这是一篇对于在略论艾米丽这一人物的范文。本文旨在略论的主角，艾米丽，通过具体的细节，并提供更深的角度为读者了解艾米莉。
“A Rose for Emily”, as William Faulkner’s most distinguished novel, has struck numerous readers through its terrifying atmosphere and unexpected result. Emily, the protagonist, has always been the focus of those heated discussions caused by this novel. Emily was born in a noble family and her father owned a high status in local town. Both of them caught the attention of the local residents. Emily has been trained as a grace, noble while arrogant lady by her father since she was young. After her father’s death, though she kept her nobility and arrogance, she fell in love with a rude and vulgar Yankee, Homer Barron, despite the gossip of the local people. However, Homer Barron was a gay and did not mean to marry Emily sincerely. After their marriage, both Homer Barron and Emily disappeared, except the period when Emily was about forty and taught children china-painting. When Emily passed away, villagers broke into her room and found the corpse of Homer Barron, who has been poisoned to death by Emily for decades. It is a tragedy for a lady like Emily, who is elegant and prideful, to use such extreme behavior to perpetuate a man’s love. For a long time, Faulkner-lovers are exploring reasons leading to Emily’s tragedy. This aims to analyze the protagonist, Emily, through specific details and offer deeper perspective for readers to understand Emily.
Emily’s father accounted for a lot in her tragedy. He intervened Emily’s life through shaping her as a noble lady in his way. He even neglected or suppressed her normal desire and need to develop love with other man. As the novel describes, “ We had long 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”(Faulkner 1931). Villagers also witnessed “all the young men her father had driven away”(Faulkner 1931). In the view of villagers, Emily’s father was the man who protected her while controlled her at the same time. Such background has a grave impact on the formation of Emily’s characteristic. First, the value of nobility has been instilled in by her father and deeply rooted in her mind. It was destined that it was difficult for her to connect with the outside world for the sake of maintaining nobility, which means that she has been strictly limited in her own world and suffered from loneliness heavily. Second, her normal desire has been severely curbed by her father. She has never had any relationship with any man in her former three decades. Hence, from the bottom of her heart, she strongly desires for love. Her true self’s expression has been suppressed for a long time. Therefore, the two factors mentioned above create a confliction in Emily’s life: nobility and love. Moreover, her father’s long time control has led Emily to losing her true self and independence, thus when her father passed away, it was difficult for her to accept the truth that her dependence has gone. It is depicted as this, “as is our custom Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead” and “ we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her” (Faulkner 1931). As far as the villagers’ concerned, her father is the main reason for her tragedy. “As if that quality of her father which had thwarted her woman's life so many times had been too virulent and too furious to die”(Faulkner 1931). In conclusion, family background is the root reason resulting in her characteristic and tragedy.
Emily’s characteristic can be embodied in many details. This mainly analyzes it from three events: paying tax, falling in love with Homer Barron and killing Homer Barron.
There are many details in the novel describing the event of paying tax, which perfectly reflects Emily’s pride. As the novel told us, notices have been sent to Emily for several times, asking her to pay tax. However, there was no reply or if there was, it must be a cold one. “ On the first of the year they mailed her a tax notice. February came, and there was no reply. They wrote her a formal letter, asking her to call at the sheriff's office at her convenience. A week later the mayor wrote her himself, offering to call or to send his car for her, and received in reply a note on of an archaic shape, in a thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink, to the effect that she no longer went out at all. The tax notice was also enclosed, without comment”(Faulkner, 1931). At the next time, officials sent a delegate to negotiate with Emily while failed also. “She did not ask them to sit. She just stood in the door and listened quietly until the spokesman came to a stumbling halt”(Faulkner 1931). Moreover, “ Each December we sent her a tax notice, which would be returned by the post office a week later, unclaimed”(Faulkner 1931). All these details declared Emily’s arrogance. She was not afraid of those officials and she was even capable of despising them and resisting them, which can be seen from her cold attitude. Instead, it was the officials who were afraid of her. Therefore, she was acting like her father and remaining the dignity of her family.
Though Emily contrived to remain the nobility of herself and her family, it cannot cover her desire for love. It was a shock for all people that she fell in love with a northern laborer. She still dared to publicly open her relation with Homer Barron, despite the nobility she cared so much. As we see in the novel, “Presently we began to see him and Miss Emily on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy and the matched team of bays from the livery stable”(Faulkner 1931). However, for local people, it was hard to accept that a noble lady marries a rude man. The novel described that, “later we said, ‘Poor Emily’ behind the jalousies as they passed on Sunday afternoon in the glittering buggy, Miss Emily with her head high and Homer Barron with his hat cocked and a cigar in his teeth, reins and whip in a yellow glove” and even “Then some of the ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people”(Faulkner 1931). Facing such gossip, Emily still continued to marry Homer Barron. It was obvious that she truly loved Homer Barron and she wanted someone to accompany with her forever even though she needed to abandon her image of nobility in others’ eyes.
What shocked readers most was that Emily killed Homer Barren, a man who she loved. It has been suggested in the novel that Homer Barren was a gay and he was not suitable for marriage. For a lady like Emily, who has her own pride, it is impossible for her to admit being abandoned by a man she loved. In order to keep her beloved man forever as well as her dignity, she finally chose to poisoned Homer Barron to death. “Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went and got the arsenic and wrapped it up”(Faulkner 1931). From the scene that Emily bought arsenic, it can be seen that she has made a firm determination and reality has numbed her. Finally, she decided to sleep next to a corpse and hug a corpse to pursue her forever love.
The story of Emily is a tragedy, while reasons leading to it is complex. Her father and her family background shaped her a lady who attached high attention to nobility, superiority and dignity. However, given by the lack of freedom, Emily lost the opportunity to satisfy her own desire and interact with others. She became a woman who desired for love, company and commitment. When these two aspects created a confliction in her heart, she decided to kill Homer Barron, a man who was ungrateful to her love. In such way, she can guarantee her dignity while also maintain their love forever. However, in readers’ eyes, Emily is a sacrifice of the past upper class who not only lost her true self but also lost her own happiness.
Bibliography
William Faulkner. A Rose for Emily. Faulkner in the University:95-103
Nicole Smith. Psychological Character Analysis of Miss Emily in “A Rose for Emily” by Faulkner. Dec 6, 2017. Retrieve May 12, 2017 from
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A Rose For Emily: Characterization. Retrieve May 12, 2017 from
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，英语毕业论文，英语论文 |
