An Interpretation of A Rose for Emily from a Feminist Perspective英語專業(yè)畢業(yè)論文

1、an interpretation of a rose for emily from a feminist perspective abstract: the fiction a rose for emily is a short story written by william faulkner. the fiction a rose for emily describes a typical southern woman victimized by the conventional system of the south and patriarchy. this essay mainly

2、analyzes the reason why emilys life is a tragedy from a feminist perspective. and give a brief account of feminism. the essay is also with the purpose urge women to learn how to construct selfhood and to be a independent woman. the essay has four parts. the first part is the introduction about a ros

3、e for emily. the second part is the introduction of feminist. the third part is reasons of emilys tragedy. the forth part is the conclusion. key words: feminism emily patriarchy tragedy 摘要：小說獻給艾米麗的玫瑰是威廉?？思{的一篇短篇小說。小說描寫刻畫了一個典型的受南方傳統(tǒng)和父權(quán)制社會迫害的南方婦女形象。本文主要從女性主義角度分析造成艾米麗悲劇命運的原因，并且對女性主義做了一個簡單的介紹。啟發(fā)了廣大女性的如何自

4、我建設(shè)和成為一個獨立的女性。本文共分為四章。第一部分，介紹獻給艾米麗的玫瑰的主要內(nèi)容。第二部分，介紹女性主義的概念及其發(fā)展。第三部分，從女性主義角度分析艾米麗悲劇命運的成因。第四部分,總結(jié)全文內(nèi)容。關(guān)鍵詞： 女性主義 艾米麗 父權(quán)制 悲劇contents1. the introduction about a rose for emily1.1 the introduction of the author william faulkner 1.2 the story, theme and the symbolism of a rose for emily1.3 the gothic style

5、in a rose for emily2. the introduction about feminism 2.1 feminism and feminist movements 2.2 the history of feminist movement3. reasons of emilys tragedy from feminist perspective 3.1 the absence of feminism make emily become the victim of patriarchy 3.2 the view of love between male and female is

6、unequal because of the absence of feminism 3.3 the conventional system of the south choke back the south womens the view of feminist4. conclusionreferences1. the introduction about a rose for emily1.1 the introduction of the author william faulkner the author of a rose of emily , william faulkner is

7、 a very famous writer in 20th century american literature. william faulkner ( 1897 - 1962 ) , a major figure of contemporary american literature, is representative of south literature in the united states. he wrote 19 long novels and more than 100 short stories in his life. he was famous for his lon

8、g novel named the sound and the fury by, which he won the pulitzer prize. besides this, h is short stories draw the attention of the critics with time passing by. now this paper w ill regard his short story a rose for emily as the target of study.william faulkner is an american short story writer, n

9、ovelist, best known for his yoknapatawpha cycle, when he was four or five years old, the family moved to oxford, mississippi, where he resided for the rest of his life. oxford was with some fictional modifications, a prototype of jefferson, in the mythical country of yoknapatawpha, the setting of sa

10、rtoris and most of his subsequent works. his central theme, however, was not oxford, or mississippi, or even america. it was, as he put it, the universal theme of “the problem of the human heart in conflict with itself.”faulkner was awarded the nobel prize for literature in 1949. faulkners style is

11、not very easy in that he has connections to european literary modernism. his sentences are long and hypnotic. sometimes he withholds important details, or refers to people or events that the reader will not learn about until much later. through the late 1920s and the 1930s his bold experiments in th

12、e dislocation of narrative time and his use of stream of consciousness techniques placed him in the forefront of the avant-garde . his verbal innovations and the labyrinthine organization of his novels make him difficult to read, but his popularity continues to grow, and today he is considered by ma

13、ny to be the greatest writer of fiction that the united states has yet produced.1.2 the story, the theme and the symbolism of a rose for emily1.2.1 the story of a rose for emily this story is narrated through a third persons point of view. the story is told from the townspeople. the story starts off

14、 with ms. emilys funeral. it states that the men 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. as we can see, ms. emily

15、was sort of like a mystery to citizens of the town. the author continuously uses symbolism in the story. when the deputation came to her house for her taxes, faulkner describes how the house and ms. emily looked. only miss emilys house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the co

16、tton wagons and the gasoline pumps-an eyesore among eyesores, this statement explains how the house gave off such a depressing mood. her skeleton was small and spare;, this line shows us how her appearance showcased death also. when ms. emily wasyounger, her deceased father used to force away all th

17、e young men that were in love with her. the summer after her father death, she fell in love with a yankee by the name of homer barron. everyone in the town was whispering about their relationship and wondering if they were married. after a while they stop seeing homer and decided that they got marri

