|A Rose For Emily |
| Like so many American writers, Faulkner found himself again and again writing short stories, some of which are considered|
|as equally important as his best novels. Good as his short stories are, they seem always at the threshold of being absorbed into|
|the Yoknapatawpha saga — that legendary matrix which is Faulkner’s real achievement. However, for a beginner of Faulkner |
|scholarship, his short stories may well be an easy start. “A Rose for Emily” is Faulkner’s first short story published in 1930. |
|Set in the town of Jefferson in Yoknopatawpha, the story focuses on Emily Grierson, an eccentric spinster who refuses to accept |
|the passage of time, or the inevitable change and loss that accompanies it. Simple as it is in plot, the story is pregnant with |
|meaning. As a descendent of the Southern aristocracy, Emily is typical of those in Faulkner’s Yoknapatwapha stories who are the |
|symbols of the Old South but the prisoners of the past. In this story, Faulkner makes best use of the Gothic devices in |
|narration, and, the deformed personality and abnormality Emily demonstrates in her relationship with her sweetheart is |
|dramatized in such a way that we feel shocked and thrilled as we read along. |
|In this story, Faulkner’s strong condemnation of the values of old tradition emanates from the pathetic life story of the |
|central character, Emily Grierson dominated by her father and restrained by his rigid ideas of social status, she has been |
|prevented from getting married during his lifetime, and therefore after his death she is left alone and penniless. Her |
|dependence on her father continues even after he dies. By delineating Miss Emily’s tragedy, Faulkner offers a strong |
|denunciation of the morals of his own southern culture. Yet in “A Rose for Emily”, we can sense the underlying acclaim of the |
|standard and moral values found in the South which have been destroyed by commerce and machinery. In spite of Emily’s insanity |
|and grotesque actions, Faulkner chooses “A Rose for Emily” as the title of this story to show his admiration for Miss Emily who |
|is a symbol of “tradition, duty and care; sort of hereditary obligation”. In addition, that Faulkner depicts Emily as dignified,|
|valiant and literate; her serf as loyal and staunch; Colonel Sartories, generation as sympathetic and considerate is also a |
|revelation of his applause of the glorious past which contains “the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and |
|piety and sacrifice.” |
|In “A Rose for Emily”, we can feel that part of the emotional and psychological thrill and involvement is that the style is |
|adapted to the subject. First, Faulkner’s handling of time in his story is most noteworthy. The displaced chronology undoubtedly|
|allows the narrator to tell the story in the most dramatic way and also to fill in adequate background details, but it is also a|
|way in which one of the themes — denunciation of the sins and evils of the southern culture — can be illustrated and |
|strengthened by the structure itself. The interruption of chronological order denotes the moral confusion and social depravity |
|of the southern tradition. Emily is in agonizing conflict, with herself, with modernization, and with the past forces that lie |
|beyond her control. In order to dissipate her inner tensions, she clings to her father’s memory and refuses to change. Emily’s |
|house, in the narrator’s eyes, marks the declining and disintegrating values of the South. In spite of all her eccentricities, |
|not to mention her serious mental illness, she is never laughed at or treated with contempt or disgust by the narrator. Instead |
|her struggle to assert her will has something courageous and heroic which serves to remind us of courage, honor and pride that |
|Faulkner acclaims. In “A Rose for Emily”, and his entire Yoknapatawpha saga, Faulkner penetrates deeply into the psychological |
|motivations for man’s actions and investigates man’s dilemma in the modern world throughout his fictional world, we profoundly |
|sense his inner conflict and his combined feeling of love and hatred for the South. Although his novels often contain a |
|two-faceted motif which compounds the condemnation of the sins and evils of the South and a compliment of its great and noble |
|qualities, they are structurally sound as being pitched in too high a key. |
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像许多美国作家福克纳发现自己一次又一次地写作短篇小说，其中有些是他最好的，同样作为小说的重要考虑。因为他的短篇小说是好的，他们似乎总是在阈值被吸收到约克纳帕塔法传奇 - 矩阵，传说这是福克纳的真正的成就。但是，对于初学者的福克纳奖学金，他的短篇故事很可能是一个容易的开始。 “献给爱米丽的玫瑰”是福克纳的第一篇小说在1930年出版。在杰弗逊在Yoknopatawpha镇集，故事的重点Emily格里尔森，偏心老处女谁拒绝接受时间的推移，或必然的变化和随之而来的损失。简单是因为它是在情节，故事是怀孕的意思。作为南方贵族的后裔，艾米莉是福克纳Yoknapatwapha故事谁是老南符号，而是过去的囚犯的典型。在这个故事，使物尽其用福克纳在叙事的哥特式装置，以及人格的变形和畸形Emily表明的是这样的，我们感到震惊和激动，因为我们一直读戏剧化的方式在她与她的情人关系。 在这个故事中，福克纳的旧传统，价值观念的强烈谴责，从主角可怜的生活故事的信念，Emily格里尔森为主，她的父亲和社会地位，他的僵化思想，克制，她一直无法获得生前结婚，因此在他死后，她独自和一贫如洗。她对她父亲的依赖他去世后仍继续进行。通过划定Emily的悲剧，福克纳提供了自己的南方文化道德的强烈谴责。然而，在“献给艾米丽的玫瑰”，我们可以感受到在已被商业和机械摧毁南发现的水准和道德价值观念的赞誉。在艾米莉的疯狂和怪诞的行动尽管如此，福克纳选择艾米莉的玫瑰“的故事作为这次”称号，以表明他对Emily钦佩谁是“传统的象征，责任和关怀;这类遗传性义务”。此外，该福克纳描绘Emily作为有尊严，勇敢和识字，她的忠诚和坚定的农奴;上校Sartories，因为同情和体贴也是他过去的光荣而有“一代的启示掌声，荣誉，勇气和希望自尊，同情，虔诚和牺牲。“ 在“献给艾米丽的玫瑰”，我们可以感到，激动的情绪和心理的一部分，参与的是，风格是适应问题。首先，福克纳在他的故事时间的处理是最值得注意的。流离失所的年代无疑使叙述者告诉最戏剧性的故事，并填写适当的背景细节，但它也是一种在其中的主题之一 - 谴责的罪恶和邪恶的南方文化 - 可加以说明和结构本身加强。中断的时间顺序表示的道德混乱和南部传统社会的堕落。艾米莉是痛苦的冲突与自己，与现代化，并与她的控制之外，超越过去的力量。为了驱散她内心的紧张，她攀附着她父亲的记忆，拒绝改变。艾米莉的房子，在叙述者的眼睛，标志着下降，瓦解南方价值。尽管她的怪癖，更不用提她严重的精神病，她从来没有嘲笑或蔑视或厌恶的叙述者。相反她声称她的斗争将有一定的勇敢和英雄，借此提醒我们的勇气，荣誉和骄傲的福克纳好评。在“献给艾米莉的玫瑰”，和他的整个约克纳帕塔法事件，福克纳渗透深入的心理动机的人的行动，并探讨在现代世界在他的小说世界人的困境，我们深刻地感觉他的内心冲突和他的爱和合并的感觉仇恨的南部地区。虽然他的小说往往包含两方面的主题是加剧了罪孽和南方罪恶和其伟大和高尚品质的赞美谴责，他们的结构声被过高搭了一个关键。