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The story described a white woman, Emily, and her tragic life under the South’s loss in the Civil War. Emily’s life was strongly dominated by her father, and she had no right to date males and choose her own lover. After her father’s death, she could only date a Northern worker. What made her disappointed is that the worker refused to marry her. The refusal drove her to kill him by using poison, and she kept his body accompanying her. After Emily’s death, the town people discovered a skeleton upstairs in the house, and found out the poor Emily was a murderer, people were shocked by the discovery.
Thematically, this short story is not as simple as it seems. The conflicts in the story can be interpreted on different levels. On a superficial level, it is a murder story with gothic characteristics. It described an eccentric woman who lived in her old decaying mysterious house that other people had not visited for decades, and, of course, a dead body in the house finally was discovered after so many years. On another level, the story can be read as a conflict between the South and the North with Emily representing the declining South and Homer Barron representing the North. On a deeper level, the story explored the inner world of a human being, or the inner struggle in the human heart.
II. The Feminism
2.1 The Definitions of Feminism and Feminist Movements
Feminism is the belief that women should have equal political, social, sexual, intellectual, and economic rights to men. It involves various movements, theories, and philosophies, all concerned with issues of gender difference, that advocate equality for women and that campaign for women’s rights and interests.
Feminism appeared with the women’s emancipation in Western countries between the late 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. From then on, people began to think about the rights of women. Writers just showed their concerns about this in their literary works. But at that time, it was not easy for them to express their ideas in their works clearly. However, careful readers can find their thoughts by critical readings.
The fact that female gender had been historically viewed as weaker, more ignorant, and biologically dependent on the male sex is well known. What is surprising, at least to modern eyes, is that this idea held up for so long a time, regardless of technology, wealth, or education. Any degree of political, social, or economic power that women possessed varied throughout various societies (Tao 27). These ran the gamut from what arguably could be called “political equality” to the more common assignment of value determined only by the ability to bear legitimate children. So even in the modern society, feminism is also worth to be known.