Structure

The short story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner has a non-chronological structure. The text is separated into five parts, which are marked by roman numerals. However, throughout the five parts, the text does not follow Emily’s life chronologically. The story combines the narrator’s present observations with past events in an attempt to show the causality of the events.

The beginning of the story introduces Emily’s death and the townspeople’s curiosity about her character (p. 1, ll. 1-5). A flashback then presents the context in which Emily has been exempted from paying taxes in Jefferson: “Colonel Sartoris invented an involved tale to the effect that Miss Emily's father had loaned money to the town, which the town, as a matter of busin...