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352 WILLIAM FAULKNER A ROSE FOR EMILY 353
Whenthe next generation, with its more modern ideas, be- She did not ask them to sit. She just stood in the door and
came mayors and aldermen, this arrangement created some listened quietly until the spokesman cameto a stumblinghalt.
little dissatisfaction. On the first of the year they mailed her a Then they could hear the invisible watch ticking at the end of
tax notice. February came, and there was no reply. They wrote the gold chain.
her a formalletter, asking her to call at the sheriff's office at her Her voice was dry and cold. “I have no taxes in Jefferson.
convenience. A week later the mayor wroteher himself, offering Colonel Sartoris explained it to me. Perhaps oneof you can gain
to call or to send his car for her, and received in reply a note access to the city records andsatisfy yourselves.”
on paper of an archaic shape, in a thin, flowing calligraphy in “But we have. We are the city authorities, Miss Emily. Didn’t
faded ink, to the effect that she no longer went out atall. The you get a notice from the sheriff, signed by him?”
tax notice was also enclosed, without comment. “I received a paper, yes,” Miss Emily said. “Perhaps he
Theycalled a special meeting of the Board of Aldermen. A considers himself the sheriff... 1 have no taxes in Jefferson.”
deputation waited uponher, knockedat the door through which “But there is nothing on the booksto show that, you see. We
no visitor had passed since she ceased giving china-painting must go by the—”
lessons eight or ten years earlier. They were admitted by the “See Colonel Sartoris. 1 have no taxes in Jefferson.”
old Negro into a dim hall from which a stairway mounted into “But, Miss Emily—”
still more shadow.It smelled of dust and disuse—a close, dank “See Colonel Sartoris.” (Colonel Sartoris had been dead
smell. The Negro led them into the parlor. It was furnished in almost ten years.)
heavy, leather-covered furniture. When the Negro opened the “I have no taxes in Jefferson. Tobe!” The Negro appeared.
blinds of one window, a faint dust rose sluggishly abouttheir “Show these gentlemen out.”
thighs, spinning with slow motes in the single sun-ray. On a
tarnished gilt easel before the fireplace stood a crayon portrait
Il
of Miss Emily’ father.
They rose when she entered—a small, fat woman in black, So she vanquished them, horse and foot, just as she had van-
with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing quished their fathers thirty years before about the smell. That
into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold was two years after her fathers death and a short time after
head. Her skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that was why her sweetheart—the one we believed would marry her—had
what would have been merely plumpness in another was obe- deserted her. After her father’s death she went outverylittle;
sity in her. She lookedbloated, like a body long submerged in after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw herat all.
motionless water, and of that pallid hue. Her eyes, lost in the A few of the ladies had the temerity to call, but were not re-
fatty ridges of her face, looked like two small pieces of coal ceived, and the only sign oflife about the place was the Negro
pressed into a lump of dough as they moved from one face to man—a young man then—going in and out with a market
another while the visitors stated their errand. basket.
354 WILLIAM FAULKNER A ROSE FOR EMILY 355
“Just as if a man—any man—could keep a kitchen properly,” across the lawn andinto the shadow of the locusts that lined the
the ladies said; so they were not surprised when the smell street. After a week or two the smell went away.
developed. It was another link between the gross, teeming That was when people had begunto feel really sorry for 25
world and the high and mighty Griersons. her. People in our town, remembering how old lady Wyatt, her
A neighbor, a woman, complained to the mayor, Judge Ste- great-aunt, had gone completely crazy at last, believed that the
vens, eighty years old. Griersons held themselvesa little too high for what they really
“But what will you have me do about it, madam?”hesaid. were. Noneof the young men were quite good enough for Miss
“Why, send her wordto stopit,” the womansaid. “Isn't there 20 Emily and such. We had long thoughtof them as a tableau, Miss
a law?” Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father
“Pm sure that won't be necessary,” Judge Stevens said. “It’s a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and
probably just a snake or a rat that nigger ofhers killed in the clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-
yard. I'll speak to him aboutit.” flung front door. So when she got to be thirty and wasstill
The next day he received two more complaints, one from single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with
a man who camein diffident deprecation. “We really must do insanity in the family she wouldn’t have turned downall of her
something aboutit, Judge. Pd be the last one in the world to chances if they had really materialized.
bother Miss Emily, but we've got to do something.” That night Whenherfather died, it got about that the house wasall
the Board of Aldermen met—three graybeards and one younger that wasleft to her; and in a way, people wereglad. Atlast they
man, a memberofthe rising generation. could pity Miss Emily. Beingleft alone, and a pauper, she had
“Its simple enough,” he said. “Send her word to have her become humanized. Now she too would know the old thrill
place cleaned up. Give her a certain time to do it in, andif she and the old despair of a penny moreorless.
dont...” The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the
“Dammit, sir,” Judge Stevens said, “will you accuse a lady to house and offer condolence and aid, as is our custom. Miss
her face of smelling bad?” Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with notrace
So the next night, after midnight, four men crossed Miss of grief on her face. She told them thatherfather wasnot dead.
Emily’s lawn and slunk about the house like burglars, sniffing She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her,
along the base of the brickwork and at the cellar openings while and the doctors, trying to persuadeherto let them dispose of
one of them performed a regular sowing motion with his hand the body. Just as they were about to resort to law andforce, she
out of a sack slung from his shoulder. They broke openthe cel- broke down, and they buried her father quickly.
lar door and sprinkled limethere, andin all the outbuildings. We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to
As they recrossed the lawn, a window that had been dark was do that. We remembered all the young menherfather had driv-
lighted and Miss Emily sat in it, the light behind her, and her en away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to
upright torso motionless as that of an idol. They crept quietly cling to that which had robbedher, as peoplewill.
356 WILLIAM FAULKNER A ROSE FOR EMILY 357
spirit of the town, and the painting pupils grew up andfell away
little disappointed that there was not a public blowing-off, but
and did not send their children to her with boxes of color and
we believed that he had gone on to prepare for Miss Emily's
A ROSE FOR EMILY 36]
360 WILLIAM FAULKNER
he lay; and upon him and uponthe pillow beside him lay that
even coating of the patient and biding dust. SHARING THE DISCOVERIES: Discussion and Writing
Then wenoticed that in the second pillow was the indenta-
60
Identify and discuss the clues and foreshadowing that Faulk-
i
tion of a head. One of uslifted something from it, and leaning ner places throughout the story about its ending.
forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nos- How does the town figure as a character in this story?
trils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair. . Write a missing chapter of this story that tells an anecdote
that matches with Miss Emily's character as seen in the rest
of the story. |
Describe a curious or notorious character from your neigh-
NAVIGATING THE WATERS: Reading Closely borhood when you were growing up. What was he or she
1. Why didn't Miss Emily have to pay taxes? like? What made him or her so interesting or scandalous?
2. Why wouldn't the town confront Miss Emily about the smell
around her house?
3. What adjective would you use to describe Miss Emily?
Provide some examples from the story to support your claim
about her character.
4. How would you describe Miss Emily's relationship with the
town in general and its people in particular?
res
EXPLORING THE DEPTHS: Rhetorical Strategies and Structu
1. How does Faulkner create suspense throughout this story?
title
2. This story is split into five parts. Give each of the parts
and explain why it is an appropr iate title for that section.
on the
3. What is the implication of the strand of iron-gray hair
pillow (paragraph 60)? Why end with such a circums pect
observation? Why nottell the reader directly what had
happened?
its
4. Develop an argument as to the meaning of the title and
es
relationship to the story. Support your claim with exampl
from the story and explain how these support your claim.