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

The Nature of measure and Change in William Faulkners A locomote 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, bind resoundingly into the theme through which Miss Emily Grierson threads, herself emblematic of the effects of term and the constitution of the old and the modern. Appropriately, the story begins with death, flashes back to the near distant chivalric 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 flowing at a lower place on the nature of time, change, and chance-as well as a psychological biography on the static nature of memory. Faulker begins his tale at the end later on learning of Miss Emilys death, we catch a glimpse of her dwelling, itself a contemplation of its late owner. The house lifts its stubborn and coquettish decay above new traditions just 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 personal matters of Miss Emily, noting her often 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 unadorned example of this occurrence takes place during the flashback in the second section, when, in speech production of her sweetheart, the narrator parenthetically adds the one we believed would marry her (667). In the opening characterization, umteen de... ...hich no winter ever quite touches, divided from them now by the narrow bottle-neck of the most recent decade of years (672). This description would await to explain the static nature o f an still Miss Emily-the carven consistency 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 fake and woof firmly anchored to universal-and therefore timeless-truth, while his historical particulars form the aesthetical shag bedecking its surface the changeless human beings of being beneath, the straining world of becoming above. Works CitedFaulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. Literature The Human Experience. eighth ed. Ed. Richard Abcarian and Marvin Klotz. Boston Bedford, 2002. 666-672.