Point of View
The most important element of a short story is the point of view. The point of view can make or break a character. It can also help the reader determine and understand the minds of the characters. In " A Rose for Emily", by William Faulkner, and "The Cask of Amontillado", by Edgar Allen Poe, the protagonists of the stories commit crimes that go virtually unpunished. In these stories the point of view helps the reader determine how much is known about the character's motives, the basic circumstances of the crime, and how the characters justify the crime. One function of the point of view is to allow the readers a chance to see the motives of the murder. In "A Rose of Emily" a narrator, who is a minor character in the story, tells the story in first person. The narrator never knows the thoughts or feelings of Emily. So, like the townspeople in the short story, the readers are on the outside speculating what Emily is thinking. Because of the point of view that is in use, Emily's motives are never clearly shown to
the reader. The audience can only guess that because Homer "is not a marrying man" Emily kills him to keep him with her (Faulkner 32). In "The Cask of Amontillado", on the other hand, the story is told in first person participant, so the reader knows everything the narrator is thinking. The reader knows for a fact, that the reason Fortunato is going to be killed is because "he ventures upon insult, and [Montresor] vows revenge" (Poe 1). In "A Rose for Emily" and "A Cask of Amontillado" the point of view influences the readers treatment of the crimes in question, by determining the motives, the circumstances, and the extent to which the crime is justified. Without the minor character participant and the narrator participant points of view the crimes would be horribly gruesome, a woman who sleeps with a dead body and a cold-blooded murderer who buries his victims alive, instead these crimes become the plots of two great short stories. Another function of the point of view in these short stories is to allow the reader to see the basic circum
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 708
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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