A-rose-for-Emily賞析

1、A-rose-for-Emily 賞析I .Introduction“ARose for Emily" is a classic story representing Faulkner ' favorite subject, theme and style. The story is set in the town of Jefferson in his imaginary Yoknapatawpha County, the “mythical kingdom . The story begins with a funeral of the eponymous Miss Em

2、ily. It does not follow a particular order of chronological time. The narration flows backwards or forwards in a line of reality, revealing significant details of Emily' s life and the murder of the HomerBarron by Emily, which are suspended till the end of the story. The narrative is also divide

3、d into five parts, allowing for flexible shifts in time and displays of Emily ' s image at various stages of her life. Through the story about Emily, the author tries to pinpoint an unavoidable fate of the aristocracy and various changes in the South America after the Civil War.In this story, Em

4、ily Grierson, the main character, is a victim. Dominated by her father and his rigid ideas of social status, she has been prevented from marrying during her lifetime. One year after her father' s death, she falls in lovewith a northerner. When she finds that her lover is not going to get married

5、 with her, she poisons him so that she can keep him with her forever. Though the plot of the story is not complicated, yet it can be considered as a minor program of his works. In it are examples of Faulkner' s artistic preoccupations and techniques:the exploration of psychological reality, the

6、social structure and mores of a southern community, the nature of time, and the relation of the past to the present. This paper will approach the story from the following aspects: analysis of Emily ' s character, the root causes of her characters and her destiny.n .Analysis of Emily ' s char

7、actersEmily is the main character, the protagonist of the story. In this story, the author mainly focuses and reveals the main character Emily. In order to analyze Emily ' sharacter, some questions have at first to be answered: What type is this story or what kind of theme this story plans to re

8、veal? When 2answering these questions, it becomes much easier to analyze her character. Miss Emily is kind of quiet and perverse, proud and aloof, haughty, brave and tough, a representative of traditional convention and so forth. The followings are going to expatiate on them.2.1 Miss Emily s haughty

9、 characters grotesqueAt the very first, Emily is easy to be regarded as a haughty woman. In the story, the writer not only reveals the abnormal phenomenon of Emily character and her ill-sexed psychology, but also lively portrays her as a strong figure of haughtiness. Miss Emily Grierson is the socia

10、lite of her town. Naturally with this status there is a certain reputation she has to withhold. She not only represented her family name but, in a sense the people of her town. Because she was such a dominant figure the townspeople had put her on a pedestal and were very attentive to her actions. Du

11、ring the time in which her father was alive Emily was seen as a figure to be admired but never touched. Many wooers she had but according to her father s standard, none were suitable enough.2.2 Miss Emily s isolated and eccentric characterBesides, Miss Emily is isolated and eccentric. From the whole

12、 story, there is no doubt that she was an isolated one from the beginning of the story to the surprising end. All her life is the town people ' tspic after meals. They regard her as a monster. And because of her family, in particular, her father, she nearly get separated from her neighbors, whic

13、h adds more pressure to her personal affairs to fall in love with the Yankee, Homer,sthteyithr;ebutBarron, which, at last, creates the tragedy. On the other hand, she is eccentric at the same time. When the men from the government want to tax her after her father refused by Emily. The reason is quit

14、e simple, that is, when her father is alive, in Jefferson, they need not to pay taxes. She just tells the government that she has no taxes in Jefferson. What she said was the matter several years ago. And there was once a man called Colonel Sartoris explained it to her about her tax-free privilege.

15、She does not respect the truth, that is, her so-called Colonel died ten years ago and new policy comes into practice.The narrator arranges the specific detail on her behavior of buying Arsenic. The druggist can not imagine her purpose in buying the poison and just thinks that she might use it for ra

16、t and such things. Miss Emily just stares at him, her head tilts back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looks away and goes and gets the arsenic and wraps it up for her. How strange and eccentric she is. She does not allow anyone to ask about her matter, even though it is a dangerous affair

17、 which is forbidden by law.2.3 Miss Emily s necrophiliaMiss Emily is a necrophilia, too. Greatly surprised at the sight of the last paragraph of Faulkner ' short-story “ARose for Emily" the town people findthat Miss Emily is not only a murderer, but also sleeps with Homer Barron after she k

18、ills him. Then it is noticed that in the second pillow is the indentation of a head. One of the townspeople lifts something from it, and leans forward, finding the faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, and a long strand of iron-gray hair. Horribly, she kills her lover and sleeps ne

19、xt to him for a long time until being found out. As for the whole passage, the narrator refuses to dismiss Emily as simply mad or to treat her life as merely a grotesque, sensational horror story.Instead, his narrative method brought us into her life before we hastily rejected her, and doing so offe

20、red us a complex imaginative treatment of fierce determination and strength coupled with illusions and shocking eccentricities.42.4 Miss Emily s braveness and toughnessShe is brave and tough as well. As a woman, Emily is normal. She just tries her best to pursue her happiness. In this story, the mos

