Death and Taxes

One aspect of William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” that intrigued me despite its relative lack of importance to the story as a whole was the apparent commentary on Benjamin Franklin’s famous declaration: “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” I don’t know that Faulkner was necessarily trying to impart any particular message about the concept, but nonetheless it seems worth mentioning that the main character, Emily, seemingly rejects the notion. Her taxes were remitted and she not only refused to accept the death of her father for several days, but she also kept Homer Barron’s decaying corpse in her house for decades, if I’m following the story correctly. Thus, she truly rejected the inevitability of both death and taxes.

Again, I’m not sure what the significance of that is. The whole “death and taxes” concept, while sadly true, isn’t really discussed seriously. Most often, in my experience at least, it’s used as a sort of “too bad, that’s life” when somebody complains about an event not turning out as planned. It’s rarely if ever a topic for critical thought. Then again, maybe that’s why Faulkner chose to comment on it—to get us thinking critically about something mundane. Yet, I struggle to comprehend what he could have been implying. Surely the point wasn’t to embrace Emily’s perspective, as rejecting the inevitability of death in particular is absurd unless framed in a religious context—many religions believe in life after death—but Faulkner does not frame the story that way. Conversely, he could be trying to demonstrate the futility of denying the inevitability of either thing, since having her taxes remitted didn’t appear to improve Emily’s quality of life any, and sleeping with a rotting corpse definitely didn’t do her any favors. But there wouldn’t be much sense in making such a point; few would argue it. It would be similar to trying to convince readers that the sky is blue.

Maybe it’s just an innocent allusion to a famous quote, and efforts to attach particular meaning to it are wasted. That answer just doesn’t satisfy me, though, so what do others think? What, if anything, is Faulkner trying to say through the allusions to Franklin’s quote?