【精品论文】关于威廉·福克纳作品《艾米莉的玫瑰》-英美文学论文

【精品论文】关于威廉·福克纳作品《艾米莉的玫瑰》-英美文学论文 www.docin.com/qq1183456150诚心为您服务 关于威廉?福克纳作品《艾米莉的玫瑰》-英美文学论文

 About the author
    William Faulkner (1897-1962) is a giant in the realm of American literature. Although he is a small man, who is just five feet, six inches tall, but his works are great. He was born in the purple. But he was not happy.  Faulkner was unsociable. Faulkner lived in old South America from childhood. He was as a postman when he was young. He was dismissed by the post office because of dereliction of duty. Faulkner traveled many places. In World War I, he studied in Canadian Air Force School. After the本毕 业论文由无忧论文网www.51lunwen.com整理提供 war he studied in the University of Mississippi.

    However, finally he went back to South American where his hometown is. He seemed his grandfather as an idol. In his childhood he wanted to be a writer like his grandfather. In 1949, Faulkner’s dream came true. He won the Nobel Prize. He was successful and renowned in the whole world. The novels of William Faulkner rank among the most important books of the 20th century. Faulkner was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature. Faulkner wrote mostly about his hometown of Oxford, Lafayette County.

 The background of A Rose For Emily
    Faulkner wrote many works during his whole life. He was good at using not only the complex sentences but also the subtle vocabularies. His works are full of profound meanings between the lines. Somebody admired his style but somebody held the critical attitude. Faulkner’s works were influenced by his experience. Because he was deeply influenced by the southern American literature, his works have the southerners’ unique sense of humor. He depicted the image of the southerners vividly. Faulkner combined his life and his works together perfectly.
     Faulkner used the usual style to write the famous work A Rose for Emily. A Rose for Emily was written by William Faulkner in 20th century. The author was born blue-blooded, and he was deeply influenced by the culture of the south of America. So his works reflected the society of the South at that time. A Rose for Emily was not an exception. Emily is the leading character in this short story living in the south of America. She is an eccentric spinster. Emily lived in a strange circumstance with odd relationships with her father, who controlled and manipulated her, and her lover, the Yankee road worker Homer Barron. Under the situation Emily’s personality was distorted day by day. When Homer Barron threatened to leave her, she was seen buying arsenic, with which the townspeople believed she would commit suicide. After this, Homer Barron was not heard from again, and was assumed to have returned north. Though she did not commit suicide, the townspeople of Jefferson continued to gossip about her and her eccentricities, citing her family's history of mental il lness. She was heard from less and less and rarely ever left her home. Unbeknownst to the townspeople until her death, in her upstairs room she hided all 免责声明：我是你的优乐美(）中所有的文档

均由网络提供。我是你的优乐美对提供的文档资料进行筛选和编辑，但是并不声明或保证其内容的合法性、正确性或可靠性。该 文档资料的版权属于提供者所有，有关版权的问题请直接与提供者联系。 www.docin.com/qq1183456150诚心为您服务 day the corpse of Homer Barron, which explained the horrid stench that emitted from Miss Emily's house.
    Faulkner portrayed Emily, this typical and extreme character, to show the situation of that time. As a matter of fact, Emily is many people’s embodiment in 20th century of the south of America. She is a tragic person who 本毕业论文由无忧论文网www.51lunwen.com整理提供is controlled and manipulated by her father. In fact, this is just superficial. Inward she is a sacrificial lamb of tradition and the out-of-order and absurd society of that period in South America. Emily was such a vainglorious woman that she did not allow anybody to violate her dignity, even her lover. She preferred to break down them to protect the spiritual shackles which controlled her from her childhood right on up. As an innocent victim, Emily changed from a beautiful and lofty aristocratic descent into an eccentric old woman. Her change may be caused by her feudal father, but the society has the unshakable responsibility. As a result, this paper will analyze Emily’s characters as well as its causes to better understand the culture in the south of America at that time and this short story.

Chapter Two: Emily’s extreme Characters
 Conservative
    Emily is a typical representative of the old southern tradition who is an unsociable and conservative woman. The first paragraph of the novel says: “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the man through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old man-servant—a combined gardener and cook—had seen in at least ten years.” This paragraph reflects obviously that Emily is unsociable and arrogant. She is like a rose which is not only beautiful and aromatic but also noble and arrogant. Inside the beautiful appearance, there is a cold and detached heart. But outside it is full of sharp stab to percent herself from danger. In fact, the stab is used to cover up the fragile heart.

