In section one of William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily,"
the confrontation that is most prevalent is that between Miss Emily and the "Board of
Aldermen" regarding Miss Emily's taxes. In no uncertain terms, Miss Emily has refused to
pay the taxes. She bases this upon a remittance of her taxes, granted by Colonel
Sartoris.
...Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and
a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the down, dating from that day in 1894 when
Colonel Sartoris, the mayor...remitted her taxes...on into perpetuity. Not that Miss
Emily would have accepted
charity...
In essence, once
Miss Emily's father died, the gallant Colonel Sartoris, the man of a generation long
gone—that idealized and protected women (the weaker sex?)—pretended
that the special arrangement came from a loan her father had made to the town that had
never been repaid. As the generations (including Sartoris) passed, leaders of the
community that followed were displeased, and so they tried to
collect the taxes.
In January a notice was delivered to her
house. She ignored it. A letter followed and Miss Emily wrote a response, not mentioning
the taxes, returning the notice to community leaders, declining an invitation to meet
with the sheriff. Because Miss Emily would not go to them, they
decided to "call" on her. This "deputation" was shown into the
house by Tobe, Miss Emily's manservant.
It is quite
possible that the mere physical presence of Miss Emily made the men ill at
ease:
...she
entered—a small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and
vanishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head. Her
skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that was why what would have been merely plumpness
in another was obesity in her. She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in
motionless water, and of that pallid
hue.
And while she was small,
older and of another generation ("old-fashioned" they might have thought), these things
possibly deceived the men into believing that they would be able to handle her without
much trouble. It is safe to infer that Miss Emily was not what they
expected—certainly not a member of the "weaker" sex. She did not
indulge in social niceties—never asked them to sit, but she did
make it quite clear that she did not owe any taxes.
The men
tried to explain that they were the "city authorities;" that the "sheriff" had contacted
her (she was unimpressed); and, that there was no paperwork to support her claim that
Sartoris had indeed dismissed any payment of taxes by her until her death. In essence,
she told the men that it was not her problem, and instructed them
to look elsewhere for their answers:
"But there is nothing on the books to show that,
you see. We must go by the—"
"See Colonel Sartoris. I have
no taxes in Jefferson."
"But, Miss
Emily—"
"See Colonel Sartoris...I have no taxes in
Jefferson. Tobe!...Show these gentlement
out."
(It is also noted here
that Colonel Sartoris had died ten years earlier.) There was no further discussion.
Perhaps because the agreement was made during a time when a handshaked sealed a business
agreement and no contracts were necessary, the aldermen found it impossible to force
Miss Emily to pay taxes based on an arrangement that was so old. Miss Emily refused to
budge; she refused to listen. She repeated herself and then dismissed the men. She never
did pay taxes again in Jefferson.
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