Stuck in Time

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is a not the kind of story one thinks it will be based on the title. While the title of this story gives off the impression that it will be a happy story, it is the complete opposite. This story is a sad and somewhat dark story about a lonely woman named Emily Grierson. Miss Emily suffers a great loss when her father passes and the house starts to become run down. She meets a man named Homer and everyone knows they are to be married. It appears to the townspeople that he has left, however, there is an unknown secret that Miss Emily hides. He is not seen again until the day the Miss Emily dies. The people of the town believe that Miss Emily had poisoned Homer with arsenic so he could never leave her. She feels that loss comes with change. She does not want to lose Homer so she does the only thing that can make him stay with her forever. She does not want things to change but to merely stay the same. It seems that Miss Emily is lost in the past. She is lost in time and does not want her surroundings, or her life for that matter, to change. We see this in her refusal to pay taxes, her refusal to get a zip code, and her run down house. These three incidents relate to the themes in this short story. Miss Emily has refused to change with time. Another theme is death. Miss Emily believes that dying is not the end but a way for things to stay the same. Her refusal to pay taxes, her refusal to get a zip code, and her run down house are all ways that she refuses to change with time. One incident where Miss Emily refuses to change with time is when she refuses to pay her taxes. She receives a tax notice and she does not claim it. “Each December we sent her a tax notice, which would be returned by the post office a week later, unclaimed.” (Faulkner 521). This incident is important because it shows that she refuses to pay her local taxes. She was the only one in Jefferson who does not pay her taxes. It is quite obvious that the authorities are not going to argue with her about paying her taxes. That is why there are never surprised when she sends back her tax notices every year unclaimed. She was told she would not have to pay any and she is sticking to that statement. For her to pay her local taxes it would mean that she is agreeing to change and that is something she does not want to do. Free postal delivery arrives in the town and everyone is very excited, everyone except Miss Emily that is. The townspeople think this is very weird but still continue to respect her. It does make sending and receiving her mail more difficult, but Miss Emily is content with not changing. “When the town got free postal delivery Miss Emily alone refused to let them fasten the metal numbers above her door and attach a mailbox to it.” (Faulkner 521). She does not want to change the way her mail arrives. Miss Emily also refuses to let them put street numbers on her house. To her, getting a zip code is so much more than evolving with the town. It resembles change and that is something Miss Emily does not want to happen. Miss Emily does not listen to anyone in the town. She does what she wants and how she wants. This is a sign of an independent woman who is not to be messed with. All Miss Emily wants is for things to stay the same. Upgrading is changing and she associates change with loss. She sees change as a threat so naturally she refuses to allow her life to change. Since she wants things to stay the same, her house has become neglected and the whole town of Jefferson is aware of it. “It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street. But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily’s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps- and eyesore among eyesores.” (Faulkner 516). In this quote it seems like the townspeople think that the house is not living up to its’ full potential. They think it is an eyesore and could look better. It has stayed the exact same throughout her life. At one point it might have even been an extravagant house. When her father dies is when the house begins to become run down and decay. The house is all she has left. Miss Emily associates change with loss and since she has just lost her father she cannot bear to allow the house to change. For Emily, death is a way for her world to stay the same. The outside of her house is decaying and growing old in age, as is Miss Emily. It has not changed in the years since her father’s death. The house continues to not change even through the death of Homer. Her house is another example of how she is stuck in time. She does not want to progress or change. “And so she died. Fell ill in the house filled with dust and shadows, with only a doddering Negro man to wait on her.” (Faulkner 521). It says the house is filled with dust which means it has been neglected and not taken care of. The house has not changed a bit over the years. She has been able to keep all of the people of Jefferson out of her house. In fact, the only person who comes and goes from the house is Tobe, her help. Miss Emily has managed to keep her house the same over the years and she is content because that aspect of her life is not changing. She is in control of what is and is not changing and that is all Miss Emily has ever wanted. This theme reoccurs over and over in this story. Miss Emily refuses to change with the time because she feels that loss comes with change. She loses her father and her lover. She does not want to lose anything else so therefore she does not change when her surroundings do. Many people in the town do not understand Miss Emily. They do not understand why she refuses to pay taxes, or to get a zip code, or even to tidy up her house. Miss Emily does not want her life to change. She does not want people leaving her, even if it is because of death. She has managed to keep all of the people of Jefferson out of her life. How can they leave her if they do not know her on a personal level? That would be another way to think about how she is not changing. Since she associates loss with change she does not allow people to get close to her because losing them would mean that something is changing. She does not want to change and she does not want to progress with the times. We see this in these three incidents. This may be because she embraces her Southern heritage and wants to remain in that time. Southerners do have a tendency to want to keep things the same, and this story was a great representation of not wanting to progress over time. Works Cited Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Kelly J. Mays. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013. 513-22. Print.