    People said that Emily’s father is the guilty person who always bound Emily’s personality development. Emily lost her mother from she was born so she lack her mother’s care. What’s more at that time the southern America was a serious patriarchal society. Father was a cultural model and a symbol of the law. Females have to follow their fathers unconditionally. Father’s power and social pressure forced her to hide her ideas and dreams. Father’s autarchy and serious ancestry consideration made Emily cut her off from the society. Emily’s father deeply suffered from south old traditions. He was one of the victim s of South America culture. Emily was also a scapegoat of South America Puritanism. She could put an end to the bound from her father. But she chose to bind herself till she died. She tried to seek for the freedom which belonged to her. She considered that her lover Homer Barron could give her happiness and freedom. In Emily’s heart, Homer Barron symbolized the new life. He brought Emily wish and dream. But maybe good scenery always did not last so long. Homer Barron would leave her. It meant that all of her dreams and wishes were broken. So she preferred to break all, even her lover. Maybe she didn’t like herself. She also didn’t like the style 免责声明：我是你的优乐美(）中所有的文档资料均由网络提供。我是你的优乐美对提供的文档资料进行筛选和编辑，但是并不声明或保证其内容的合法性、正确性或可靠性。该 文档资料的版权属于提供者所有，有关版权的问题请直接与提供者联系。 www.docin.com/qq1183456150诚心为您服务 of her life. But she had no choice. We can see from the text that Emily changed from a sylphlike lady into a podgy and oddity gammer. Emily also was oppressed by the old tradition to turn to a witch. Emily had no mistake. 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. Because she was not allowed to change the used consideration, she just followed it. She has the responsibility to care the old traditions.
 Obstinate
    First, her fragmentary family was the important reason why Emily turned stubborn. Comparing with her father, Emily appeared quite weak. His father’s strong power represented an unshakable authority and control, which influenced Emily deeply. In the following days Miss Emily followed this habit without any attempt to change. She tried her best to safeguard the dignity of nobility. She became a monument after her death. She was so stubborn to safeguard the old tradition like a stone. She was into the trap of the fate that she can’ t help herself. Maybe it is the order of the fate forces her to hold on again and again. She is so stubborn like a tower till she died.
    Second, it was not difficult to find that Emily was quite stubborn to her love. That is a kind of anomalous self-serving love. When she found the freedom that Homer Barron pursued was not same as hers, she was afraid to lose her lover. Emily preferred to kill Homer to compel him into her world. What’s more she put the dead body in her bedroom. She dreamed that Homer was always with her. So she ordered a man’s toilet set in silver, with the letters H. B. on each piece. Obviously Emily just wanted to hold Homer without considering the lover’s happiness. She chose self-deception when the reality was different from the dream. She preferred to live in her own world.
 Morbid
    Emily lived in the old South America. At that time the new culture was replacing the old, but Emily couldn’t adapt to this great change. She didn’t know how to choose. Anxiety contradictio n perplexity mixed together to press Emily so she had no chance to catch her breath. The depressive motion turned to the morbid motion day by day. Emily deeply believed that the social concept is the mainstay of the society. Every kind of preconception delays the development of people. Emily was one of the people who are chained by this preconception. She not only resisted the development of the age but also not accept the change. From the novel, the new mayor and the senator were quite discontented with Emily. They also very discontented to give Miss Emily the special right free of the tax. So they notified her to hand in the tax again. However they were always refused by Miss Emily. They were so surprised when they called on her. We can see that Emily is incompatible with the new things. “They were admitted by the old Negro into a dim hall from which a stairway mounted into still more shadow. It smelled of dust and disuse—a close, dank smell.”（Faulkner，1930， P106） We can easily find that Emily is screwy at that time. She is like a ghost whose spirit 免责声明：我是你的优乐美(）中所有的文档资料均由网络提供。我是你的优乐美对提供的文档资料进行筛选和编辑，但是并不声明或保证其内容的合法性、正确性或可靠性。该 文档资料的版权属于提供者所有，有关版权的问题请直接与提供者联系。 www.docin.com/qq1183456150诚心为您服务 is separated with her body. “They rose when 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. Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, looked like two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough as they moved from one face to another while the visitors stated their errand.” In fact, her ideas and her appearance are similar. They all show morbidity. She was as good as dead, and her eyes were dimmed. Her body changed from slim to fat even with a little abnormality. It is a great change. It also hints to us that her thought turn to morbid. As a result, she poisoned Homer, morbidly put his body in her bedroom and lied beside it every night. She even ordered a man’s toilet set in silver, with the letters H. B. on each piece. From this, we can see that she was totally crazy and mordid.