21、t attractive part for a great number of people is Emily ' s brave pursuit of love. Only after her father death, she begins to have the right to love. “Inthe summer after her father ' s death, she has her hair cut short and looks like a little girl. Soon she falls in love with Homer, who is a

22、 Yankee, a northerner and a day labor as well.holds Sheher head high in her dignity as she is the last Grierson of her family though the townspeople think she has fallen because she is with a man who is different fromher. However, Emily ' s love affair is not affected by the townspeople and her

23、twofemale cousinsinterference. Whats more,in .Intrinsic and extrinsic Reasons3.1 Intrinsic reasons3.1.1 FamilyIt is her family, especially her father that influences her so much. Emily, the heroine in the story, is a victim. Dominated by her father and his rigid ideas of social status, she has been

24、prevented from marrying during his life time and therefore after his death, she is left alone and penniless. Her dependence on her father continues even after he dies; she refuses to bury him and keep his portrait in a prominent place in her living room. Emily not only clings to her father memory, s

25、he also begins to assume his domineering traits. She does not accept the passage of time and changes or the inevitable loss that accompanies it. It is not just pathetic attempts to cling to the past, it develops into obsession finally, homicidal mania. Rather than lose Homer as she lost her father,

26、she kills him in order to keep him. She lives many years as a recluse. Abnormal characters are easy to form when under such strong pressure. It is Emily ' family that ruins her life and then Homer ' . s3.1.2 PhysiologyEmily ' s typical characters are cause by another important reason, na

27、mely the physiological one. From Freud Sigmund' s narration, there are three conceptions which are connected to the analysis needed to understand, that is, Id, Ego, and Super-ego.They are the three parts of the fictive psychicapparatus " defined in Freud' s so-calledstructural model of

28、the psyche; they are thethree theoretical constructs in terms of whose activity and interaction mental life is described. According to this model, the uncoordinated instinctual trends are the “ id "th;e organized realistic part of the psyche is the“ ego , ancritical and moralizing function the-

29、ego ".superThe Id comprises the unorganized part of the personality structure that contains the basic drives. The Id is unconscious by definition. 6Id is human s first reaction when human physiological needs happen, which is also an unorganized phenomenon. Miss Emily just tries her best to chas

30、e her happiness as other normal women do. From this angle, Miss Emily has the right to fall in love with Homer and to have their own family. What she has done is within the common practice. However, a lot of elements result in the tragic sequel. It is she that can not grasp the physiological element

31、 and causes her unhappy or even miserable destiny.3.1.3 Pathology and psychologyThere is another important intrinsic reason, that is pathological and psychological one. From her behavior to her father Mr. Drieson, she is complete Elctra Comlex戀父情結(jié).She lived with her father when Mr. Grieson was alive

32、, without communicating with others. Mr. Grieson controlled her whole life completely, which is the root that causes Miss Emily's tragedy and Homer's. What is more, Emily 's father drove away all the young men who were going to chase his daughter for the reason that he just wanted to hol

33、d Emily for himself. In Emily 's sub-consciousness, her father is her lover. It is this kind of abnormalpsychology that influences the formation of Emily's abnormal characters. InEmily's eyesight, losing her father amounts to losing her lover. And that means she will be alone from that t

34、ime on. Therefore, she refuses to bury her father even though he has been dead for several days. And at last she kills her own lover just in order to keep him with her.3.2 Extrinsic reasonsWhen referred to intrinsic reasons, it is easy to think of extrinsic reasonscausing Miss Emily's characters

35、 and her destiny. What is more, the extrinsic reasons play a crucial role on her which worth of researching here.3.2.1 Cultural traditionCultural tradition makes great impact on Emily ' characters and thetragedy. Faulkner was aware of the Southerners association with the South tradition , not on

36、ly physical , but spiritual as well; so he took pains to picture a group of Southerners who desperately submitted to the old way of life . But as an artist of the twentieth century, he observed the gradual changes of the South: theold veterans were dying of, and the old loyalties were adjusted to co

37、nform to new Emily so as to look after the single lady without insulting her dignity . But only a man of Colonel Sartoris generation and thought could have invented it. The moral values of the South tradition were lost. The new generation of public officials may be more efficient and businessman-lik

38、e. They were more practical; the next generation , with its more modern ideas, produced some little dissatisfaction with the hereditary obligation upon the town. but the old generation like Judge Stevens totally objected to the idea for it was shameful to let others know that such noble lady had sme

39、ll on her faces. The conflicts between the old generation and the new one indicated the decline of the Southern tradition . Faulkner believed that it was the moral valuescourage, honor, pride , compassion, liberty and justice that produced the glorious Southern kingdom , but the new generation lost

40、the virtues , thus losing its faith and forceconditions . In“A Rose for Emily ,Faulkner described the conflicts betweentheold tradition and the new order, and the doomed defeat of the oldtradition . Emily lived in her big and squarish frame house, which Griersonfamily thought the great choice. But h

