AThematicStudyofARoseforEmily大学论文

A Thematic Study of A Rose for Emily

Student Name: han jun chen Tutor Name: fang minming

Submitted as a partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of Bachelor of Arts

College of Foreign Languages Zhejiang University of Technology

(May, 2014)

Acknowledgements

This thesis has involved a lot of time and efforts, for it is really a hard task for me to complete. Several months ago, I had the good opportunity to be permitted to fulfill my graduation thesis under the supervision of Mr. Zhou Yuanxiao, who has made some achievements in the cognitive field. I am grateful to him for helping me throughout the writing of this thesis. As a responsible supervisor, he has given me a lot of constructive suggestions from the selection of the reference books on the topic to the arrangement of the framework during the course of my working on this thesis. Due to his serious and earnest instructions, I had a correct and clear understanding on my topic before I made a beginning of this thesis. I must also thank him for a very patient and insightful direction of the early draft and the subsequent revisions. In addition, I thank him for his encouragement and instructions of the essential knowledge on paper's writing in the process of completing this thesis.

I will also give my appreciation to the teachers of the English Department of Shanghai University of Electric Power, who have taught me a lot during the past four years and enable me to finishing this work.

Finally, my thanks also go to my parents and friends who have offered some great help to support me through the task. Without your concern, the completion of this paper would have been impossible.

Abstract

Southern Literature is the most unique genre of American literature, and holds a very important place in its history. William Faulkner is one of the most representative Southern Literature writers of the 20th century. As a regionalist, he is very critical of the American South society. By using local, family, and Mississippi history, Faulkner

creates a fictional southern world, Yaknapatawpha County, which interprets his major theme of the underlying causes for the decay of the American South.

A Rose for Emily is by far the best-known, most frequently reprinted, most widely read, and most discussed short story written by William Faulkner. It relates a tragedy of a solitary and arrogant noble \

This thesis is intended to perceive into the root causes of the tragedy of Emily Grierson in combination with the social background of the old American South. It will make a detailed analysis on the social and historical causes of Miss Emily's psychological twist from three aspects, the society, the family and her own conflicts, and will further explore the emotion that the author expresses to his character, Emily, and the profound social implications in such a patriarchal system.

The \rose to express his sympathy and appreciation for the woman who struggled under the tyrannical patriarchal system and the moral fetters forced upon the women of the Old American South. A Rose for Emily is not only considered as a dirge for Emily, but also a eulogy dedicated to the downfall of the traditional southern society.

Key words: Emily; American South; patriarchal system; moral fetters; downfall

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摘 要 .......................................................................................................... 3 Contents ...................................................................................................... 4

I..Introduction ............................................................................................. 6 II. Southern Literature and Its Traditions ............................................... 8 2.1 The Southern Myth ............................................................................................... 8 2.2 Southern Literary Renaissance ................................................................. ..........9 III.What Led to the Tragedy of Emily ................................................. 11 3.1 The Aristocratic Status ........................................................................................ 11 3.2 Her Father's Control ........................................................................................... 12 3.3 Emily's Own Conflicts ......................................................................................... 13 IV.Thematic study .................................................................................... 13 4.1 A Dirge for Emily ................................................................................................. 16

4.1.1 A \16 4.1.2 A Satire of Love ............................................................................................ 17 4.1.3 Dignity and Struggle ..................................................................................... 17 4.2 A Eulogy Dedicated to the Demolished World .................................................. 19

4.2.1 Patriarchy and Moral Concept of Southern Woman ..................................... 19 4.2.2 Downfall of the Traditional Southern Values ................................................ 21 V.Conclusion ............................................................................................ 19

References ................................................................................................................ 24

I. Introduction

William Faulkner is the major writer to emerge from the Southern Literary Renaissance and one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.

Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, on September 25, 1897. Faulkner came from an old, proud, and distinguished Mississippi family, which included a governor, a colonel in the Confederate Army, and notable business pioneers. Critics generally agree that he did not graduate from high school, and that he dropped out of the University of Mississippi after a couple of years.

