A Rose of the SouthWilliam Faulkner’s style of writing chronological events out of order is unique, but eventually the story comes together to make sense.
I will attempt to analyze the story “Arose for Emily” in its actual chronological order. The story really begins with the passing of Emily’s father. For days Miss Emily refused to believe that her father was dead,until she finally broke down to have her father buried. After her father’s death, Colonel SartorisexemptsMiss Emily from paying taxes for as long as she lives. Colonel Sartoris said this was the debt the city owed to her father.
Approximately one year after Miss Emily’s father died, she bagan to see a man named Homer Baron. Miss Emily was from the “Old South”1 and Homer was from the North. It was unheard of for a southern and a northern to be together. People began to say “Poor Emily”, as she would be seen on “Sunday afternoons driving in the yellowed-wheeled buggy and the matched team of bays from the livery stable”2. The ladies in the town thought that this was a disgrace and called a meeting to have the minister talk to Miss Emily. After this attempt did not work, the minister’s wife called Miss Emily’s cousins to come visit Miss Emily.
When Miss Emily ‘s cousins arrived, people thought that her cousins had convinced her to get married, sinceMiss Emily had ordered a “complete out fit of men’s clothing, including a nightshirt”3. Mean while Miss Emily had gone to see the druggist for some poison. She never told the druggist what the poison was for, though he assumed that it was for rats. A few days after her cousins had left, Homer was seen coming into the Miss Emily’s house. Neither one of them would be seen for quite some time afterwards.
When Miss Emily was finally seenagain, the town’s people assumed that Homer had left; not realizing that she had killed him so that she could be with him life. A short time later the town began to complain of the smell coming from Miss Emily’s house. They had no idea what the smell was really from, and just wanted to order her to clean it. Four men eventually went into her cellar with cleaning products and cleaned the cellar. The town’s people thought she was making a statement that she was the “Old South”, and was not going to give in to the new ways.
It was approximately 1920 and Miss Emily was about 50 years old when the people decided that it was time for Miss Emily to pay taxes. They sent her letters, but she would not acknowledge them. When they finally approached her at her house she would just repeat to them “See Colonel Sartoris. I have no taxes. 4″The years would go on and no one would see much of Miss Emily until they finally found her dead in one of her rooms on a walnut bed.
At her funeral the old men wore Confederate uniforms and the ladies showed up with curiosity to see Miss Emily; The last of the “Old South”. After the funeral, they went to visit her house and discovered the mans body lying on the bed upstairs with herindented head marks on the pillow next to his body. Every one had realized what she had done to save her family’s name and reputation of the “Old South”.
