Silent Marionette William Faulkner’s short story, “A Rose for Emily”, is an example of how a small town’s inhabitants can shape the character of one woman based on gossip. The narrator, comprised primarily of the many voices of the town’s people with little input from Miss Emily, draw their own conclusions about her, a women who was a sort of living relic in the town that was progressing into modern times without her. Since the many voices of the town’s people comprise the narrator, their speculations shape Miss Emily’s character, her reasons for being a recluse and their reasons for avoiding confronting her. While Miss Emily is the main focus of Faulkner’s short story, no insight into her personal feelings or thoughts are ever revealed. The depth of her character is left up to the assumptions of the town’s people. She is always talked about at a distance which leaves her character flat.
Even when the issue of taxes arises and the sheriff sends two men to talk to Miss Emily she is described in a morbid way; “her skeleton was small and spare…she looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water…with that pallid hue.”(Faulkner 788). Just with physical description alone the town’s people can manipulate Miss Emily into an uninviting women. Miss Emily’s reclusive behavior doesn’t sit well with the inhabitants of the town. They’re in the habit of socializing and being a part of each other’s personal lives. In contrast, Miss Emily does not share in the lives of the town’s people. There are occasions where “a few of the ladies had the temerity to call, but were not received”(Faulkner 789). Miss Emily’s refusal to accept the town’s ladies’ hospitality gives the locals reason to pull the strings of Miss Emily’s character, in a negative way, like a marionette in a renaissance play. Over the years the locals weave the