His great-grandfather, Colonel William Clark Falkner (the “u” was added to

Faulkner?s name by mistake when his first novel was published, and he retained the misspelling), a southern novelist and Confederate officer, was the one who had imposed the greatest impact on him. He viewed his great-grandfather as his idol, and decided to join the Royal Canadian Air Force, hoping to be a gallant fighter pilot. However, the war ended before he could go to the battlefield. Then he went back to Oxford to pick up his pen as a writer, just like his great-grandfather did. Besides, Colonel Falkner, who appears as Colonel John Sartoris in Faulkner?s fiction, had a distinguished career as a soldier, both in the Mexican War and the American Civil War.

Through Faulkner's life, he completed 19 novels, four collections of about 70 short stories, and 2 volumes of poems under his name. Among them, The Sound and the Fury (1929), As I Lay Dying (1930), Light in August (1932), Absalom, Absalom! (1936), The Wild Palms (1939), and The Hamlet (1940) are his great novels. All of Faulkner's major novels reflect his southern rootedness. His 15 novels and most of short stories are set in his native state of Mississippi. Beginning with Sartoris (1929), most of Faulkner?s major works are set in the Deep South called Yaknapatawpha County and its main town, Jefferson which closely resembled Faulkner?s native Oxford in Lafayette County, Mississippi where he spent most of his life.

As a regionalist, he was very critical of southern society. By using local, family, and Mississippi history, Faulkner created a fictional world to explore the underlying causes for the downfall of the South. His fiction remains a strong sense of fragmentation in social community and a loss of love and a lack of emotional response within the individual himself. He was also a great avant-garde experimenter. He successfully adopted some modern literary techniques, such as the device of stream-of-consciousness, the multiple points of view, a circular form, authorial transcendence, the non-chronological order, and so on. His stylistic innovations under the influence of James Joyce, his mastery of external and internal landscape , the incredible range of characterization in his fiction , and the affirmative spirit that provides a philosophic base for his work - all these promise to make him a writer for the ages , a master in the Southern Literature.

Faulkner received the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel. Faulkner won two Pulitzer Prizes for what are considered as his \A Fable which took the Pulitzer in 1955, and the 1962 novel, The Reivers which was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer in 1963. He also won two National Book Awards, first for his Collected Stories in 1951 and once again for his novel A Fable in 1955.

Although his novels are better known and more widely read, many of the same characters and ideas found in them are introduced in his short stories. So reading William Faulkner?s short stories is a good way to approach his major works, as well as to make a general understanding on the Southern Literature.

The first of Faulkner's short stories to appear in a major magazine with national circulation, A Rose for Emily is by far his best-known, most reprinted, most widely read, and most discussed short story. It is one of the best examples for us to learn Faulkner's Southern works.

A Rose for Emily was originally published in April 30, 1930, issue of Forum. A slightly revised version was published in two collections of his short stories, These 13 (1931) and Collected Stories (1950). It has been published in dozens of anthologies as well. It relates a short story about the life and the death of a declining aristocrat, Emily Grierson，who was reduced to a \From the viewpoint of an anonymous resident of Jefferson, Mississippi, where the Grierson family was the closest thing to true aristocracy, the story details the strange circumstances of Emily's life and her odd relationships with her father, her lover, and the people in Jefferson, and the horrible secret she hid--she poisoned her lover, Homer Barron, who wanted to discard her, and slept with his body until she died.

II. Southern Literature and Its Traditions 2.1 The Southern Myth

Southern Literature is the most unique in American culture, and plays an

important role in the history of literature.

To speak of the southern culture, the Southern Myth must be mentioned. The Southern Myth emerged from the original plantation myth, and was their recreation of the southern social ideal, as well as a means of beautifying the old southern lifestyle and the social system. It contained six notions. The first was the southern knight tradition. They considered their ancestors as the British knights and were proud of themselves. Second, they thought highly of farming, and held that farming brought them virtue, while industry led to vice. The third was a strong sense of class. They regarded the plantation owner as the aristocracy who had inestimable advantages to be the master of slaves and the savior. Fourth, the Civil War was a sacred cause in defense of their independence and the black people. The fifth was a belief in white superiority, which really had a profound and lasting influence in the history. Last but not least, a stereotype of a Southern \was pure, elegant, sacred, and was an ideal of the culture of the Old American South.

