Chronology In "A Rose For Emily" Essay Example

The fractured chronology in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” in addition to the skewed perspective that comes from having the townspeople as a whole become the narrators of the short story, lends the short story an air of mystery and suspense that adds to the Gothic horror atmosphere Faulkner has created. Constantly giving the audience clues as to the eventual twist at the end of the story keeps the audience reading, and the lack of information the rest of the townsfolk have allows the audience to be just as much in the dark of the situation until the very end.
The story is split into five sections, each developing a different time period in Emily’s life and the town. In section one, Faulkner starts us at the end of Emily’s life; we see her funeral, which “the whole town” attended (Faulkner, 1970). We are told that, unlike the expected response one would give to a dead person in your town, people attended the funeral out of curiosity, due to her being out of the public eye for about a decade. This is an early indicator of the distance that existed between the townspeople and Emily; Faulkner lets the audience know early on that Emily had no love lost for the townspeople, and that was also true for them as well.
Faulker, using this unanchored chronology, takes us through a thematically significant (if not chronologically accurate) journey through the highlights of Emily’s life. By starting the audience at the funeral, it is clear that Emily will die – also, they just may get to see how by the end of the story. Then, in 1894, the audience sees the defining moment of Emily’s life – it is the point when she believes she does not need to interact with society anymore. Emily puts her foot down and says “I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me” (Faulkner, 1970). Her stubbornness (far from becoming of a lady of the time period) leads her to become isolated from the rest of Jackson, her only other significant communication with the townsfolk being the annual tax bill, which is always ignored.