A Rose for Emily - A Change in Life
Uploaded by westonfl on Feb 28, 2013
A Change in Life
In life people often conform to thinking that the life they lead is a good one. They are comfortable and do not think that any change in their life will add up to anything significant. In reality change is good, however in the short story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, he presents a portrait of a lonely woman, Miss Emily Grierson, who succumbs to a mental illness while living a reclusive life, stuck to the traditions of old south aristocrats, and her life then ends in a gothic tragedy. The life that Miss Emily Grierson had lived is one to keep and she makes choices not to change it even though her life is portrayed as a tragic life which is deprived of the ability to change.
The time frame that Miss Emily Grierson was persistent in her perception was the greatest time era, “The Old South.” We knew that she wanted to stay in the old south time when the next generation populated the small city of Jefferson and asked Emily for taxes. When they did this she ranted and raved that Colonel Sartoris has written her a letter in which relieves her of any taxes. She told the tax collectors “See Colonel Sartoris. I have no taxes in Jefferson” (p33). The fact that the tax collectors could not see Colonel Sartoris is because Colonel Sartoris had been dead almost ten years. Her inability to see that change was happening outside her home blinded her to change things with in her home. Even the furniture that she had was not updated. Emily’s parlor was furnished with heavy, leather-covered furniture that was cracked from not being used. She had been trapped in the ways “Old South”, and did not care to change as time went by.
In her earlier years, Emily, grew up with her father who was a wealthy man of the “Old South”. While growing up she was restricted from all people of the opposite sex, and was a cast away from the social nature of life. She was never to date or be seen with a man while her father was around. The following example displays a hard change that Miss Emily could not comprehend, “The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, as is our custom. ...