The six notions not only represented the southerners' life attitude, showed their intense desire and emotion, but also reflected the social and historical environment. The Southern Myth passed from generation to generation, and in the southerners' memory and imagination, the southern life had been gradually becoming perfect and attractive, regardless of whether it was the actual situation or not. Then, the southerners' explanation of the six myths exceeded the southern reality, and even many southerners thought the myth of the American South was the real South.

As the important part of the southern culture, the Southern Myth does deserve the southerners' cherish. But when they totally trapped themselves into the myth and turned their backs to the social reality, this kind of blind worship should pay for the decline of the American South in the later years. 2.2 Southern Literary Renaissance

The southerners did not realize their self-deception under the great influence of the Southern Myth until the Civil War broke out. The southern society experienced a

military defeat during the Civil War on its own soil and went into a long hard social Reconstruction era. In this period with the social change, the southern inherent code of ethics and social ideal were made irreversible changes.

The South Literary movement in the decades since the 1930s, known as the Southern Literary Renaissance, emphasized on the regional setting and tradition to individuals' lives , and flourished all over the world. Notable writers of this period, such as William Faulkner, Robert Penn Warren, and Thomas Wolfe, placed characters and action in the South to explore the importance of their southern heritage and environment.

Through the study of the southern works, it is not difficult to find the contradictions in their thoughts. On one hand, they wrote about the past of the South in their memories, in order to pass the Southern Myth to the younger generation. On another hand, they reflected and attacked the historical problems in the South, and tried to rewriting, or even to subverting the Southern Myth at the same time. They were taking pride in their own southern heritage, while making self-analysis and reflection on the values they had fought to preserve and in some cases a reaffirmation of those values.

Deeply affected by the stereotype of the Southern \most female characters in this period were pure, elegant and sacred. Faulkner created many nice female characters in his novels, such as the black housekeeper, Dilsey, in The Sound and the Fury, Lena Grove in Light in August, etc. They were kind and lively, reflecting the traditional virtues of human nature. However, dislike these female characters, Emily Grierson was an anti-traditional female image. Through this anti-traditional female image, Faulkner showed us the contradictions of the southern people, and her tragic life also predicted the decline of the Old South. This kind of anti-traditional female image was also proved to be attractive.

It is the features of the contradiction and the local color that made the Southern Literature flowering. Although their works are regional, they are universal as well. From the works of these contemporary southern writers, one can conclude that the art with its roots in a specific place or region really has its own spirit, because \

art is not of a region but transcends region.\is derived from the life but transcends the life. Nowadays, the South continues to assert in its art, and its distinctive regional qualities. III. What Led to the Tragedy of Emily 3.1 The Aristocratic Status

Emily lived in such a time that the South was sharply and inevitably declining after the Civil War. Before the war, the southerners enjoyed a peaceful and rich life that the slavery and the plantation economy brought to them, worshiping the graceful noble civilization. While the Civil War destroyed the slavery system and plantation economy that they lived on, and their ideology based on the physical basis was collapsing at the same time. So a great change happened in their traditional lifestyle and values with the history. The graceful noble civilization of the South was struggling under the shadow of losing the war and poverty.

In this period, the southerners were filled with contradictions. On one hand, they found the shortcomings of their old traditions. On the other hand, they wanted to retain their former glory, kept their old values, and the old generation tried their best to care the declining aristocracy who were once very glorious.

Emily was the typical noble during that special period. In the eyes of the town fellows, \Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town\She was a model of a \Lady\a symbol of the Old American South, and a monument of the tradition. She represented the dream that they had fought for and had already lost. On her funeral, \men - some in their brushed Confederate uniforms- on the porch and the lawn, talking of Miss Emily as if she had been a contemporary of theirs, believing that they had danced with her and courted her perhaps.\honored history, and she also was the best proof of their glory. Just like Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren said, \ Just because of her superior status, when she fell in love with a Yankee, Homer

Barron, the whole town considered it as a kind of \the town fellows? minds, what they did was not only to object her affair, but also to guard their own ideal tradition. In such a community, it seemed to be impossible for Emily to pursue her own love with Homer. 3.2 Her Father's Control

Emily was born in an aristocratic family. Although the family was declining after the Civil War, the status of the aristocracy was still rooted in the southerners' minds. The Griersons took the superiority for granted in the town. People in the town believed that \None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such.\

From the story, it is obvious that Emily?s father, Mr. Grierson, dominated her whole life physically and mentally. For one thing, he isolated Emily physically from the whole community. He thought that there was no need for the aristocracy like them to keep contact with the common people, and none of the young men in the town can be worthy of his daughter, so he drove away all the pursuers of Emily, which finally led to Emily?s lonely life.

