From the outset, the narrator stresses his position as a loyal member of the town community. The reference “our whole town” and his consistent employment of the collective “we” suggests that he is focalizing the story of Emily Grierson through the perspective of the townspeople (Faulkner 308). This narrative mode sabotages the narrator’s reliability insofar as his portrayal is based on local gossip rather than any form of first-hand knowledge. He seems only to be present during Emily’s moment of death and when he, along with a number of his kinsmen enter Emily’s house following her funeral. The various stories about the tax remission, her father’s death, the smell, the buying of the rat poison, and Homer Barron are part of the town’s social history rather than the narrator’s testimony to events he has personally witnessed.
This narrative mode does not only present the story of Emily but also reveals the characteristics of the local culture. Returning to the opening paragraph, the narrator demonstrates a clear bias in his description of men’s and women’s distinctive motives for attending Emily’s funeral. The narrator mentions that the men go to the funeral as “a sort of respectful affection” while women attend because of their “curiosity to see the inside of her house”. This prejudiced description shows that men are more honorable than women. It also supports the concept of gender discrimination because it gives a better image of men. Men are “respectful” and elegant, while women are driven by superficiality and triviality. The word “curiosity” shows that women are interlopers.
Moreover, the narrator’s description of how Emily’s taxes were remitted further exemplifies his biased belief and superior intelligence of men compared to that of women. The narrator explains that “Colonel Sartoris invented an involved tale” about how Emily’s father had once loaned the town money and the town had then exempted Emily from paying taxes as a way of repaying the loan. According to the narrator, “only a man of Colonel Sartoris” generation and thought could have invented’ such a story and ‘only a woman could have believed it’.
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Based on common local prejudice against women’s level of intelligence, the narrator presents women, especially Emily as naïve, whereas men are highly complex creatures. The quoted sentences show men as wise and manipulative that can fabricate tales, while women are quickly persuaded with these tales. This suggests that woman like Miss Emily is inferior to a man like Colonel Sartoris’s.
Furthermore, the narrator’s description of Emily and her father- as a tableau on the front door- suggests gender bias. The narrator is focalizing the description of Emily through the perspective of the town people. The town people think that “Miss Emily a slender figure in the background” while they think Emily’s father a “spraddled silhouette in the foreground”. The town people compare between Emily and her father. This comparison shows that Emily is a weak and marginal figure while her father is an influential figure who has power and control over Emily’s life.
The use of the words “background” and “foreground” suggests the difference between the status of Emily’s father compared to that of Emily. This means that Emily and the women like her are not considered as an essential part of the community, they will stay in the background. Although the men like Emily’s father are an essential part of the community, they will remain in the foreground. This emphasizes the issue of gender bias where men status is valuable than that of women.
