Abstract A Rose for Emily, the most representative short stories which is written by William Faulkner, one of the most distinguished American southern writers. In this fiction, the author created a tragic embodiment of the south——Emily with his clever conception and concise description. This thesis is intended to analyze the causes of Emily’s tragedy which the writer can illustrate from three aspects, Emily’s blind loyalty to Southern traditional culture, Emily’s ambivalent attitude towards patriarchal authority and Emily’s madness in love. On the one hand, the objective influence of Southern society led to Emily’s tragedy. On the other hand, Emily’s subjective characteristic resulted in her tragic ending. Especially the limitations of her self-consciousness caused the tragedy of Emily subjectively. This thesis aims at making readers unscramble the cause of Emily tragedy in a new angle. It hopes to waken the self-consciousness of women simultaneously, enlighten them from a deep point of view and make the modern women learn self-reliance, self-respect and self-directed.52866
Keywords: A rose for Emily; tragedy; female self-consciousness; limitation
摘要《献给艾米丽的玫瑰》堪称短篇经典之作,作者是享誉盛名的美国南部小说的代表人物威廉福克纳。他才思敏捷,寥寥数笔就为读者塑造出了一个典型的没落贵族小姐——艾米丽的悲剧形象。本文尝试从她对于南方传统文化的愚忠,对于父权的矛盾态度以及对爱情的疯狂痴迷这三个方面来解读艾米丽的悲剧成因。通过分析我们可以发现,一方面南方社会环境的客观作用造成了艾米丽的悲惨经历,另一方面艾米丽主观的性格因素,尤其是她自我意识的局限性导致了自身的悲剧结局。本文的重点在于让读者换一种思维来理解艾米丽的悲剧成因,同时从深层次的角度唤醒女性意识,给现代女性以启迪——要自力自强,自我尊重,自己主导自己的命运。
毕业论文关键词:《献给艾米丽的玫瑰》;悲剧;女性自我意识;局限性;
Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. Literature Review 2
3. Embodiment of Emily’s Tragedy 3
3.1 Emily’s Blind Loyalty to Southern Traditional Culture 3
3.2 Emily’s Ambivalent Attitude towards Patriarchal Authority 4
3.3 Emily’s Madness in Love 6
4. Causes of Emily’s Tragedy 8
4.1The Objective Function 8
4.2The Subjective Effects 9
5. Conclusion 10
Works Cited 11
1. Introduction
William Faulkner (1897-1962) is the representative author of American Southern literature. “In his works, he generally showed a bleak picture of human society, where violence and cruelty were frequently included. His intention was to show the evil, harsh events in contrast to such timeless virtues as love, honor, pity, compassion, and self-sacrifice, and thereby expose the faults of society.”(Li Wenjun, 1987:11) Take Faulkner’s famous short story, A Rose for Emily, for example, the Southern woman Emily was disgraced even destroyed by the ruthless and savage society. In this thesis, the writer manages to analyze the causes of Emily’s tragedy from two aspects, the objective function and the effect of subjectivity. That is to say, the Southern society played an objective role in engendering Emily’s tragedy. While Emily inner character, especially the limitations of her self-consciousness resulted in her tragic ending subjectively.