美国文学课程论文 2013年7月2 日
Surveillance and Tragedy in A Rose for
Emily
吴冰姿 外国语学院英语3班 1015010305
Thesis Statement: In William Faulkner’s short novel A Rose for Emily , the main character Emily ends up with tragedy. Emily’s fate is irrecoverable because there are surveillance in everywhere of her life——the society, the family and herself.
CONTENT
1. Introduction
2. The Surveillance of the Society
2.1 The Persecution of Puritanism
2.2 The Noble Tradition of Old South
3. The Surveillance of Family
3.1 The Supervision of Emily’s Father
3.2 The Supervision of Emily’s Relatives
4. The Surveillance of Self
5. Conclusion
Works Cited
Abstract: This paper will discuss the tragedy and surveillance in A Rose for Emily. Emily ’s tragedy is closely related to the surveillance around Emily. In this paper, three aspects will be discussed to find the reason for Emily’s tragedy. This paper will prove that Emily’s tragedy is irrecoverable.
Key Words: Emily, tragedy, surveillance
1. Introduction
1.1 Background Information
A Rose for Emily is a short story written by William Faulkner. He was an American writer and won Nobel Prize from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of written media, including novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essaysand screenplays. He is firstly known and praised for his novels and short stories, many of which are set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County which also was the set of the story A Rose for Emily . A Rose for Emily was first published in the April 30, 1930 issue of Forum. It was Faulkner's first short story published in a national magazine. The themes of this story are resistance to change, isolation, versions of reality, compassion and forgiveness.
1.2 Literature Review
Many researches have been written to work on the short story A Rose for Emily. Looking into these analyses, we can conclude a lot of aspects of research: the symbolism, the writing technique, the cause of Emily’s tragedy, the comparison with others and so on. In these analyses, the cause of Emily’s tragedy is the most popular topic. Many scholars has written papers about it in different perspectives.
Firstly, some researches believed that Emily’s tragedy was caused by three reasons——the oppression of paternity, inhuman doctrine of woman, and dislocation of times. On the Tragedy of A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner written by HONG Liu, School of Arts&Law, An Hui, Ma’an shan showed that the causes of Emily’s tragedy lie in the paternalism and feminie morality of Puritanism governing the south of America. It is said in this paper that Emily’s character was distorted by the oppression of inhuman doctrine of woman and father’s autocracy.
The Cause for Emily's Tragedy ——On A Rose for Emily written by LIU-Peng, English Department, Yunyang Teachers' College, gave a further discussion of the cause of Emily ’s tragedy. Besides her father ’s autocracy and inhuman doctrine of woman, the author also studied the cause for Emily ’s tragedy from dislocation of times. The decline of the old south and the raise of industrial civilization directly lead
to Emily’s tragedy.
Secondly, many scholars has studied A Rose for Emily from the feminism perspective. Three Reasons for Emily's Tragedy ———Analysis ofA Rose for Emily from Feminist Literary Criticism Perspective written by SHI Zi- juan, Foreign Language Department, Shaoyang College, discussed the reasons for Emily's tragic fate from the perspective of feminist literary criticism. It took Emily as the victim of patriarchal society.
An Interpretation of A Rose for Emily From a Feminist Perspective written by Zhao Qian analyzed the story A Rose for Emily from a feminist perspective, explores the social roots that lead to the tragedy of Emily. It also pointed out that Emily is victimized by the patriarchal oppression and her aristocratic status.
Finally, there are also some paper exploring the reason through comparison. Such as An Archetype Analysis of A Rose for Emily written by Su Ya-juan, institute of Foreign Languages, Lishui University. Through the approach of archetypal criticism, this essay focused on a comparative analysis of the two heroines in A Rose for Emily and Medea . Based on detailed analysis, it put forward the conclusion that both Medea ’s and Emily’s tragedies are the result of the loss of love revenge and hatred that changes from it, and both the women are the victims of the patriarchal society. All the researches above has agreed that Emily is a victim and studied her tragedy from many different perspectives. But none of them has mentioned the surveillance in
A Rose for Emily which is the essential of all kinds of oppressions.
2. The Surveillance of the Society
After the Civil War，the society has changed a lot. The feudal power has declined，the bourgeoisies spring up and the southern economy of plantation is inevitably attacked by the industrialization. The southern nobles struggle against the reality of losing the fortune，the statue and the reality of agony and chaos. They feel nostalgic for the old splendor times，in a large effort to impede the progress of the society. And Emily ，as the descendent of the noble，has naturally become the soul of tradition，the one part of the past honor in the South.
