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A Rose for Emily tells a gothic story full of mystery， death and horror. The major feature lies in its time sequence. Instead of narrating the story according to its natural order， William Faulkner rearranged the sequence of plots and applied the technique of anachronies， suggesting the inconformity between story and discourse. This theory was put forward by a French critic， Gérard Genette. According to him， the narrator often doesn’t narrate the story in line with the natural order that story happens. There is a discrepancy between the time of story and the discourse. The natural order of the story is fixed while the way or the order we narrate the story is various. A Rose for Emily is a remarkable story to illustrate this.
The story does not follow the chronological sequences. The story begins when people attend the funeral of Emily， who is regarded as “a tradition”， “a duty” and “a monument”， and ends when Emily’s long-closed door was opened. In between， narration flashes forward or backward to present the whole life of Emily. The story takes death of Emily’s father as the turning point. The narration flashes from Emily’s funeral to the death of her father and then comes back to Emily’s death. The fact that Colonel Sartoris gave Emily favorable policy not to pay her taxation leads us to know her father. Her father enjoyed high respect and made the Grierson well know in the town. That’s why Colonel Sartoris gave exceptional right to Emily. However， the new mayor of the town required Emily to pay the tax and paid a visit， but Emily refused to do so. The Grierson belonged to southern aristocrats so the father would not allow anyone from lower class or from north to marry Emily. And her father declined all of Emily’s suitors and in consequence， Emily was not yet married in her 30s. Her father was the only male Emily knew deeply and after his death， Emily denied and refused to accept the fact.
Two years after father’s death， people complained about the smell from Emily’s house and four men slipped into her house and sprinkled lime secretly. The narrator keeps the reader in suspense about the smell until the end of the story. The smell came from Homer Barron’s dead body. Homer Barron was the only man Emily loved most except her father. Barron was one of the Yankees who came to the town to pave the sidewalk. Townspeople certainly couldn’t accept the love affair between them and often said “Poor Emily”. Emily was crazy about Barron and ordered man’s toilet set in silver， with the letters H.B on each piece and bought an outfit of men’s clothing. They were preparing to get married. However， after Emily’s cousins left， people in town never saw Barron again. This was because Barron refused to marry Emily. For Emily’s part， she couldn’t accept the fact of being abandoned by her lover so she
The story does not follow the chronological sequences. The story begins when people attend the funeral of Emily， who is regarded as “a tradition”， “a duty” and “a monument”， and ends when Emily’s long-closed door was opened. In between， narration flashes forward or backward to present the whole life of Emily. The story takes death of Emily’s father as the turning point. The narration flashes from Emily’s funeral to the death of her father and then comes back to Emily’s death. The fact that Colonel Sartoris gave Emily favorable policy not to pay her taxation leads us to know her father. Her father enjoyed high respect and made the Grierson well know in the town. That’s why Colonel Sartoris gave exceptional right to Emily. However， the new mayor of the town required Emily to pay the tax and paid a visit， but Emily refused to do so. The Grierson belonged to southern aristocrats so the father would not allow anyone from lower class or from north to marry Emily. And her father declined all of Emily’s suitors and in consequence， Emily was not yet married in her 30s. Her father was the only male Emily knew deeply and after his death， Emily denied and refused to accept the fact.
Two years after father’s death， people complained about the smell from Emily’s house and four men slipped into her house and sprinkled lime secretly. The narrator keeps the reader in suspense about the smell until the end of the story. The smell came from Homer Barron’s dead body. Homer Barron was the only man Emily loved most except her father. Barron was one of the Yankees who came to the town to pave the sidewalk. Townspeople certainly couldn’t accept the love affair between them and often said “Poor Emily”. Emily was crazy about Barron and ordered man’s toilet set in silver， with the letters H.B on each piece and bought an outfit of men’s clothing. They were preparing to get married. However， after Emily’s cousins left， people in town never saw Barron again. This was because Barron refused to marry Emily. For Emily’s part， she couldn’t accept the fact of being abandoned by her lover so she