Time In Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

[Introduction]In the short story “A Rose for Emily” time plays a significant role. In the short story a specific timeline is not followed and lots of retrospections occur all throughout, this causes the reader to create their own sense of time. The short story starts off in roughly the same time as it ends, after the death of Miss Emily Grierson. Although the majority of the story is a look back at Miss Emily’s life there are lots to show about Miss Emily. Such as how time is specifically significant to her and how it seems she may tend to cling to her past. Miss Emily has a problem with clinging to her past and it can be observed several times throughout the short story. [Thesis] Miss Emily can be seen frozen in time and holding on to the past when she is introduced to the readers with her watch, is confronted about her father’s death, and when she is conflicted between generations and traditional differences in the short story.

When Miss Emily is confronted by a few of the women in the town about her father being dead Miss Emily denies the fact and turns them away. The townspeople describe this such as “The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, as is our costum. 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” (Faulkner 32). After this the townspeople did not say she was crazy, instead they believed she had to do that, this is because they “remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will” (Faulkner 32). This Shows that Miss Emily was frozen in time and was sticking to the past as she did not seem fazed by her father's death, and made the conscious decision to not believe