2.1 The Persecution of Puritanism
In old south, women were seen as the embodiment of sin in Puritanism. Because of this, women’s normal desire were condemned by the society. The Puritanism required
women to be desireless and made every other people keep watching on them. People lived in old south all believed in Puritanism. They surveilled Emily with the standards of Puritanism. “Then some of the ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people. The men did not want to interfere, but at last the ladies forced the Baptist minister--Miss Emily's people were Episcopal-- to call upon her. He would never divulge what happened during that interview, but he refused to go back again.” Even though Emily’s family has fallen, the town people liked to pay attention to Emily’s personal life. When they thought that Emily failed to marry Homer Barron and wanted to suicide, other women took her as a disgrace. And they sent a Baptist minister to call upon her. The Baptist minister is actually sent to supervise Emily and to remind her what she should do. The town people forced Homer Barron to leave Emily and caused her tragedy.
2.2 The Noble Tradition of Old South
In the story, the society has just changed from Feudal Society to industrialization. Emily was the last generation of her family to enjoy privileges of noble. So in the eyes of the town, Emily was the symbol of the old south, the embodiment of aristocracy. The town people were ambivalent about the old noble tradition. When people complained about the smell of Emily’s house, the young member and the old one had contradiction. “It's simple enough,” he said. “Send her word to have her place cleaned up. Give her a certain time to do it in, and if she don't. ..” “Dammit, sir,” Judge Stevens said, “will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?” On one hand, they respected and protected Emily as a decent noble lady. on the other hand, they did’t want Emily to enjoy privileges any more. Therefore the town people keep a lookout over Emily because even if the age has changed, inside their heart there was a deep nostalgic emotion of the southern tradition and mind of peacockery to the noble. They use the standard of a noble to supervise Emily. When they find Emily ’s love to Barron, they said“Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer.” But there were still others, older people, who said that even grief could not cause a real lady to forget noblesse oblige- -without calling it noblesse oblige. They judged that Emily shouldn’t love a laborer because she should be a real lady. They thought they are protecting her but they actually led to Emily’s tragedy.
3. The Surveillance of Family
The south American sense of family was closely related to the agricultural culture based on manorial economy. In this social and economical structure, family was the center of the society.
3.1 The Supervision of Emily’s Father
In old south, the father of the family was for sure the ruler and the authority. The ruler is always a role of surveillance, like the governors of a country will always keep an eye on their people. Emily’s father played a role of a supervisor in this story. 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. He monitored to ensure that no one sully Emily and to keep Emily pure. His surveillance kept Miss Emily hidden from fitting suitors and did not let her make a life of her own.
3.2 The Supervision of Emily’s Relatives
“The next Sunday they again drove about the streets, and the following day the minister's wife wrote to Miss Emily’s relations in Alabama.” When the town people find Emily can ’t stop obsessing with Barron, they asked her cousins to advise her. Because in their minds, her cousins were “even more Grierson than Miss Emily had ever been”. This shows that Emily’s cousins were just like her father. They came to Emily to monitor her, to keep her from forgetting noblesse oblige.
4. The Surveillance of Self
Emily ’s character has been distorted because of her father ’s autocracy. After her father ’s death, the author descried Emily like this “She was sick for a long time. When we saw her again, her hair was cut short, making her look like a girl, with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows--sort of tragic and serene.” Emily wanted to change after her father ’s death but actually, there were too much surveillance around her. She fall into that autistic lady again. She monitored herself as a real lady, when people ask to her pay taxes, she refused them; when people talked to her about new laws, she defied it. But she was rebel, she didn’t want to chase her love. So she has to break the surveillance of herself. However, it’s hard to fight against self. Emily had to chose another way to keep her love——death.
5. Conclusion
The the surveillance around her has decided on the inevitability of Emily’s tragedy.
This short story is aimed at more than only at the convey of Emily’s own tragedy but also reveals the dark side of the transitional period. All of Faulkner ’s works have reflected the decline and corruption of the southern society after the Civil War. During that period, the surveillance around women made them hard to breathe.
Works Cited
洪流，论《献给爱米丽的一朵玫瑰》的悲剧意义，安徽工业大学学报社会科学版 2002
刘鹏 爱米莉的悲剧成因解析——评析《献给爱米莉的玫瑰》，郧阳师范高等专科学校学报，2010
石子娟，艾米丽的三重悲剧——从女性主义角度解读《献给艾米丽的玫瑰》，邵阳学院学报(社会科学版) ，2008
苏亚娟，《献给艾米丽的玫瑰》原型分析，同仁学院学报，2010
肖明翰. 威廉. 福克纳研究[M].北京:外语教学与研究出版社, 1997
美国文学课程论文 2013年7月2 日
Surveillance and Tragedy in A Rose for
Emily
吴冰姿 外国语学院英语3班 1015010305
Thesis Statement: In William Faulkner’s short novel A Rose for Emily , the main character Emily ends up with tragedy. Emily’s fate is irrecoverable because there are surveillance in everywhere of her life——the society, the family and herself.
