A particular setting or settings are always present within a story. The setting may affect how the reader perceives a character. Setting also allows the reader to determine the mood and or disposition of that, the writer tried to portray. “A Rose for Emily,” by William Faulkner is no different than any other story, in the sense that the settings were an essential element to the story by providing the reader with a basis to determine the atmosphere of the town and mood of Miss Emily Grierson.
The time frame, in which “A Rose for Emily” is set, is an important component to the setting of the story. The story is based sometime during the late eighteen hundreds, after the battle of Jefferson and the end of slavery. The time frame is important because it displayed how families or persons of prestige and wealth usually set themselves apart from other ordinary inferior citizens. It was almost as though the town and its people in which, the Griersons lived, were in debt to the family. The author states, "Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligations upon the town. (Pg 80)” Miss Emily was not compelled, or to be forced to adhere to any request made by the town.
Since the town was under new authority and not Colonel Sartoris who was already dead, but had previously remitted Emily's taxes, so she felt under such circumstances it was necessary for her to pay them. When the smell developed in her house and disturbed the neighbors, she did not fell obliged to do anything about it, resulting in the town’s men having to sneak and take care of it themselves. Although, Emily’s time of status had long past the town still treated her as if she were of certain superiority. For instance, they gave her an almost state like funeral with there being all members of the town attending her funeral even though; they hardly knew or