1、The PlotsThe Themes The BackgroundThe AuthorTechniquesWilliam Cuthbert Faulkner（1987-1962）Author William Faulkner(1897-1962),Americas most innovative novelists,Born in New Albany,on 1897.09.25 He lived most of his life in Oxford.Brief introductionBrief introduction Attempted to enlist as soon as the
2、 United States declared war in 1917 Volunteer in the Canadian Air force Student of the University of Mississippi on his return to Oxford after the war Faulkner belonged to a once-wealthy family of former plantation owners.Both parents came from wealthy families reduced to genteel(上流社会的)poverty by th
3、e Civil War.Because Faulkner came from a family with an aristocratic（贵族的）bearing（举止风度）and associated with other similar families,he was familiar with the arrogance（傲慢）of characters like the Griersons.Some of these people continued to behave as if they were still privileged plantation owners although
4、 their wealth was gone.However,Faulkner spent much of his time observing ordinary townspeople as well,and this is why he was able to capture the voice of the common people of Jefferson in the character of the narrator.He won two Pulitzer Prizes,a National Book Award,and the Nobel Prize for Literatur
5、e.His Nobel Prize Acceptance speech is today considered one of the finest ever made:“The problems of the human heart in conflict with itselfalone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about,worth the agony and the sweat.”Faulkner died on July 6,1962,the same day his great-grandfat
6、her,the Old Colonel,had been born on 137 years earlier.The Sound and the Fury(1929),喧嚣与骚动喧嚣与骚动As I Lay Dying(1930),我弥留之际我弥留之际 Light in August(1932),八月之光八月之光Absalom,Absalom!(1936).押沙龙，押沙龙押沙龙，押沙龙His first short story collection,These 13(1931),includes A Rose for Emily,Red Leaves,That Evening Sun,and D
7、ry September.Major WorksThree novels,The Hamlet,The Town and The Mansion,known collectively as the Snopes Trilogy A Fable(1954)Pulitzer,National Book Awards in 1955The Reivers掠夺者掠夺者(1962)Pulitzer in 1963.Major Works THANK YOU!name:宋佳宋佳The BackgroundA Rose for Emily is a short story by American autho
8、r William Faulkner first published in the April 30,1931 issue of Forum.This story takes place in Faulkners fictional city,Jefferson,Mississippi,in the fictional county of Yoknapatawpha County.It was Faulkners first short story published in a national magazine.William Faulkners map of Yoknapatawpha C
9、ountyCharacter List Emily Grierson-The object of fascination in the story.An eccentric recluse,Emily is a mysterious figure who changes from a vibrant and hopeful young girl to a cloistered and secretive old woman.Devastated and alone after her fathers death,she is an object of pity for the townspeo
10、ple.After a life of having potential suitors rejected by her father,she spends time after his death with a newcomer,Homer Barron,although the chances of his marrying her decrease as the years pass.Bloated and pallid in her later years,her hair turns steel gray.She ultimately poisons Homer and seals
11、his corpse into an upstairs room.Homer Barron-A foreman from the North.Homer is a large man with a dark complexion,a booming voice,and light-colored eyes.A gruff and demanding boss,he wins many admirers in Jefferson because of his gregarious nature and good sense of humor.He develops an interest in
12、Emily and takes her for Sunday drives in a yellow-wheeled buggy.Despite his attributes,the townspeople view him as a poor,if not scandalous,choice for a mate.He disappears in Emilys house and decomposes in an attic bedroom after she poisons him.Character List Judge Stevens-A mayor of Jefferson.Eight
13、y years old,Judge Stevens attempts to delicately handle the complaints about the smell emanating from the Grierson property.To be respectful of Emilys pride and former position in the community,he and the aldermen decide to sprinkle lime on the property in the middle of the night.Mr.Grierson-Emilys
14、father.Mr.Grierson is a controlling,looming presence even in death,and the community clearly sees his lasting influence over Emily.He deliberately thwarts Emilys attempts to find a husband in order to keep her under his control.We get glimpses of him in the story:in the crayon portrait kept on the g
15、ilt-edged easel in the parlor.Character List Tobe-The Black African American.Emilys servant.Tobe,his voice supposedly rusty from lack of use,is the only lifeline Emily has to the outside world and he cares for her and tends to her needs.After her death,he walks out the back door and never returns.Co
16、lonel Sartoris-A former mayor of Jefferson.Colonel Sartoris absolves Emily of any tax burden after the death of her father.Character List 1855:Miss Emily is born to the richest family of slave-owners in town.1861-1865:the American Civil War,Confederate troops from here commanded by Col.Sartoris.1870
17、:Mr.Grierson,Miss Emilys Father,has the family house built in Gothic revival style 1886:Mr.Grierson dies;Miss Emilys inheritance is only the house;she is over 30.1887:Homer Barron,Northern construction foreman,arrives;he and Miss Emily start courting.1888:Homer Barron is seen no more;the smell in th
18、e house is 1919:Young Colonel dies.1927-1928:The tax delegation visits Miss Emily.1929-1930:Miss Emily dies at the age of 74.TIME THANK YOU!name:The analysis of the title The theme of the story Emilys character Symbolization in textThe title analysis(A Rose for Emily)l A rose is a symbol of love and
