发布时间 : 星期二 文章《献给艾米丽的玫瑰花》人物简要分析更新完毕开始阅读
A brief analysis of characters of A Rose for Emily
Abstract: “A Rose for Emily\, by William Faulkner, begins and ends with the death of Miss
Emily Grierson, the main character of the story. William Faulkner divided the story \five sections, the first and last section having to do with the present, and the now of the narration, with the three middle sections detailing the past\was, and to analysis her characters. In this paper, the author did not regard Emily as a sick and twist woman as many other people, and aims to help the readers understand this story better in another point of view.
Key words: character; symbolism; tragedy;
《献给艾米丽的玫瑰花》人物简要分析
摘要：《献给艾米丽的玫瑰花》是著名作家威廉·福克纳短篇小说的代表作。作者讲文章分
为五个部分，首尾两章描写现在，中间三章描写过去，并以主人公艾米丽小姐的去世情节描写首尾呼应，结构新颖。本文着重对文章主人公艾米丽究竟是怎么样一个人，她的性格究竟如何进行探讨。在这篇文章中，作者一反前人认为认为艾米丽是一个病态，扭曲的人的观点，旨在希望能从新的观点帮助读者更好地理解这篇文章
关键词：人物性格；象征主义；悲剧
Introduction
“A Rose for Emily” was a horrible and tragic Gothic fiction by William
Faulkner, a famous American writer. It was a story about the life of Miss Emily, who was the last aristocrat in the southern America. Emily’s father did not allowed his only daughter to meet anybody who admired her, and sealed her up in their own tower, and regarded as “a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town”. [1]When she finally met Homer Barron, “a Yankee--a big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face”, [2]everybody said they would get married. Then, Mr. Homer Barron disappeared. Poor Emily went to visit the druggist
for some arsenic, and townspeople thought her might commit suicide, but she did not. Forty years later, Miss Emily died, townspeople went to her funeral to mourn her, no matter men or women, old or young, to grieve the “fallen monument”[3]. To their surprise, when their entered her room that did not opened for forty years by others expect Miss Emily herself ,their were astonished at “The man himself lay in the bed. ” “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.” [4]That was Mr. Homer Barron, who was disappeared for forty years. Absolutely, Miss Emily killed him.
1 The background of this story
William Faulkner was an important writer in the modern literature period time not only in America but also in the whole literary world. He was the most prominent writer in southern America, and famous for his Yoknapatawpha country. Faulkner’s attitude towards the southern “aristocratic” families that he wrote about was ambiguous. Alongside his censure of their injustice to the African America, there was some indication of pity or sympathy. His famous short stories “A Rose for Emily”, was a good index to the mixed feeling that his works reveal.[5] This story happened after the American Civil War, the southern America was defeated by the northern, and had to end the slavery and the industrialization progress which brought by the northern was in prosperity. In this story, we can see the Emily and the townspeople, who represented the southern Americans after the Civil War. They were so afraid of losing their wealth, position, and stepping down the stage of history of their own accord. In the town where Emily lived, as the last aristocrat, her was well respected by the townspeople, and she was regarded as the symbol of the old traditions and the past glory. When she still alive, people might has the illusion of going back to their past lives, once she died, their realized that their past had already gone. The new power came from north destroyed their dreams, it was the world for the bourgeois.
The heroines Miss Emily Grierson, a southern “aristocrat”, who herself was a tragedy because of her reluctance of leaving the stage of the history that her should leave. Of course, as the last aristocrat of her family, Emily would not understand this.
Faulkner expresses the content of Miss Emily's character through physical description, through her actions, words, and feelings, through the narrator's direct comments about her, and through the actions, words, and feelings of other characters. In this story, we can see the writer’s technique of metaphor and his circle narrative style, and the writer maybe wants to tell us something more under the passage, every time we read this story, we could find something new. The secret was that Faulkner used the technique of metaphor. Metaphor, as an artistic technique of expression, usually makes the literature arts richer in structure and deeper in significance. By using metaphor, “A Rose for Emily” skillfully reflected the southern America on the wane through the expression of character’s tragedies and endows the heroine’s destiny with strong emotion and insightful social meaning,[6] it made this story much attractive.
2 Emily—the sacrifice of society
2.1 Emily’s miserable life
Emily was the main character in this story, and all her life can be described as miserable. The story started off with Ms. Emily's funeral, which impressed us the feeling of sorrow. It states that \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.\[7] As we can see, Ms. Emily was sort of a mystery to citizens of the town. Faulkner continuously used symbolism in the story. When the deputation came to her house for her taxes, Faulkner described how the house and Ms. Emily looks, “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\[8] this statement explains the Emily’s family was a noble one, she was an aristocrat, however, it has past, they situation now was not so good, and the house gave off a depressing mood for us.[9]
When Ms. Emily was young, her deceased father used to force away all the 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 did not see Homer Barron any more, and some times later, Emily too.
After they buried her, they came to the room that wasn't opened. When they opened the room they were greeted by great amounts of dust. They also explain that the \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 man's toilet things backed with tarnished silver, silver so tarnished that the monogram was obscured.\[10]They also saw a man's collar, tie, suit, shoes, and discarded socks. \shockingly, lying 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 attitude 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 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.\[11]
It was Emily, who afraid that Homer Barron leaves her, and poisoned him. Many readers regarded Emily as a sick and twist person, she would prefer to destroy one thing that she could not get rather than let it away. However, but I have to say, her was a lonely person and strong lady in some degree.
2.2.1 A lonely rose blooming in the tower
Miss Emily Grierson was the socialite of her town, but she was the loneliest one in the town. When her was young, her activities were strictly controlled by his father, she had no chance to see the people outside, and she had to behave well because of her status, and there was a certain reputation she has to withhold. She not only represents her family name but in a sense the people of her town. During the time in which her father was alive Emily was seen as a figure to be admired but never touched. Emily was revered as a goddess in the townspeople's eyes.
When her father passed away, she cut off her hair as a sign of breaking away from her father's control. For the first time in her life she felt free even though she was already thirty years old. However, it was a devastating loss for Emily, because