Time

Event
Narrative
(Emily's
What happen
Order
order
age)
1

Emily
was 30

II. 26-7

When Emily was 30, Emilys father died (II. paragraph. 26)
Emily refused to accept her fathers death. When the town people
forced to bury her father, she broke down. (II. Paragraph 27)
--Emily was sick for a long time.
--In the summer after the Emilys father, the town had a contract for
paving the sidewalks.
--Emily acquainted with a day worker, Homer Barron (a Yankeea
big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face).
(III. Paragraph 30)
--The town ladies started to gossip about the love affair. Poor
Emily. (III. Paragraphs 33).

III. 30,
33

(32)

III. 34-40 --Emily bought rat poison. (III. Paragraphs 34-40)

(32)

IV. 43

The next day after Emily bought the arsenic, the town people thought
Emily would kill herself. (IV. Paragraph 43)

IV. 44

Disturbances of the love affair:

--Town people (especially the ladies) disagreed and gossiped.
She will persuade him yet, because Homer Barron had remarked
he liked men (IV. Paragraph 43).
--Some town ladies interfered, and for the Baptist minister to called
upon her.
--The next Sunday, they (Emily and Homer) again drove about the
street. The following day, the ministers wife wrote to Emilys
relations in Alabama. (IV. 44)

(32)

IV. 45

Emily went to the jewelers and order a mans toilet set in silver, with
the letter H.B. on each piece. She also bought a complete outfit of
mens clothing, including a nightshirt. The town people believed
that They are married. (IV, 45)

32

--The town people were surprised that Homer Barron had gone. (IV.
46).
--Within three days Homer Barron was back in town. A neighbor
IV. 46, 47 saw the Negro man admit him at the kitchen door at dusk one
evening. (IV. 46)
-- "And that was the last we saw of Homer Barron. And of Miss
Emily for some time." (IV. 47)

32

Two years after the death of Emilys father: Emily was 32

--Emilys sweetheart the one we believed would marry her had
deserted her. (II, Paragraph 15)
II. 15-24
--The smell developed. After Emilys neighbors complaint, Judge
Stevens (80 years old) investigated the source of the smell without
result. (II. Paragraphs 15-24)

(32)

40,
IV. 49
In 1894 I. 2

--When Emily was about 40, she started to give china painting
lessons to the ladies (daughters and granddaughters of Colonel
Sartoriss contemporaries). This lasted for about six or seven years.
Meanwhile her taxes had been remitted. (IV. 49)
--In 1894, Colonel Sartoris remitted the taxes of Miss Emily
Grierson. (I. 2)

10

52

II. 14

Colonel Sartoris diedEmily was 52. (II. Paragraph 14)

11

52~54

I. 5

Emily was about 52~54. Emily stopped given china painting lesson
to the town ladiesSince that time, nobody visited the Grierson
house.. (I. Paragraph 5)

IV. 50

The second generation became the backbone of the town. They

stopped sent girls to Miss Emilys painting class. When the town
got free postal delivery Miss Emily alone refused to let them fasten
the metal numbers above her door and attach a mailbox to it. She
would not listen to them. (IV. 50)

62

I. 4-14

32 (30 +2) years after the death of Emilys father, and 10 years after
the death of Colonel Sartoris:
Emily was 62 (a small, fat woman in black, . . . . She looked
bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that
pallid hue.)
--The town aldermen asked Emily Grierson to pay taxes, but she
refused. (I. Paragraphs 4-14)

14

74

Emily died at the age of 74. (IV. 48).

She died in one of the downstairs rooms, in a heavy walnut bed
IV. 48, 53
with a curtain, her gray head propped on a pillow yellow and moldly
with age and lack of sunlight. (IV. 53)

15

74

I. 1-2

The town people went to Miss Emily Griersons funeral. (I. 1-2)

74

V. 55

Miss Emily was put beneath a mass of bought flowers, with the
crayon face of her father musing profoundly above the bier. . . . (V.
55.)
Two female cousins came to the funeral. (Only two) (V. 55)

74

After the funeral, the town people intruded into Emilys bedroom,
which no one had seen in forty years.
Emilys room was furnished as for a bridal, with the curtain of rose
V. 56-60
color. (Rose was mentioned only in this paragraph!) And they found
a mans body lay in the bed, with a long strand of iron-gray hair. (V.
56-60)

12

13

16

17

52~54

The difficulty of reading this story lies in the unusual narrative sequence (non-chronological)
and point of view ("We"). This non-chronological sequence confuse the reader awareness of
time and causality. The narrator's scope of perception is limited. These two traits make the
story read like a detective story. To know what happen, you may have to make a chronology

of the events. The chronology will help you to perceive the causality obscured by the
narrator. Here is a chronology of the events in "A Rose for Emily."