The Nature of Time and Change in William Faulkners A Rose for Emily Es

The Nature of Time and Change in William Faulkners A Rose for EmilyIn A Rose for Emily, William Faulkners use of language foreshadows and builds up to the climax of the story. His choice of words is descriptive, tying resoundingly into the theme through which except Emily Grierson threads, herself emblematic of the effects of time and the nature of the old and the new. Appropriately, the story begins with death, flashes back to the high-priced distant past and leads on to the demise of a woman and the traditions of the past she personifies. Faulkner has carefully crafted a multi-layered masterpiece, and he uses language, characterization, and chronology to move it along, a sober commentary rate of flow beneath on the nature of time, change, and chance-as well as a psychological narrative on the static nature of memory. Faulker begins his tale at the end by and by learning of Miss Emilys death, we catch a glimpse of her dwelling, itself a reflection of its late owner. The house l ifts its stubborn and coquettish decay above new traditions adept as its spinster is seen to do, an eyesore among eyesores (Faulkner, 666). The narrative voice suggests the gossipy nature of a Southern town where everyone knows everyone else, and nosy neighbors speculate about the affairs of Miss Emily, noting her oftentimes antiquated ways and her early retirement. In fact, it appears as if the town itself is describing the events of Miss Emilys life, the first-person plural we a telling indication. The first explicit example of this occurrence takes state of affairs during the flashback in the second section, when, in speaking of her sweetheart, the narrator parenthetically adds the one we believed would marry her (667). In the opening characterization, many de... ...hich no winter ever sooner touches, divided from them now by the narrow bottle-neck of the most recent decade of years (672). This description would seem to explain the static nature of an unchanging Miss Emily-th e carven torso of the idol in a niche (671)-the tableau vivant framed by the back-flung front door (668) through which the secret might be unlocked-and the unchanging nature of the manservant. It would seem Faulkner has woven a multifaceted tapestry with its warp and woof firmly anchored to universal-and therefore timeless-truth, while his historical particulars form the aesthetic shag bedecking its surface the changeless world of being beneath, the straining world of becoming above. Works CitedFaulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. Literature The Human Experience. 8th ed. Ed. Richard Abcarian and Marvin Klotz. capital of Massachusetts Bedford, 2002. 666-672.