CONTENT
1. Introduction
2. The Surveillance of the Society
2.1 The Persecution of Puritanism
2.2 The Noble Tradition of Old South
3. The Surveillance of Family
3.1 The Supervision of Emily’s Father
3.2 The Supervision of Emily’s Relatives
4. The Surveillance of Self
5. Conclusion
Works Cited
Abstract: This paper will discuss the tragedy and surveillance in A Rose for Emily. Emily ’s tragedy is closely related to the surveillance around Emily. In this paper, three aspects will be discussed to find the reason for Emily’s tragedy. This paper will prove that Emily’s tragedy is irrecoverable.
Key Words: Emily, tragedy, surveillance
1. Introduction
1.1 Background Information
A Rose for Emily is a short story written by William Faulkner. He was an American writer and won Nobel Prize from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of written media, including novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essaysand screenplays. He is firstly known and praised for his novels and short stories, many of which are set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County which also was the set of the story A Rose for Emily . A Rose for Emily was first published in the April 30, 1930 issue of Forum. It was Faulkner's first short story published in a national magazine. The themes of this story are resistance to change, isolation, versions of reality, compassion and forgiveness.
1.2 Literature Review
Many researches have been written to work on the short story A Rose for Emily. Looking into these analyses, we can conclude a lot of aspects of research: the symbolism, the writing technique, the cause of Emily’s tragedy, the comparison with others and so on. In these analyses, the cause of Emily’s tragedy is the most popular topic. Many scholars has written papers about it in different perspectives.
Firstly, some researches believed that Emily’s tragedy was caused by three reasons——the oppression of paternity, inhuman doctrine of woman, and dislocation of times. On the Tragedy of A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner written by HONG Liu, School of Arts&Law, An Hui, Ma’an shan showed that the causes of Emily’s tragedy lie in the paternalism and feminie morality of Puritanism governing the south of America. It is said in this paper that Emily’s character was distorted by the oppression of inhuman doctrine of woman and father’s autocracy.
The Cause for Emily's Tragedy ——On A Rose for Emily written by LIU-Peng, English Department, Yunyang Teachers' College, gave a further discussion of the cause of Emily ’s tragedy. Besides her father ’s autocracy and inhuman doctrine of woman, the author also studied the cause for Emily ’s tragedy from dislocation of times. The decline of the old south and the raise of industrial civilization directly lead
to Emily’s tragedy.
Secondly, many scholars has studied A Rose for Emily from the feminism perspective. Three Reasons for Emily's Tragedy ———Analysis ofA Rose for Emily from Feminist Literary Criticism Perspective written by SHI Zi- juan, Foreign Language Department, Shaoyang College, discussed the reasons for Emily's tragic fate from the perspective of feminist literary criticism. It took Emily as the victim of patriarchal society.
An Interpretation of A Rose for Emily From a Feminist Perspective written by Zhao Qian analyzed the story A Rose for Emily from a feminist perspective, explores the social roots that lead to the tragedy of Emily. It also pointed out that Emily is victimized by the patriarchal oppression and her aristocratic status.
Finally, there are also some paper exploring the reason through comparison. Such as An Archetype Analysis of A Rose for Emily written by Su Ya-juan, institute of Foreign Languages, Lishui University. Through the approach of archetypal criticism, this essay focused on a comparative analysis of the two heroines in A Rose for Emily and Medea . Based on detailed analysis, it put forward the conclusion that both Medea ’s and Emily’s tragedies are the result of the loss of love revenge and hatred that changes from it, and both the women are the victims of the patriarchal society. All the researches above has agreed that Emily is a victim and studied her tragedy from many different perspectives. But none of them has mentioned the surveillance in
A Rose for Emily which is the essential of all kinds of oppressions.
2. The Surveillance of the Society
After the Civil War，the society has changed a lot. The feudal power has declined，the bourgeoisies spring up and the southern economy of plantation is inevitably attacked by the industrialization. The southern nobles struggle against the reality of losing the fortune，the statue and the reality of agony and chaos. They feel nostalgic for the old splendor times，in a large effort to impede the progress of the society. And Emily ，as the descendent of the noble，has naturally become the soul of tradition，the one part of the past honor in the South.
