The Role of the Watch in William Faulkners A Rose for Emily

The Role of the Watch in William Faulkners A Rose for Emily Even the casual reader of William Faulkner will recognize the element of time as a crucial one in much of the writers work, and the critical attention given to the subject of time in Faulkner most certainly fills many pages of criticism. A goodly number of those pages of criticism deal with the well-known short story, A Rose for Emily. Several scholars, most notably Paul McGlynn, have worked to untangle the confusing chronology of this work (461-62). Others have given a variety of symbolic and psychological reasons for Emily Griersons inability (or refusal) to acknowledge the passage of time. Yet in all of this careful literary analysis, no one has discussed one†¦show more content†¦She resists change because for her change will alw ays involve loss. She must prevent time from passing if she is to hold on to what matters to her. Her desire to keep her life from changing is further evidenced by her reluctance to have her fathers body removed and buried and by her refusal to a llow str eet numbers to be attached to the door of her beloved family home. The extreme example of her need to control change, to keep time in her pocket, is her poisoning Homer and placing him carefully in the upstairs room. The townspeople have joined forces with the representatives of her own family and are on the verge o f separating her from him, just as earlier they separated her from her father. Homer alive and active in her life has become too serious an affront to those around her. The only way she can keep him with her is to arrest his activity and to suspend his vi tality. As a corpse, this Yankee outsider will be less offensive to the sensibilities of the closed Southern community. (Evidence exists of the towns complicity in Homers murder. Their knowledge of Emilys purchase of the arsenic, followed by Homer Barrons disappearance and the subsequent odor surrounding the Grierson house indicate at least some level of community awareness of what had happened.) More important for Emily, however, Homer will now stay fixed as a part of her life forever. The consequence of Emilys attempt to keep things from changing is that time for her loses itsShow MoreRelatedEssay on Oh Who Will Protect Poor Emily?1027 Words   |  5 PagesIn Faulkner’s â€Å"A Rose for Emily†, there is a constant theme of protection for Emily Grierson, because she was a woman living in the south after the civil war and the requirements that were placed on women enable to be honorable. That is to say that, women needed to be protected by the men of the community during that time in history and women’s actions were constantly under watch to see if a woman was honorable and worthy of protection or not. 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