Skip to main content

What does Colonel Sartoris do for Miss Emily after her father's death? Why?

After Emily's father dies, Colonel Sartoris invents a way to help Emily survive financially without embarrassing her by revealing that she's actually accepting charity from the town. Everyone has to pay property taxes on their houses, of course. But Colonel Sartoris permanently excuses Emily from paying those taxes, telling her a lie about how her father had given money to the town, and now they are repaying him by cancelling all of her taxes. Again,...

After Emily's father dies, Colonel Sartoris invents a way to help Emily survive financially without embarrassing her by revealing that she's actually accepting charity from the town. Everyone has to pay property taxes on their houses, of course. But Colonel Sartoris permanently excuses Emily from paying those taxes, telling her a lie about how her father had given money to the town, and now they are repaying him by cancelling all of her taxes. Again, he does this for her as a favor, saving her from poverty, keeping her in her own house, and preventing the embarrassment she would feel if she were offered a more straightforward method of charity.


Here's the explanation from the narrator, which we find in the third paragraph of the story:



"Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town, dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris, the mayor—he who fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron—remitted her taxes, the dispensation dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity. Not that Miss Emily would have accepted charity. 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 business, preferred this way of repaying. Only a man of Colonel Sartoris' generation and thought could have invented it, and only a woman could have believed it."



This invention of Colonel Sartoris is important to the plot of the story, but it's also thematically significant. Emily clings to the inaccurate, bygone assurances of Colonel Sartoris even after he's dead—she tells the new government representatives that she has no taxes in Jefferson, and she refuses to pay. She even tells them to take up the matter with Sartoris himself; it's as if she doesn't understand that he's dead. Her tenacious insistence on this false notion of having no tax obligations is not just self-deception on Emily's part but is also an outward sign of how she is holding onto the past.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is the meaning of "juggling fiends" in Macbeth?

Macbeth is beginning to realize that the three witches have been deceiving him since he first encountered them. Like jugglers, they have kept changing their forecasts in order create confusion. This is particularly apparent when the Second Apparition they raise in Act IV,   Scene 1 tells him that no man of woman born can overcome him in hand-to-hand battle--and then Macbeth finds himself confronted by the one man he has been avoiding out of a... Macbeth is beginning to realize that the three witches have been deceiving him since he first encountered them. Like jugglers, they have kept changing their forecasts in order create confusion. This is particularly apparent when the Second Apparition they raise in Act IV,   Scene 1 tells him that no man of woman born can overcome him in hand-to-hand battle--and then Macbeth finds himself confronted by the one man he has been avoiding out of a sense of guilt, and that man tells him: Despair thy charm. And let the angel whom thou still hast serve...
Post a Comment
Read more

Discuss movements that were inspired by the Civil Rights Movement and list one success for each group.

African-Americans contributed in a very big way during World War II. These contributions were demonstrated at home and on the battlefield. After the war, African-Americans properly felt it was time for them to achieve equality with white Americans. During the 1950's, the modern Civil Rights Movement was born and it had a number of successes (integration of the military and Brown vs. Board of Education as examples.) This success inspired other activists to demand change... African-Americans contributed in a very big way during World War II. These contributions were demonstrated at home and on the battlefield. After the war, African-Americans properly felt it was time for them to achieve equality with white Americans. During the 1950's, the modern Civil Rights Movement was born and it had a number of successes (integration of the military and Brown vs. Board of Education as examples.) This success inspired other activists to demand change for their agendas. Two examples of moveme...
Post a Comment
Read more

Follow the relationship between Pi and Richard Parker. They endure over two hundred days of hardship together, but in the end Richard Parker leaves...

When Pi and Richard Parker are at the beginning of their journey, after Pi's family is killed in the shipwreck, Pi fears Richard Parker, but he is forced to find a way to co-exist with him in order to survive.  Over time the two develop a somewhat co-dependent relationship.  Richard Parker depends on Pi to feed him by catching fish, while Pi's will to live is bolstered by Richard Parker's presence.  Richard Parker recognizes that... When Pi and Richard Parker are at the beginning of their journey, after Pi's family is killed in the shipwreck, Pi fears Richard Parker, but he is forced to find a way to co-exist with him in order to survive.  Over time the two develop a somewhat co-dependent relationship.  Richard Parker depends on Pi to feed him by catching fish, while Pi's will to live is bolstered by Richard Parker's presence.  Richard Parker recognizes that he also needs Pi to survive.  At one point in the book, Pi's starvation and thirst reduce him to a st...
Post a Comment
Read more