Chapter Three: The Causes of Emily’s Tragedy
 Emily’s tragedy
    Emily lived in a family with strict hierarchy. Her mother died in her childhood. Her father was the man who influenced Emily’s growth. Her father’s consideration became the only belief of Emily. However, her father didn’t 本毕业论文由无忧论文网www.51lunwen.com整理提供give her a happy childhood. The small Emily wished to live an ordinary life like the other children. Her brutal father didn’t allow her to touch the outside. “We had long thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a straddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door.”（Faulkner，1930，P106） This is a paragraph in the novel. Her father considered Emily to be his private property. He made a lock to bind her thought. Everyday Emily just stays in her house to image the outside world. She was isolated from the environment around her. Her father even interfered in her love and marriage. He drove away all of the wooers. So she suffered much loneliness and sense of insecurity. As time went by, Emily couldn’t open the heart to anyone. She lived in the world she imagined. What’s more, her personality became self closing and morbid.
      Emily was like a bird which was locked in the cage without freedom. She lacked the experience of love. Homer’s appearance let her emotion which was oppressed for a long time had a chance to be released. But this playboy didn’t give his true love to Emily. He was afraid to get married with Emily. Her father’s death and lover’s disloyalty led to her mental collapse. Her personality turned more and more distorted. She planned to kill the lover. Now that she couldn’t possess his heart, she chose to possess his body forever. Now Emily’s heart was just full of animosity. Her tragedy was doomed.
    Social environment is the important reason to cause the tragedy. The villagers gave Emily much pressure. Emily had too much responsibility. Because she represented the lordship, she is on behalf of old American lordship and 免责声明：我是你的优乐美(）中所有的文档资料均由网络提供。我是你的优乐美对提供的文档资料进行筛选和编辑，但是并不声明或保证其内容的合法性、正确性或可靠性。该 文档资料的版权属于提供者所有，有关版权的问题请直接与提供者联系。 www.docin.com/qq1183456150诚心为您服务 old American tradition. She was the mirror of the lordship. She was always talked by the villagers after dinner. This kind of gentlewoman loved a northern man. This caused a large storm in the village. They saw Homer and Emily driving in the yellow –wheeled buggy and the matched teem of bays from the livery stable. They thought that Emily broke the dignity of the old American. Homer left Emily when Emily ready to get married with him. But nobody consoled Emily. After experienced so much shock she decided to kill her lover. But nobody knew the fact. The villagers just found some odor emit from her house. They all refused by Emily when they wanted to call on her. Nobody considered Emily to be his or her friend. Also nobody help Emily when she meets some problems. She used to oppress her sensibility. She has no way to release her sadness. She had no choice but chose the extreme attitude to face her own life.
 Tradition and culture of the Old South in America
    William Faulkner obviously is one of the famous authors in old America. Social changes made his thought have typical old American peculiarity. The bygone glory and the old virtue in the South Americans’ heart fade away after the civil war. The capitalism commodity economy broke the South Americans’ heaven. People always recall the foretime, the sense of worth and the old social order. However, at the same time they saw the perdition of the old tradition. They also saw the inevitability of the society development. The change of the history and the society made the South Americans’ style of life and cultural tradition turn to a new area.
    Emily was a type who protected the old tradition; she is the monument of foretime; she is the figure of the responsibility. So the villagers all revered and followed her. She was the consolation of their dream and spirit. Miss Emily continued their dreams which had been lost the old south order and rules. After the civil war, the villagers were influenced by the north people deeply. Their consideration had many changes. But the old tradition was in the deep heart of these people. They had the aristocratic vanity. So they exempted her from tax and killing. They formed an alliance with Emily in the spirit, which made their lost dreams came true.  

    Emily is a South American downfallen aristocrat. Many people considered that it is a horror fiction. In fact, it described the differences between the south of America and north of America. It also described the collision between the old order and the new order. The beginning and ending of the story is both the Emily’s death. It hints that the old south tradition must be destroyed.

