Faulkner was a prolific writer of short stories. As time goes by, his short stories are drawing the attention of literary critics all the time. Faulkner shows his understanding and awareness of the world with intricate, narrative methods in his works. With unique narrative styles and profound themes, his short novels greatly influence reader's ideas. Guerin said :"the critics of Feminist literary attempt to make an explanation on the reason why power is unbalanced on account of gender in a certain culture,which is always reflected in or challenged by literary texts. ( Guerin,1965, 196 ) Faulkner sets many of his short stories and novels in Yoknapatawpha County—based on, and nearly geographically identical to, Lafayette County, which is the county seat. Yoknapatawpha was the mark of Faulkner's literary works, and a large number of works that it represents are widely thought of by literary critics to be equal to some of the most monumental fictional creations in the literary history. With their distinctive themes, the bold innovative writing styles and superb writing skills,his novels make a vivid portray to the decline of the southern history and tragic fate .He creates and describes many kinds of female characters who resist oppression and inequity in the society, reflecting the social reality in the South during the American Civil War .

1.1.2 A Rose for Emily

A Rose for Emily,from William Faulkner, is a short story about the life and death of Miss Emily Grierson.William Faulkner once said, “A Rose for Emily was a title with deep meanings; the meaning here was a woman who had had a tragedy, 

an irrevocable tragedy and nothing could be done about it, and I pitied her and this 

was a salute . . . to a woman you would hand a rose.”

  A Rose for Emily describes the lifetime of a strange maiden lady, Emily Grierson. We, as readers,know all the details about the strange situations of Emily’s life and her odd relationships between her father, who controlled and pushed around her rudely, and her lover, a member of Yankee road works- Homer Barron. When Homer Barron has the plan that he is ready to leave her and may not come back, Emily is seen to buy arsenic from the town shop, which makes the townspeople believe that she will commit suicide because of sadness. From that time, Homer Barron shows up in the town again, and is thought of by people to have went back to north. To people’s surprise, Emily does not commit suicide. The townspeople of Jefferson then go on to gossip about her and her eccentricities, inferring to her family's history of mental illness. She showed in public less and less, and rarely ever leaves her home during most of time. Unbeknownst to the townspeople until her death, in her upstairs room does she hid with the corpse of Homer Barron all day, which definitely explains the horrid stench that emits from Miss Emily's house.

With superb techniques and rich connotations, A Rose for Emily was praised highly by the literary critics and common readers. Numerous scholars at home and abroad have spent great efforts on this story from different angles for the extensive research. 

At home, scholars mainly interpret this short novel from these angels: feminism, narrative strategies and causes of characters' tragedy. Such as: SHI Zi-juan from Foreign Language Department, Shaoyang College, Shaoyang Hunan writes the article triple tragedy of Emily-analysis Emily’s tragedy from the perspective of feminism trying to analyze three kinds of causes of the tragic fate of Emily from the perspective of feminism: parents under the patriarchal oppression, the inequality between men and women in love and the southern traditional scapegoat; Davis from Foreign Language College of Sichuan University analyzes narrative strategies in the novel including the narrator and narrative voice, and also questions his inpidual view of lancer. In addition, he also probes into the narrative time and the name of the title of the novel with real problem. Xiong Jie from Foreign Language College of University of Electronic Science and Technology shows his points in the article causes of Emily tragedy thinking that Emily's tragic fate is caused by being a woman and a noble lady at the same. 女性主义角度分析《献给艾米丽的玫瑰》中艾米丽的悲剧(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_42656.html