The Importance Of Time In A Rose For Emily By William Faulkner

In the short story A Rose for Emily written by William Faulkner, readers are immersed in the narrative of a supposed town member who describes the impact that the recent death of an old woman has had upon their small community. In the narrative, readers are taken on a journey through the life of Miss Emily, an old, lonely woman who is seemingly frozen in her own timeframe. As the story unfolds, readers learn about the various tragedies Emily encountered in her lifetime such as the sudden death of her controlling father as well as her alienation from other family members that leaves her utterly alone following his death. Audiences also learn about events that happened throughout Emily’s life that both molded her as a person and aided in shaping her reputation around the town. From her controversial relationship with a construction worker named Homer Barron to her suspicious purchase of arsenic at the local drug store, there is no question that Emily lived under the constant scrutiny of her fellow townspeople. After reading the initial sentences, it can be concurred that this story doesn’t simply describe the life of an old, questionably insane woman, but also the story of the age-old battle between old and new. Through symbolism and an artful arrangement of the events described, Faulkner is able to meticulously weave a tale of the clash between newer and older generations’ views and standards.

Littered throughout the story is evidence that the murder took place. When Emily takes up with Homer Barron, a man whom the narrator makes clear was not the marrying kind; rumors start to fly about the two at a time when it was not considered proper for a man and woman to live together. The town, her relatives, and the Baptist minister disapproved of the relationship, and Emily was in danger of loosing Homer. A year after the relationship begins, and the pressures to either marry

The final reason as to why I believe Emily killed Homer is that she does not want to lose the most important person in her life a second time. When Emily's father, the most important and most influential person in her life, dies, Emily keeps the corpse in her house. The day after he dies all of the ladies come over to Emily's to offer their condolences. "Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead." Emily could not let go of him, so she keeps his dead body in her house. This same thing happens with Homer. Once she knows that Homer is the one, she poisons him with arsenic and then leaves him in the upstairs bedroom. When the townspeople find Homer's body, they make quite an interesting find. "Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair."

Emily’s father, as well as the people of Jefferson, had always pressured Emily to marry. Her father was never able to find a match for her though, and he eventually passed. Emily then met Homer Barron, a contract worker for the town. They begin to see each other more often, and the townspeople are shocked that Emily would lower herself to being with a man of low class. This shows a bit of irony, in that there has always been pressure for Emily to marry, yet when she finally meets a man she loves, people think she is wrong in her decision. Another piece of irony in this relationship, comes after Emily dies. The body of Homer Barron is found in the attic of Emily’s home. Next to the body are signs that Emily had been sleeping next the corpse. It can be assumed that Emily did murder Homer with the arsenic she had purchased earlier in the story. It

Once it becomes apparent that Homer is not the marrying type and that he represents everything that she is against, Emily murders him with rat poison. It is revealed that Emily kept Homer’s corpse in her bed throughout the rest of her life, when he is found in the bed by the townspeople after she dies. Homer represented the more modern and industrialized South to come and Emily murdering him

Homer entered her life by courting her publicly; by not wanting to marry her, he would have robbed her of her dignity and high-standing in the community. The ladies of the town felt that Miss Emily was not setting a good example for the "younger people" and their affair was becoming a "disgrace to the town" (75). The traditions, customs, and prejudices of the South doomed this affair from the beginning. Emily could not let Homer live, but she could not live without him. He was her only love. When she poisoned him with arsenic, she believed he would be hers forever.

Not only did Emily Poison him, but gray hairs was found next to his skeleton, revealing that she had been sleeping with a corpse for years. People thought that anyone in their right mind would not do such a thing as sleep with a corpse, especially for that long. Emily's stubbornness to accommodate to the new town officials and their request of taxes supports the argument that Emily is unable to deal with conflicts because she is unable to let go of the past. Along with her refusal to pay taxes, Emily murders Homer Barron, which also emphasizes her inability to be alone or to deal with pain and rejection. At this point Emily is trying to stop time, and embrace the joyous moment she has with Homer still there with her. The killing of Homer, gives Emily the feeling that she has a relationship with a man that she can never be with for a long time .

