“In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes. ” This quote by Benjamin Franklin perfectly fits the beginning of “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, which begins with the main character’s death then immediately goes into the tax remission she receives after her father’s death. This is a story about a woman, named Emily Grierson, and her relationships with the town of Jefferson, with a man she was in love with, Homer Barron, and with her father. For the seasoned readers of Faulkner, it is apparent that his stories do not follow the conventional beginning to end timeline. Here`s a summary of A Rose For Emily
This approach of a jumbled chronology along with the narration style lends this story a feeling of town gossip and also keeps the rising action present all throughout the story. The reader is consumed by the ever-mounting intrigue and the end of the story, instead of being comprised of the falling action and resolution, ends with the climax. This, in turn, leaves the reader to interpret the twists and turns of the story well after the story has been read. It is important to note that the town of Jefferson is not only the setting of the story but also characters in the story and the narrator.
The town of Jefferson is set during the post-Civil War era and is still hanging on to the old world beliefs and values of the South while moving towards modernization. The town of Jefferson spans three generations: the Grierson father’s generation, Emily’s generation, and the younger generation. As Thomas Klein notes in his analysis, “the narrator studiously avoids identifying his or her own sex… [and] avoids signaling allegiance to a particular generation, comprehending both the town’s older citizens and its younger inhabitants. (Klein 229) This ageless, androgynous aspect makes it easy for the reader to connect with the narrator and their story as well as keeping the reader so immersed in that chronological order is forgotten and unimportant. Having a first person, plural, and limited omniscient narrator poses a problem. The reader is not privy to Emily’s thoughts, feelings, or emotions. No one knows why she cut her hair, or what really happened between her and Homer, or why she decided to stop giving China lessons and shut out the world.
The reader instead is only privy to the narrator’s speculations, hearsays, and gossips. At times, the narrator gives the impression of being present during the event: “We saw a long strand of iron-gray hair. ” (Faulkner 97, par 60; emphasize added) Other times, it seems that the narrator is telling a story about others in the town: “They broke open the cellar door and sprinkled lime there, and in all the outbuildings. ” (Faulkner 93, par 24; emphasize added) And, the narrator also gives a third person account but then is revised into the first person.
In Section 3, the narrator tells the older generation’s whisperings about Emily and how they said “Poor Emily,” (Faulkner 94, par 31) taking an “ironic, almost writerly view of the townspeople. ” (Klein 231) But then in
Section 4, the narrator joins them: “Later we said, ‘Poor Emily’ behind the jalousies. ” (Faulkner 95, par 43; emphasize added) This inconsistency in point of views as well as the narration style lends the story a gossip column feeling. The reader is always interested and piqued by the different events in Emily’s life told by the townspeople.
The narrator keeps rattling off interesting tidbits and memories about her life and not offering an opportunity for the Falling Action or Resolution in plot development. Speaking of plot development, most stories follow the equation of Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and then Resolution. But instead of the traditional bell curve progression, the plot development of “A Rose for Emily” follows a line with an increasing slope – there is no Falling Action or Resolution. The increasing slope of the story line is due to Faulkner’s treatment of time.
The story opens and ends with the death of Emily Grierson and the townspeople attending her funeral. In between, the townspeople reminisces about Colonel Sartoris remitting Emily’s taxes, the deputation regarding Emily’s taxes, Colonel Sartoris’s death, the bad odor, Emily’s father’s death, Homer Barron’s arrival, the courtship that followed, Homer’s disappearance, China painting lessons, and Emily’s seclusion from the town. This non-sequential story telling reflects the narrator’s memory ramblings and Emily’s attitude towards time. “Indeed, Emily has always denied time and change… nd prefers to view time as ‘not a diminishing road but, instead, a huge meadow which no winter ever quite touches… She can’t accept the death of her father or of Colonel Sartoris… and stops the clock for Homer Barron. ” (Burg et al. 388) A chronological approach does not contrast the past with the present and therefore does not put Emily’s actions into perspective and does not allow speculation of her motivations. It is easy is easy to empathize with Emily when the reader finds out about her refusal to acknowledge her father’s death since the narrator explains why Emily is still single just a paragraph before.
Emily Grierson is characterized as a “tableau” (Faulkner 93, par 25) stuck in time, easily imagined as a timid woman standing behind a towering father. Not only does Emily’s father dominate the portrait, but also dominates her life. It is understandable that she held on to her father’s body as an act of defiance and a need for control since her father driven away all the young men and robbed her of her life and free will. The jumbled sequence of events also allows foreshadowing through the narrator’s flashbacks.
The story’s ending is surprising but not one that the reader is unprepared for especially since the reader is told that Emily has already been capable of it. In Section 2, the narrator recollects the time when her father died. “The day after… Miss Emily [had] no trace of grief on her face… [and] told them that her father was not dead. ” (Faulkner 93, par 27) It was found that she had kept her father’s body for three days before it was disposed
of and buried. From this, it is inferred that Emily has a difficult time with letting go and strives to preserve time and fight against any change.
Ergo, when it is speculated that the man she was in love with, Homer Barron, had left town, it is not far-fetched to believe that she would hold on to him even after his death. Indeed, in Section 5 it is revealed that Homer had not left town but has in fact been entombed in a room of Emily’s house and Emily has been lying in bed with him. The narration style as well as the plot structure reflects the collective memory of an entire town. Because the Emily’s life is recounted collectively by the townspeople, the sequence of events did not follow a linear path from start to end.
This allows foreshadowing since the narrator already knows about her father’s death, Homer Barron, and the room upstairs. The nonlinear structure prolongs the Rising Action of the story, ends with the climax, and does not provide a Falling Action or Resolution. Most importantly, the complex chronology of the story gives the reader all the pieces to the puzzle, and allows the reader to examine the pieces, put them in order, and hypothesize on the meaning and what the Resolution may be.