Essay on The Scrambling of Time in Faulkners A Rose for...

The Scrambling of Time in Faulkners A Rose for Emily In, A Rose for Emily, Faulkner uses the element of time to enhance details of the setting and vice versa. By avoiding the chronological order of events of Miss Emilys life, Faulkner first gives the reader a finished puzzle, and then allows the reader to examine this puzzle piece by piece, step by step. By doing so, he enhances the plot and presents two different perspectives of time held by the characters. The first perspective (the world of the present) views time as a mechanical progression in which the past is a diminishing road. The second perspective (the world of tradition and the past) views the past as a huge meadow which no winter ever quite touches, divided from†¦show more content†¦Inside the walls of her abode, Miss Emily conquers time and progression. In chapter one, Faulkner takes us back to the time when Miss Emily refused to pay her taxes. She believes that just because Colonel Sartoris remitted her taxes in 1894, that she is exempt from paying them even years later. The town changes, its people change, yet Miss Emily has put a halt on time. In her mind, the Colonel is still alive even though he is not. When the deputation waits upon her, we get a glimpse of her decaying house. It smelled of dust and disuse†¦It was furnished in heavy, leather covered furniture†¦the leather was cracked†¦.On a tarnished gilt easel before the fireplace stood a crayon portrait of Miss Emilys father. The description of Miss Emilys house is very haunting. There is no life or motion in this house. Everything appears to be decaying, just as Miss Emily herself. The picture of her father is just another symbol of immobility and no sense of time. When he died, Miss Emily refused to acknowledge his death. She stopped time, at least in her mi nd. Miss Emily is a small, fat woman in black, with a gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt. Then they could hear the invisible watch ticking at the end of the gold chain. In this case, the watch is a symbol of time; yet in this house, time is invisible. Miss Emily has lost her understanding of time. When these men try to convince her that