 Emily’s love and hatred towards the southern tradition and culture    Emily is the epitome of the old Southern tradition system and 本毕业论文由无忧论文网www.51lunwen.com整理提供the snobbish. In the Greer's house, it sustains a system of feudal rule. There is a guarded hierarchy between father and daughter, races, master and servant. Emily's father was domineering and old-fashioned, who controlled Emily deeply. What’s more he deprived her of freedom of marriage. In such an environment, Emily’s concept and conduct has also been 免责声明：我是你的优乐美(）中所有的文档资料均由网络提供。我是你的优乐美对提供的文档资料进行筛选和编辑，但是并不声明或保证其内容的合法性、正确性或可靠性。该 文档资料的版权属于提供者所有，有关版权的问题请直接与提供者联系。 www.docin.com/qq1183456150诚心为您服务 detained by the tradition of the old forces. Moreover, the property his father left her was the house after his death. After her father's death, she served as a protection of the old tradition and the guardian of the old order. She denied the father's death. She was in great grief for three days, insisting that his father did not die. This is a symbol that she refused to recognize that the South social systems were on collapse. Emily put the portrait of her father on the shelf of the living room, accompanying her day by day. Until her death, people could see the crayon face of her father musing profoundly above the bier. We can see the old traditional concept has a profound impact on Emily.

     After all, the impact of the North was irresistible, even the streets of the town were re-constructed under the leadership of North people. Miss Emily beguiled the foreman named Homer Barron, a Yankee—a big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face. Homer was from the North culture. The villagers began to see Homer and Miss Emily on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy and the matched team of bays from the livery stable. These details symbolized the industrial civilization of the north brought the South plantation economy a new vitality. With the North-South politics getting together, two cultures and life is bound to the mutual penetration. When Homer told Emily that he had no intention to get married, the love between them appeared cracks. Now that she could not be combined with him permanently, the only way was to use the death to retain the time and space. She poisoned Homer and wished to permanently control him. Faulkner shaped the figure that has never been obedient to the things that offend him, no matter whether they have much force. These persons were tied to their birthplace's prejudices, customs and traditions, but they are brave enough to overcome any problems. Emily's violent act in fact is a symbol that the south nobility wants to maintain their tradition of honor and status and struggle against the hateful capitalism. Love and hate is fighting in her contradictions. Emily and Homer's love implies a north-south conflict in the system, as well as two irreconcilable sharp conflicts. Emily poisoned the lovers and slept with his bones. This does not mean that she wins, but her abnormal behavior hints that she is entwined by the death and lost happy life and hope.
  
Chapter Four Conclusion
    “I believe that man will not merely endure, he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion, and sacrifice, and endurance. The poets, the writers' duty is to write about these things, it's his privilege to help man endure, lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage, and honor and hope and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poets' voice need not merely be the recall of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.”（Faulkner， 1949 ，P1） This is one paragraph of the Faulkner’s speech. A Rose for Emily was created under the deep and lofty thought guidance of art.

     The human tragedy at the time reflects the 免责声明：我是你的优乐美(）中所有的文档资料均由网络提供。我是你 的优乐美对提供的文档资料进行筛选和编辑，但是并不声明或保证其内容的合法性、正确性或可靠性。该 文档资料的版权属于提供者所有，有关版权的问题请直接与提供者联系。 www.docin.com/qq1183456150诚心为您服务 environment of the United States community as a whole. At that time, the traditional culture of Puritan thought and the supremacy idea of male imprisoned the hearts of every American. Homer represents the receptive to new things, extensive knowledge and worship hedonism emerging culture of North America. Emily is a symbol of sticking to the family, sticking to the noble identity, keeping traditions, and struggle in the decline culture of the south. As soon as the two different cultures get together, the conflict breaks out. Emily's abnormal personality in such a large environment came into being. Father’s despotism, lover’s disloyalty, the villagers’ apartness, these external factor s build a life tragedy of Emily. The lack of self-confidence and independence cause her to choose the way to take the extreme method to end her life.

    The tragedy of Emily is the product of social history, revealing the old and new at the turn of southerners, but also revealed the disintegration of the old regime and the inevitable fate of extinction. A Rose for Emily shows the collapse of the old South order and the establishment of the new system.

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