18、ed. the townspeople then proceeds by saying that ms. emily then died a while after. they didnt know she was sick. after they buried her, they knew that there was one room that wasnt opened. so after they decently buried her they went to see the room. when they opened the room they was greeted by gre

19、at amounts of dust. they also explained that the room decked and furnished as for a bridal: upon the valance curtains of faded rose color, upon the rose-shaded lights, upon the dressing table, upon the delicate array of crystal and the mans toilet things backed with tarnished silver, silver so tarni

20、shed that the monogram was obscured. they also saw a mans collar, tie, suit, shoes, and discarded socks. then shockingly, laying right there in the bed was the man. for a long while we just stood there, looking down at the profound and fleshless grin. the body had apparently once lain in the attitud

21、e of an embrace. what was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust. then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation

22、 of a head. one of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair.1.2.2 the theme of a rose for emilyfaulkners a rose for emily, like much of faulkners fiction, occured in the south following the c

23、ivil war. the story explores many themes, including the society of the south at that time, the role of women in the south, and extreme psychosis.in the story, the townspeoples points of view on emily actually reflected the societys value at that period to some extent. although the townspeople didnt

24、have direct contact with emily, their views on her and her family greatly affected her life. their praises and admiration influenced her father to keep her sheltered longer than she actually needed to be. her father controlled her thoughts and lifestyle. emily felt that she was released when her fat

25、her was dead. she dived into love with homer and neglected peoples judgments on her .when she realized that homer intended to leave her again, she decided that he would always be with her, whether he was alive or not. in his death emily found eternal love which was something no one could ever take a

26、way from her.the order of events is unusual, it is written out of order. the story is not a normal narrative; the events are not in order. for example, the story talks how emily died at first, and the author ends it with emilys death. then it jumps to emily dating “from the death of her father” (82)

27、. that she could date only after her fathers death shows how disordered her life was, which is similar to the plot of the story. later in the story, the author describes how she was getting old, and then he jumps to her being forty and giving china-painting lessons. this polt represents the disorder

28、 of emilys life. the author wants to emphasize that death is the central part of the story. thats why the author starts the story with emilys death.the theme of the story also explains why emily, like most people in the post civil war south, can not accept changes. emily exemplifies these people mos

29、tly by her unwillingness to accept the new order of life. one example of emilys inability to deal with change and of her odd personality is shown by emilys not wanting to pay her own taxes. therefore, faulkners storys structure is written out of order. the structure of the story symbolizes the disor

30、ganization of emilys life. that causes her to make mistakes. faulkner wants his readers to learn there are consequences that one has to accept in life. if one does not accept the changes he or she has to go through, one will have to learn to move on throughout life or else end up breaking the law an

31、d making such tragic decisions.1.2.3 the symbolism in a rose for emilymiss emilys house is an important symbol in this story. (in general, old family homes are often significant symbols in gothic literature.) for most of the story, we, like the townspeople, only see miss emilys house from the outsid

32、e looking in. lets look at the some of the descriptions we get of the house: it was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street. but ga

33、rages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only miss emilys house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps an eyesore among eyesores.the decaying house symbolize miss emilys physical and e

34、motional decay, and as well as her mental problems. the representation between herself and her house is shown through constant neglect and unappreciation. in one point that faulkner makes, the house is described to be stubborn and heartless, as miss emily is also described on many occasions. example

35、s of her stubbornness is not letting the “new guard” attach metal numbers above her door when the town began to receive free mail service, when she refused to believe that her father was dead, and refused to pay her taxes. just as the house seemed to reject progress and updating, so did miss emily,

36、until both of them became decaying symbols of their dying generation.these are all symbols of time in the story. whats more, the struggle between the past and the future threatens to rip the present to pieces. when members of the board of aldermen visited emily to see about the taxes a decade before

37、 her death, they heard her pocket watch ticking, hidden somewhere in the folds of her clothing and her body. this is a signal to us that for miss emily time is both a mysterious invisible force, and one of which she has always been strongly aware. with each tick of the clock, her chance for happines

38、s dwindles .another symbol of time was emilys hair. the town told time first by emilys hair, her iron-gray hair symbolized her stubborn character, and then when she disappeared into her house after her hair has turned a vigorous iron-gray, like the hair of an active man (4.6). when emily no longer l

39、eft the house, the town used tobes hair to told time, watching as it too turned gray. the strand of emilys hair found on the pillow next to homer, is a time-teller too, though precisely what time it told is hard to say. the narrator told us that homers final resting place hadnt been opened in 40 yea

40、rs, which was exactly how long homer barron has been missing. but, emilys hair didnt turn iron-gray until approximately 1898, several years after homers death. the stationery is also a symbol of time, but in a different way. the letter the town got from emily was written on paper of an archaic shape

