A Rose for Emily Time and Setting

In "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner, the author uses the element of time to enhance details of the setting and vice versa. By avoiding the chronological order of events of Miss Emily's life, Faulkner first gives the reader a finished puzzle, and then allows the reader to examine this puzzle piece by piece, step by step. By doing so, he enhances the plot and presents two different perspectives of time held by the …

…they had danced with her and courted her perhaps, confusing time with its mathematical progression." These men have lost their sense of time as well as Miss Emily. They hallucinate and imagine things that never occurred; there is no sense of time in their minds. Faulkner presents a very horrifying picture in this story, and he does this by playing with the chronology, using symbol of time, and presenting a very twisted but detailed setting.