In the \family, her father, as the ruler, always made Emily under control and abided by the traditional doctrines in all his life. Speaking of her father, it is said, \that quality of her father which had thwarted her woman?s life so many times had been too virulent and too furious to die\It just tells the truth without any exaggeration.

As a declining southern aristocrat, her father sustained the whole family, controlling every member in it. In her father's eyes, Emily was just an object that totally belonged to him. He made every decision for her, including her love and marriage. He deprived of her freedom, made her almost never go out of the house, and seriously interfered in her life, just in order to keep her loyal and pure, to keep their noble status. As a father, what he cared most was not his daughter?s happiness, but the aristocratic status, which made Emily?s life into a tragedy.

For another thing, under the aura of the family glory, Emily had to take the heavy burden on her shoulder. She was made into a \as an ideal of the southern culture, whether she was willing to be or not.

From the very fact of isolation, Emily was deprived of all rights that a human should have. In the story, there is such a statement of a tableau that \thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door%us a vivid picture about Emily and her father?s relationship: being controlled and to control. The man clutching a horsewhip isolated her in the name of protection, depriving of her opportunity to connecting with the society.

Without mother, Emily neither had ever enjoyed the parents' love from her father for a moment. Moreover, she even didn't have any friends to talk with. Her father and the house were the very center of her life. During the age which should had been her best, freedom was stifled and thought was shackled. And all of these due to the selfish and imperious \trapped her into the stereotype of \opening the prelude of her tragic life by his own hands.

So, Emily's life can be viewed as a symbol. In such a patriarchal society, she was always a caged bird, an object of her father. In fact, even after her father's death, Emily was still under control, because his words and deeds had already been deeply carved in her heart, and his influence would last for good. 3.3 Emily's Own Conflicts

Apart from the social and the family's factors, Emily herself should also pay for her own tragedy, because of her contradictions.

On one hand, she kept herself in the honored past South, no matter how the society had developed. The whole story took place after the Civil War, after the South lost the battle. The old tradition was severely being challenged and the new thought

was emerging constantly. The southern society was on the course of transformation. In spite of the social development, what could be seen from Emily was a complete old tradition. She lived in the bleak family house, wore the black old-style clothes, maintained the noble superiority and was followed by a black servant, as if the time was still for her. The most obvious example was that she refused to admit that she owed any taxes. She even did not recognize the mayor. Instead, she referred the committee to Colonel Sartoris, who, as the reader was told, had been dead for nearly ten years. For Emily, apparently, Colonel Sartoris is still alive. What else, when the town got free postal delivery, she alone refused to fasten the metal numbers above her door and attach a mailbox to it.

It is true that she was imbued with the thought of aristocracy and white superiority since she was born. It is also true that she was too used to this status and thought to adapt to the different society, and no one taught her, either. Being confronted with the great changes around her, especially her father's death, she was at a loss. Since the fetter from her father disappeared, she could had obtained her freedom, but she didn't know how to make a change, and all that she knew were given by her dead father. So when her father died, she denied to the townspeople for three days that he was dead. She was afraid to the changes, both of the society and the family. The old culture had already been entrenched in her heart, depriving her ability to accept new things. What's more, the town people admired her, but never let her into their life. Thus, there was no choice but to continuing along the way that her father set for her.

On the other hand, she wanted to get rid of the fetter to pursue her love. Her lover, Homer Barron, was described as \—a big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face\love with a Yankee, or in another words, a noble of the tradition loved a worker of a new class. From the man she chose, it is not difficult to find the rebellious aspect of Emily. Homer represents a totally different life from Emily's resting one. So their love dooms to be a failure. Homer does not accept Emily's love, all the people in the town do not allow this, and Emily herself also struggles in the inner self. People \

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