In “A Rose for Emily”, Emily has an “invisible watch ticking at the end of the gold chain” when she attends a board meeting concerning her lack of paying taxes. The ticking watch represents time but it’s invisibility represents the disability of Emily’s ability to comprehend time as it is. Time represents our need to move on and keep on going. For most, time heals but only if you go on with it. The invisibility of the watch suggest that it’s hidden under Emily’s clothes, she deliberately ignores time so that she can continue to live her illusions in the past. Emily doesn’t discern time or the progress of it as it ticks by. Throughout the story, Emily proves she’s bound by the past and doesn’t acknowledge the change of her surroundings.

This rose reminds and symbolizes the tragedy described in “A Rose for Emily”. Roses are typically brought to funerals and laid upon the casket and with Emily, she not only died but she never lived a good life. She was shadowing her controlling father for most of her life and had next to nothing when he died. The one person she loved didn’t love her back and she had to resort to murder in order to keep him. A rose, in accordance to this story, means a tragic event, or in this case, a series.