Passingoferasinaroseforemily Essay, Research Paper

An individual s perspective outlook on the passing of time is determined by many variables. It seems that one of the most determining variables on the perception of time is age. A younger era is often focused upon the present and seems to look upon time as an involuntary progression, which is just beginning for them. These individuals, furthermore, look upon the past as a small and diminishing section of time. Older generations, however, look upon time as a blurred mix of the past and present. The recent times, furthermore, are only partially separated from the past to the older era. In A Rose for Emily , William Faulkner shows the passage of eras by contrasting the new and past era characters and their beliefs. Through the characters of the Aldermen, townspeople, Homer Barron, Emily, and the house Faulkner is able to represent the passing of the torch from the old era to the new.

Faulkner portrays the fallen past through the characters of Colonel Sartoris, the old Board of Aldermen, the manservant, and Emily herself. The new Board of Aldermen, the narrator, and Homer Barron represent the new era. These characters together help to present the contrast of the past and the present. For instance, the old Board of Aldermen accepted Colonel Sartoris s explanation to Emily and revoked any taxes placed upon her. The new board, however, with its modern ideas could find no evidence in the city books to support the claim of the Colonel so they go to Emily in demand for the payment of her taxes (362). She, however, denies the men s claims based upon the word of Colonel Sartoris. Emily, now stuck and dwelling upon the past, tells the men to see Colonel Sartoris (363). Emily is grounded in the past tradition and ways of the white supremacy s old south. She seems to imply that when the Colonel gave her his word that agreement knew no death. The new Aldermen, however, are focused on the present day statute of having all agreements written down. This, therefore, shows the passing of an era and the contrast of the past and present.

The town is slowly converting to the new era and its ways. Emily, however, is one of the last standing monuments to the past era and its ways. The narrator refers to Emily as a fallen monument (362). When Emily dies the narrator exerts the fact that the last monument had fallen and given way to the new era. Emily had stood as a monument for past values, Southern high society, and etiquette. She was regarded as high society and retained a certain level of respect from the people. Emily is a perfect image for the supreme southern high society because she is small, skinny, and pale. She, however, starts to deteriorate physically; her eyes become like coal pressed into a lump of dough hidden in the shadows of her small obese body (363). She also degenerates in her etiquette.

The townspeople not only start to look at her more as a hermit than high society but also start to lose respect for her. The people feel bad for her when she refuses to give up her father s dead body. When Homer Barron arrives people lose respect for her because they feel as if she has lowered the standards not only for herself but also for the ways of the Old South traditions because he is a Yankee. Then the stench arrives and people feel bad in a different respect because she is unapproachable. So the Aldermen must sneak around and take care of the problem themselves. This leads the new and old era townspeople to lose even more respect for her. When she barricades herself in the house like a hermit, people walk by staring at the house and thinking to themselves poor Emily , in a sense of pity. Therefore, when Emily dies the monument of past values, Southern high society, and etiquette that has been deteriorating finally falls, giving way to the new era.

Emily meets Homer Barron, an outgoing man focused upon the present, when she is already deeply concentrated and rooted upon the past. This was a surprise because Homer was a big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face and a Yankee (365). He was an outgoing man with a big stature about town but many people looked down upon him because he stood for present day Yankee values. Yet, Homer Barron was some how able to capture the attention of Miss Emily and draw her out of her house and away from her old era traditions. The narrator and the townspeople were glad that Miss Emily would have an interest at last (365). This signifies that the newer generation was happy that she would have an interest after all these years. The narrator, however, continues by saying that the old people said that even grief could not cause a real lady to forget noblesse oblige (365). The elder people feel that she is forgetting about a noble constraint or loyalty to the Old South which prohibited her from being with a man like Homer Barron; a Yankee man. This series of statements by the narrator shows the contrasting opinion of the present and past eras.

In either situation it was apparent that Homer had seduced Emily. The townspeople, both present and past generations, new that Homer was not a marrying man (366). Emily knew it as well he was a Yankee, yet, she seemed to press on anyway buying him a man s toilet set in silver with his initials and having him stay at her house. It appears as thought she desperately wants him to be apart of her life but he could not become a man of the past. Homer, instead, was apart of the present and was unwilling to be ruled by Emily s Old South traditions. The differences between them are noticeable, she was a person focused on the past and he was a man of the present. When she is finally faced with these facts and the possibility of Homer leaving her she does the only thing she can do to keep him with her and apart of the past; she kills him. Emily had finally taken control of this new era. In her own sick way she stopped time and kept Homer there in the house with her until she herself died there and gave way to the new era.

The house itself represented the passing of the past and present eras. The narrator observes that the house had

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 lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps-and eyesore among eyesores (362).

This statement expresses the significance of a time period of the past, which had once been beautiful, upscale, and respectable. Now, instead, this once beautiful and grand monument stood on a street amongst eyesores and it was the worst of them all. The house was standing monument, which, both the past and present eras are represented by.

The house, furthermore, is symbolic of Emily herself for she is apart of the past and present. And, yet, she dwelled in the glory days of the past when she had been beautiful and a part of the supreme Old South high society and its etiquette. Now she stood out as a small, obese, stubborn old lady who was an eyesore amongst the eyesore of the town. She, like the house, had been left in the past becoming decrepit, deteriorated, and fading slowly day by day further into the past.

Emily was the last standing monument, which gave way to the new era when she died. She tried to dwell, repress, and control the past and present eras. She refused the new era s mailboxes, addresses, and sidewalks and hid inside her dusty, fading, and deteriorating house trying the best she could to remain in the past. Emily becomes secluded inside a world of the past separated from the outer world of the present. She tried to keep her house from the present world, which surrounded Homer, and take control over him. Emily, however, could not control him so she kills him defeating time and controlling him and his era, for the meantime, adding him to her hidden world of the past, where death is no end. Her life revolves around living in the past and protecting herself from the present and future. And, yet, all of it was of no use, since the present eventually caught up with her and she died in her secluded home of the past; the home which, would now be invaded, looked through, and occupied by the present and future eras.