How can two characters be completely different yet feel the same way? Emily and Paul are completely different characters, Emily is an upper class older woman who commits murder and lives in the South and Paul is a middle-class young man living in Pennsylvania who commits suicide. However, they are similar because both characters are victims of their own societies, driving both characters to isolate themselves. In the short stories “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “Paul’s Case” by Willa Cather. Emily is isolated by her father who thinks no one is good enough for her. Similarly, Paul isolates himself from his family as well as from people in his school. Emily’s and Paul’s irrational decisions are a result of isolation, a persistent theme in both short stories, and are…show more content… The narrative point of view is key element when concluding the isolation Emily and Paul are in, because it is through the narrator that the main characters are presented and exposed. Paul’s story is told in third person limited while Emily’s story is told in first person plural. However, both narrators provide enough information about the struggles of both characters and how it lead to their isolation. At the beginning of both stories the reader is presented with important information about both protagonist that ultimately sets a guideline for the remaining of the stories. In the opening sentence of “A Rose for Emily” the whole town is at Emily’s funeral yet no one but her manservant, cook , and gardener have seen the inside of her house for at least ten years (Faulkner 32). In “Paul’s Case”, Paul is being judge by the school faculty, within a few paragraphs it is clear that Paul is