41、er house was on its way to "coquettishdecay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps. And the once most selectstreet which was filled with houses decorated with cupolas and spires andscrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seveties was thenencroached and obliterated by ga

42、rages and cotton gins. Faulkner admiredsomewhat the merits of the South tradition the compassion and humanity menlike Colonel Sartoris and his peers inherited forced them to tell a kind lie toThe loss of the South tradition and the appearance of the North industrialization caused not only the devast

43、ation of the Southern plantation system, but also the macabre disillusionment to the Southern descendants. They were reared in the ways of the traditional South, vividly taught the beliefs and the loyalties of the tradition as the South knew them . Whereas, they saw that world changing into another

44、kind and they were themselves of that new changed world , yet apart from it. Faulkner revealed with intensity the rootless of the Southern descendants. They witnessed that the Northern industrialization penetrated the South, but their inherited Southern aristocracy forbade their acceptance of the ne

45、w order of life . They stubbornly objected to the invasion of the northern way of life, but in vain . So the Southern descendants had to suffer from the loneliness and bitterness of separating from the new world . The disillusionment of the Southerners was wel1 revealed in the portrayal of Emily, wh

46、ich is a symbol that Emily ' s characterscfcand caused her tragic end. For Miss Emily, she holds a firm conception that the Southern tradition or her family system is some sort of superiority. Therefore, when another new systemthe Northern one comes into being, she just can not accept the truth

47、and does some deeds to resist it and protect her“perfect one .It is such behaviors andtraditions that makes her abnormal characters.3.2.2 Social elementAnother extremely crucial factor for Emily 's characters to form is the social element. Here it mainly refers to the environment the Jefferson c

48、ommunity around her. For the townspeople, Grieson family never choose a northerner, a day labor. They think even though Emily is sad, she can not forget that she is a noble. They seem to be Emily's new father after her father died They try to control Emily on her love affair. When Emily and Home

49、r appear together, they talk about them with scornful expression. However, the community 's opposition does not influence Emily 's persistent love with Homer. If the townspeople give up at this moment, the result of Emily may be much better. But, instead the opposition becomes further intens

50、ified. A priest gets in and fails. Then come Emily's two far-distance cousins. From the writer 's viewpoint in the story, Miss Emily has been much better when she fall love in Homer. But the social environment pushes her to the edge of an abnormal woman again and again.IV .DestinyShe refused

51、 to release her father ' s body for andiaept his portrait in a prominent place in her living room : She refused to cooperate with modernization in the tax- paying service, answering the tax notice“on paper ofan archaic shape, in a thin, flowing calligraphy in faded inkHer clingin g 'tothe pa

52、st developed into such obsession and homicidal mania that she killed Homer Barron when she knew he would not marry her. So she killed him and kept the body , From Emily ' s tragic end and Faulkner ' s other charaMers can see the portentous disillusionment of the Southern descendants in the t

53、ransitional period . “They isolated themselves from the actual society, so what they could do was only to miss the past desperately until at last they died with deep agony."910Consequently, Miss Emily suffered great pressure from the society, herfamily tradition, her relatives and community'

54、;s nonchalance etc. on her personalaffair which finally caused her to die. Nonetheless, nobody paid much attention to whether she was alive or dead. Poor Emily is a character of misery. She is the sacrificial lamb of her time.V .ConclusionEmily was respected as a monument by to wnspeople. Emily '

55、; s resistance is heroic. Her tragic flaw is the conventional pride: she undertook to regulate the natural time- universe. She acted as though death did not exist, as though she could retain her unfaithful love by poisoning her lover and holding his physical body in a world which had all of the appe

56、arances of reality except that most necessary of all things- life. Because Homer died, he couldn ' tMsarEmily, then the monument continued to exist in the south people. In fact, the two generations ignored the real Emily, and create and maintain the myth of Emily as an example of southern womanh

57、ood from a last age. The writer uses the comic technique to disclose the conflict between south and north. This conflict cannot easily be solved at that time. Instead, it does great harm to Emily doomed destiny.In the above passage, Miss Emily's characters are analyzed from different dimensions.

58、 At first, her behavior shows that she is a haughty, isolated and eccentric, necrophilia but brave and tough woman. Her characters are complex and to some extent ambivalent. From the intrinsic and extrinsic reasons above, it is known that Emily tragic destiny is doomed to happen at last.11An analysi

59、s of "A Rose for EmilyWilliam Faulkner regarded the past as a repository of great images of human effort and integrity, but also as the source of a dynamic evil.He was aware of the romantic pull of the past and realized that submission to this romance of the past was a form of death (Warren, 26

60、9). In "A Rose for Emily", Faulkner contrasted the past with the present era. The past was representedin Emily herself, in ColonelSartoris, in the old Negro servant, and in the Board of Alderman who accepted the Colonel's attitude toward Emily and rescinded her taxes. The present was expressed chiefly through the words of the unna