As a result, Miss Emily remains unmarried. This situation perhaps helps readers understand how Miss Emily is trying to cope of all the burden and pressures of great expectations that others have of her. While most individuals can handle this kind of stress, Miss Emily unfortunately is unable to develop healthy, adaptive coping mechanisms. Another glimpse of her character is when the sheriff office attempts to collect taxes, Emily tells them “see Colonel Sartoris” (33), who had been dead almost ten years. “I have no taxes in Jefferson” reasserts Emily (33). Despite many attempts to collect taxes, Emily simply continues to refuse to cooperate with the town authorities. This observation of Miss Emily's behavior is telling us how irrational and inappropriate she is when she interacts with other people. Another episode of her erratic behavior occurs when Judge Stevens, the new town mayor, receives several complaints from the neighbors that a powerful, terrible odor is originating from Emily’s property and ordered by the neighbors to “send her word to have her place cleaned up” (33). This is another hint that Emily is becoming separated from her community and is totally unable to relate to other people in an appropriate matter.

William Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. He wrote short stories, plays, essays, and screenplays. He is mainly known for his creative imaginary stories that were based on Lafayette County, Mississippi where he spent most of his life. Faulkner is one of the most celebrated writers in American literature and especially Southern literature. He spent majority of his childhood years sitting around listening to his elders and family members telling stories that included war stories of the Civil war and slavery. “A Rose for Emily was his first story that was published in a major magazine called the Forum.” When the short story was first published, it didn’t do that well in the

Through Emily Grierson, the author tries to convey the struggle against change. Emily herself is a tradition. Over the years, Emily does not change much even though the world around her is changing every day. Emily is entirely cut off from society to the point where she does not even leave her house. No one can understand why. Emily refuses to have numbers attached to the side of her house when the town decides they will be starting mail delivery. She also has not paid taxes in years, supposedly because her father lent money to the town and forgiving Emily’s taxes is the town 's way of repaying her. When the Board of Alderman comes to Emily’s house, explaining why she needed to pay taxes, her repeated response is “See Colonel Sartoris. I have no taxes in Jefferson” (79). Little does she know, Colonel Sartoris died ten years prior, which is just another example of how cut off from society she is.

In the short story “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner escorts the reader through the peculiar life of the main character Miss Emily Grierson. The gloomy tone of the story is set by the author beginning his tale with the funeral of Miss Emily. During course of the story, we are taken through different times in Miss Emily’s life and how she was lost in time, with the town around her moving forward. Through the use of southern gothic writing style, narrator point of view, and foreshadowing, Faulkner aids the reader in creating a visualization of Miss Emily and the town in which she lives while also giving an insight into her sanity.

one's personal control”(Schwab 215) then one might come to the realization that Miss Emily is even trying to control time. “The watch's placement in her pocket, its unusually loud ticking, and the chain to which it is attached illustrate both her attempts to control the passage

The townspeople felt bad for Emily and thought the reason for her craziness was because her family had a history of it. Emily also waits three days before revealing the death of her father. Emily allows the dead body of her father to lie in her home rotting away. Another crazy action that Emily does is when she goes to the pharmacy to purchase “rat poison”. When Emily goes to buy the arsenic she doesn’t tell the druggist what exactly she is going to use it for, but stares him down making him feel uncomfortable. “Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went and got the arsenic and wrapped it up” (213). One of the most extreme actions Emily performs is being responsible for Homer Barron’s death. But, after fully reading the story the reader understands that Emily not only kills Homer but sleeps with his corpse. “What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay… Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair” (215) There the reader’s thought of Emily sleeping with the dead body and her psychotic tendencies is confirmed.

In “ A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner tells the complex tale of a woman who is battered by time and unable to move through life after the loss of each significant male figure in her life. Unlike Disney Stories, there is no prince charming to rescue fallen princess, and her assumed misery becomes the subject of everyone in the town of Jefferson, Mississippi. As the townspeople gossip about her and develop various scenarios to account for her behaviors and the unknown details of her life, Emily Grierson serves as a scapegoat for the lower classes to validate their lives. In telling this story, Faulkner decides to take an unusual approach; he utilizes a narrator to convey the details of a first-person tale, by examining chronology, the

To put it bluntly, Emily is an aristocratic Southern Belle and Homer is a sidewalk builder from the North. “The townsfolk view Emily simultaneously as an idee fixe and a bete noir whose cruising with Homer Barron they monitor” (Melczarek 240). The older folks would say that Emily, in the wake of her father’s death, was forgetting “Noblesse Oblige,” or nobility obligations (Faulkner 797). Of course Emily had had suitors more suited for her in the past, but she decided it was Homer she wanted. The narrator comments, “She carried her head high enough – even when we believed that she was fallen” (797). Then, when Homer prepares to go back North, the townspeople are suddenly in her corner and pity her when Homer disappears.