Dispensation – “an exemption from a law or from an impediment, vow, or oath may be granted a dispensation from the rule”

While re-reading “A Rose for Emily” I came across the same passage we looked at in class and wanted to look up what “Dispensation” actually meant. After discovering the meaning, it became even more clear to me how Colonel Sartoris wanted to make sure that Emily would not have to worry about paying the taxes. As we discussed it was due to the fact that Emily really had no real income, the only thing that was worth something was her family title.

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dispensation

Calligraphy (noun) – beautiful artistic handwriting

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/calligraphy

In “A Rose for Emily”, it says, “A week later the mayor wrote her himself, offering to call or to send his car for her, and received in reply a note on paper of an archaic shape, in a thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink, to the effect that she no longer went out at all.”

In that quote from “A Rose for Emily”, the word calligraphy is used to identify the handwriting of the Miss Emily and help visualize the note that she wrote back in response to the mayor that it was nicely written.

Encroached (verb) – to enter by gradual steps or by stealth into the possessions or rights of another

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/encroached

From “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner

I came across this word while reading “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. It appears around the beginning of the reading when the author describes the relation between the neighborhood and the garages/cotton gins, it caught my interest because I had an idea of what it meant but didn’t know it’s exact definition so it made me curious to find out what the writer was trying to illustrate in the story.

“But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily’s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps-an eyesore among eyesores.”

After reading the definition of the word I better understand the context of how the author was using it in that part of the text. As seen in the quote, it’s used to describe how the garages and cotton gins slowly invaded the neighborhood, changing it in a way it wasn’t before.