41、, in a thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink (1.4). emily probably didnt write too many letters, so its normal that she would be using stationery thats probably at least 40 years old. the stationery is a symbol, and one that points back to the tensions between the past, the present, and the future,

42、 which this story explores.the taxes can be seen as symbols of death. the initial remission of miss emily taxes is a symbol of the death of her father. its also a symbol of the financial decline the proud man must have experienced, but kept hidden from emily and the town, until his death. since the

43、story isnt clear on why emily only got the house in the will, the taxes could also be a symbol of his continued control over emily from the grave. if he had money when he died, but left it to some mysterious entity, (the story is unclear on this point), he would have denied emily her independence.ov

44、er 30 years after the initial remission of miss emilys taxes when the newer generation tries to revoke the ancient deal they inherited, taxes are still a symbol of death, though this time, they symbolize the death of homer barron.as we argue in whats up with the ending?, the town is probably already

45、 aware that she has a rotting corpse upstairs. maybe the taxes were just an excuse to definitively see what was going on at the house. the next phase of their plan might well have been foreclosure. they could have used the tax situation to remove emily from the neighborhood, and to condemn her house

46、. perhaps they wanted to remove the eyesore, and to cover up everything miss emily says about the past and present of the south. the fact that they didnt do this might just turn the taxes into a symbol of compassion. wasnt it out of compassion that her taxes were initially remitted? that the newer g

47、eneration decides to continue the tradition also shows that some of the older ways might well have merit.1.3 the gothic style in a rose for emilythe gothic include the gothic style of building, a gothic story or film, and gothic writing, printing. the gothic buildings features are pointed arches, ta

48、ll pillars, and tall thin pointed windows; a gothic story, film is about frightening things, and they happen in mysterious buildings, and lonely places, and they were popular in the early 19th century; gothic writing, printing has thick decorated letters. a rose for emily uses the gothic writing sty

49、le, which makes the novel have a horror, gloomy and mysterious atmosphere. the gothic style is ready for emilys abnormal psychology. and it also makes reader feel depressed and sad.1.3.1 whats gothic fictiongothic fiction (sometimes referred to as gothic horror) is a style of literature that combine

50、s elements of both horror and romance. as a style, it is generally believed to have been invented by the english author horace walpole, with his 1764 novel the castle of otranto.the effect of gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror, an extension of romantic literary pleasures that were rel

51、atively new at the time of walpoles novel. melodrama and parody (including self-parody) were other long-standing features of the gothic initiated by walpole.gothic literature is intimately associated with the gothic revival architecture of the same era. in a way similar to the gothic revivalists rej

52、ection of the clarity and rationalism of the neoclassical style of the enlightened establishment, the literary gothic embodies an appreciation of the joys of extreme emotion, the thrills of fearfulness and awe inherent in the sublime, and a quest for atmosphere. the ruins of gothic buildings gave ri

53、se to multiple linked emotions by representing the inevitable decay and collapse of human creationsthus the urge to add fake ruins as eyecatchers in english landscape parks. english gothic writers often associated medieval buildings with what they saw as a dark and terrifying period, characterized b

54、y harsh laws enforced by torture, and with mysterious, fantastic, and superstitious rituals. in literature such anti-catholicism had a european dimension featuring roman catholic excesses such as the inquisition (in southern european countries such as italy and spain).prominent features of gothic fi

55、ction include terror (both psychological and physical), mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses and gothic architecture, castles, darkness, death, decay, doubles, madness, secrets, and hereditary curses.the stock characters of gothic fiction include tyrants, villains, bandits, maniacs, byr

56、onic heroes, persecuted maidens, femmes fatales, monks, nuns, madwomen, magicians, vampires, werewolves, monsters, demons, angels, fallen angels, revenants, ghosts, perambulating skeletons, the wandering jew and the devil himself.1.3.2 gothic in a rose for emilymiss emily greirson, in faulkners a ro

57、se for emily is a stereotypical southern gothic character. she came from a well-to-do family who once stood among the elite of the south. this “old south” was now decaying, as was miss emily. although times were changing, miss emily would not. she still insisted on being held at a higher rank than e

58、veryone else. when presented with the idea of paying her taxes, miss emily said “see colonel sartoris. i have no taxes in jefferson” (131, paragraph 12). she believed that she was above the law just because of who she was. miss emily is described in her later years in a very gothic, morbid way, “a s

59、mall, fat woman in blackleaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold heart” (131, paragraph 6). also, it is important to note that after her father passed away and her lover “l(fā)eft”, miss emily slipped into a life of seclusion and never left her home. she became the decaying, morbid character of a souther