Past Contrasted with Present in Faulkners A Rose for Emily :: A Rose for Emily, William Faulkner

Past Contrasted with inaugurate in Faulkners A Rose for Emily In A Rose for Emily, Faulkner contrasted the sometime(prenominal) with the present era. The past was represented in Emily herself, in Colonel Sartoris, in the sure-enough(a) Negro servant, and in the Board of Alderman who accepted the Colonels attitude toward Emily and rescinded her taxes. The present was explicit chiefly through the words of the unnamed narrator. The new Board of Aldermen, homer Barron (the representative of Yankee attitudes toward the Griersons and thus toward the entire South), and in what is called the next ex disco biscuitsion with its more modern ideas all represented the present time purpose (Norton Anthology, 2044). Miss Emily was referred to as a fallen monument in the recital (Norton Anthology, 2044). She was a monument of Southern gentility, an ideal of past values entirely fallen because she had shown herself susceptible to demise (and decay). The description of her house lifting i ts stubborn and flirtatious decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps--an eyesore among eyesores represented a juxtaposition of the past and present and was an emblematic presentation of Emily herself (Norton Anthology, 2044). The house smells of dust and disregard and has a closed, dank smell. A description of Emily in the following carve up discloses her similarity to the house. She looked bloated like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that palled hue (Norton Anthology, 2045). But she had not always had that appearance. In the provide of a young Emily with her father, she was frail and apparently hungering to participate in the spirit of the era. After her fathers death, she looked like a girl with a vague similarity to those angels in colored church windows--sort of tragic and serene (Norton Anthology, 2046). This suggests that she had already begun her mesmerise into the nether-world. By the time the representatives of the new, progressive Boa rd of Aldermen waited on her concerning her delinquent taxes, she had already completely retreated to her world of the past. She declared that she had no taxes in Jefferson, basing her tone on a verbal agreement made with Colonel Sartoris, who had been dead for ten years. Just as Emily refused to acknowledge the death of her father, she now refused to recognize the death of Colonel Sartoris. He had given his word and according to the traditional view, his word knew no death.