the people strongly believe in their own opinions. Without any prior knowledge of Emily’s situation, the townspeople are still confident enough in their assumption to say that she will kill herself, rather than thinking she ‘might’ kill herself. The passage illuminates the human experience because in today’s society many people cannot express who they really are. Many are too afraid to show their true feelings and emotions. When a majority of people believe in something, many do not have the confidence to oppose their ideas in the fear of rejection. Often times people will keep their mouth shut because they will get shunned for going against the status quo, just as the townspeople all think alike and do not speak otherwise. Another example of this is the townspeople judging Emily. “So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated”(Faulkner 4). The people of the town were not surprised when Emily did not have a boyfriend at the age of thirty, because this was essentially expected. Faulkner uses the word ‘exactly’ to tell how the people felt more than one emotion towards Emily’s actions, and were not completely sure of what