2.1 The Persecution of Puritanism
In old south, women were seen as the embodiment of sin in Puritanism. Because of this, women’s normal desire were condemned by the society. The Puritanism required
women to be desireless and made every other people keep watching on them. People lived in old south all believed in Puritanism. They surveilled Emily with the standards of Puritanism. “Then some of the ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people. The men did not want to interfere, but at last the ladies forced the Baptist minister--Miss Emily's people were Episcopal-- to call upon her. He would never divulge what happened during that interview, but he refused to go back again.” Even though Emily’s family has fallen, the town people liked to pay attention to Emily’s personal life. When they thought that Emily failed to marry Homer Barron and wanted to suicide, other women took her as a disgrace. And they sent a Baptist minister to call upon her. The Baptist minister is actually sent to supervise Emily and to remind her what she should do. The town people forced Homer Barron to leave Emily and caused her tragedy.
2.2 The Noble Tradition of Old South
In the story, the society has just changed from Feudal Society to industrialization. Emily was the last generation of her family to enjoy privileges of noble. So in the eyes of the town, Emily was the symbol of the old south, the embodiment of aristocracy. The town people were ambivalent about the old noble tradition. When people complained about the smell of Emily’s house, the young member and the old one had contradiction. “It's simple enough,” he said. “Send her word to have her place cleaned up. Give her a certain time to do it in, and if she don't. ..” “Dammit, sir,” Judge Stevens said, “will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?” On one hand, they respected and protected Emily as a decent noble lady. on the other hand, they did’t want Emily to enjoy privileges any more. Therefore the town people keep a lookout over Emily because even if the age has changed, inside their heart there was a deep nostalgic emotion of the southern tradition and mind of peacockery to the noble. They use the standard of a noble to supervise Emily. When they find Emily ’s love to Barron, they said“Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer.” But there were still others, older people, who said that even grief could not cause a real lady to forget noblesse oblige- -without calling it noblesse oblige. They judged that Emily shouldn’t love a laborer because she should be a real lady. They thought they are protecting her but they actually led to Emily’s tragedy.
3. The Surveillance of Family
The south American sense of family was closely related to the agricultural culture based on manorial economy. In this social and economical structure, family was the center of the society.
3.1 The Supervision of Emily’s Father
In old south, the father of the family was for sure the ruler and the authority. The ruler is always a role of surveillance, like the governors of a country will always keep an eye on their people. Emily’s father played a role of a supervisor in this story. 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. He monitored to ensure that no one sully Emily and to keep Emily pure. His surveillance kept Miss Emily hidden from fitting suitors and did not let her make a life of her own.
3.2 The Supervision of Emily’s Relatives
“The next Sunday they again drove about the streets, and the following day the minister's wife wrote to Miss Emily’s relations in Alabama.” When the town people find Emily can ’t stop obsessing with Barron, they asked her cousins to advise her. Because in their minds, her cousins were “even more Grierson than Miss Emily had ever been”. This shows that Emily’s cousins were just like her father. They came to Emily to monitor her, to keep her from forgetting noblesse oblige.
4. The Surveillance of Self
Emily ’s character has been distorted because of her father ’s autocracy. After her father ’s death, the author descried Emily like this “She was sick for a long time. When we saw her again, her hair was cut short, making her look like a girl, with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows--sort of tragic and serene.” Emily wanted to change after her father ’s death but actually, there were too much surveillance around her. She fall into that autistic lady again. She monitored herself as a real lady, when people ask to her pay taxes, she refused them; when people talked to her about new laws, she defied it. But she was rebel, she didn’t want to chase her love. So she has to break the surveillance of herself. However, it’s hard to fight against self. Emily had to chose another way to keep her love——death.
5. Conclusion
The the surveillance around her has decided on the inevitability of Emily’s tragedy.
This short story is aimed at more than only at the convey of Emily’s own tragedy but also reveals the dark side of the transitional period. All of Faulkner ’s works have reflected the decline and corruption of the southern society after the Civil War. During that period, the surveillance around women made them hard to breathe.
Works Cited
洪流，论《献给爱米丽的一朵玫瑰》的悲剧意义，安徽工业大学学报社会科学版 2002
刘鹏 爱米莉的悲剧成因解析——评析《献给爱米莉的玫瑰》，郧阳师范高等专科学校学报，2010
石子娟，艾米丽的三重悲剧——从女性主义角度解读《献给艾米丽的玫瑰》，邵阳学院学报(社会科学版) ，2008
苏亚娟，《献给艾米丽的玫瑰》原型分析，同仁学院学报，2010
肖明翰. 威廉. 福克纳研究[M].北京:外语教学与研究出版社, 1997