a rose for emily by william faulkner
...ie-hard demeanor are very strong characteristics of the traditional South as she belongs to the gentry, and was brought up in a totalitarian environment. She rarely mixes with the people of the town, and never accepts the concept of transformation of the society; as a result, she prefers to live in the glorified past rather than adjusting into the present. This stubbornness becomes clear after the death of her father. She denies him a burial, and keeps him in the home for three days. However, the townspeople force into her house and take him away, but her denial verifies her indisposition to change. Moreover, this reluctance to mutation comes to the fore during the conversation between Miss Emily and the town authorities. At that time Emily is described like a dead body as “she looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water” (246). This description of hers portraits the decaying tradition, but her “invisible watch” suggests that she is unaware of the time, or the change, and still prefers to live in the past. When the town authorities visit her regarding the payment of her taxes, she tells them to see Colonel Sartoris who is already dead. As she doesn’t accept the death of her father, she now refuses to accept the death of Colonel Sartoris. By denying that, she declines the present, and prefers to stay in the past. The past is the world of her father and Colonel, where no one would ask her to pay her taxes. The death of Miss Emily symbolizes the victory of present over past, and this becomes clear from the words and appearance of townspeople at her funereal. They are dressed in their “Confederate uniforms” (251), which s...