“One's perception of time was relative to one's desire for its passage.”

"A Rose for Emily"
William Faulkner

Continually referenced throughout the short story, time plays an important role in the existence of Miss Emily Grierson. Its passing, or lack thereof, within the of Miss Emily's life influences nearly every scene in the story. Also, the narrator chooses to present scenes that are not subsequent; they jump from year to year to detail peculiar occurrences within her life.

The skipping of certain time periods in Miss Emily's life allows the narrator to characterize the woman in a manner that is best suited for the image which they are trying to convey. The narrator, referred to as a collective group, holds a seemingly negative view of Miss Grierson. For example, they believe that she is crazy and somewhat wasting her time courting a homosexual man. Therefore, their careful selection of various seemingly unrelated situations in the life of Miss Emily allow the narrator to shape the audience's perception of her. Without insight into her personal thoughts or the thoughts of someone close to her, the narrator effectively convinces the reader to believe that Miss Emily is simply a crazy old lady.

However, the most convincing of these descriptions, as well as the greatest evidence of the Miss Emily's unwillingness to let go of the past, resides within her "big, squarish frame house," (Faulkner, 281).We are first presented with Emily's retreat within the house when she refuses to release her father's corpse to be buried. Then, at the conclusion of the story, the dead man in the upper level of her home also characterizes her inability to let go. Miss Emily uses her home as an escape from reality. She rarely leaves her "house filled with dust and shadows" and, therefore, never leaves her past for the current time period of reality (Faulkner, 288). Essentially, she is trapping herself, like the man upstairs, within a time capsule in the form of a decrepit white house.