19、 a pledge of faithfulness.Literally,from the arrangement of the text,we can hardly see the word“rose”from the beginning to the end of the text,which can be interpreted as this actual love for Emliy hardly exists in the whole story.l Actually,the author plays a trick on Miss Emily.In fact,she doesnt
20、really get any love from any man whether it is from her lover or her father.Emily could have a favorable marriage but for her fathers interference.She could have got her deserved love from Homer.But on account of her obstinacy and pride,she receives tiredness and indifference,instead of affection-ro
21、se,from him.She thinks that she can stay with Homer forever by poisoning him to death and possessing his body,but it is just Death but not love she possesses.l From the story,we can see Miss Emily was denied love,so,in this sense,the title has an ironic meaning.The title analysis(A Rose for Emily)l
22、Part V mentions something about“rose”,but they are just“curtains of faded rose color”and“rose-shaded lights”,which simply can be seen as some sort of shadow and illusion of rose,just as the love Emliy pursues.l A rose is a funeral flower,and the whole story is Faulkners tribute to Emily,and also to
23、the Old South,of which Miss Emily is the symbol.The thematic analysis .Miss Emily:a round but static character A round character:as the advocator as well as the victim of American Southern tradition;as an escapist of social reality;and a pursuer of a happy life.A static character:she rejects all the
24、 changes.She could have a better life after her fathers death.However,she doesnt get out of the tower her father built for her.On the contrary,she builds another one,and locks her soul.Symbol:Emilys HouselThe whole story is set in Emilys house.Her house is depicted as old but grand.Seen from the out
25、side,the house is really outdated just as the Souths old values are out of place in a changing society.It is not in accord with other residential buildingsits really an eyesore.The house perfectly mirrors Emilys isolation from the outside world.l From the inner decoration of her house,everything is
26、covered with dust and the air is humid.The whole room speaks the life Emily goes through.l Emilys house,like Emily herself,is a monument,the only remaining symbol of a dying world of Southern aristocracy.Symbol:Emilys House THANK YOU!name:Themes Isolation Memory and the Past Visions of America Versi
27、ons of Reality Compassion and ForgivenessIsolation A Rose for Emily is a story about the extremes of isolation by physical and emotional.Quotes about Isolation from the text-the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house,which no one save an old manservant-a combined gardener and c
28、ook-had seen in at least ten years.This funeral moment at the beginning of the story sets up the divisions that exist between Emily and the town.This sets the framework for Emilys isolation in life by talking about her funeral.After her fathers death she went out very little;after her sweet-heart we
29、nt away,people hardly saw her at all.Here we have two more major aspects of the isolation.Her father isolated her from men,and then the whole Homer Barron thing permanently isolated her form everybody(except Tobe),which seems to be what her father intended.The narrator tells us twice that Miss Emily
30、 is similar to an idol,suggesting that she was raised to think she is above others ahd she is permanently cut off from other people.Memory and the Past A Rose for Emily.Spanning approximately 74 years,this short story spins backwards and forwards in time like memory,and shows a southern town torn be
31、tween the present and the past.Post-Civil War and Pre-Civil Rights,A Rose for Emily shows us an American South in limbo,trying desperately,with each generation,to find a better way,a way which honors the good of the past,while coming to terms with its evils.Alive,Miss Emily had been a tradition,a du
32、ty,and a care;a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town dating from that day in 1894.Emily is described here as an object,a thing passed on from generation to generation.a note on paper of an archaic shape,in a thin,flowing calligraphy in faded ink,to the effect that she no longer went out at al
33、l.From her handwriting,to her stationery,to her way of dealing with the town,Miss Emily is living in the past.But,its not her past.So there must be a confrontition between Miss Emily(conservitive)and tax colectioner(moderner)an eyesore among eyesores.一切时过境迁的东西都让人看不惯,无论是新的东西还是旧的东西.this phrase also sh
34、ows the confrontition between the new ideas and old ideas from the description of the Emilys house.she told them that her father was not dead.After all,he was all she had.The town couldnt fault her,either.Visions of America The second paragraph of the first section of A Rose for Emily gives us all t
35、he clues we need to find out what the story is saying about America.The story shows how difficult it was for southern people to deal with the new America represented by the Emancipation Proclamation.Versions of Reality What we confront is the reality of America in the story,and the reality of the ma
36、in characters complete isolation.This story shows how much things have changed since Miss Emilys time,how different our reality is from that of the characters in the story.Compassion and ForgivenessCompassion and Forgiveness is another major theme that we can find in almost any Faulkner story.The st
37、ory can seem downright cruel,the characters wholly unsympathetic,and the plot gross.When we begin to see the magnitude of the tragedy,and its impact on multiple generations,we understand the story is a call for understanding.The story seems to argue that forgiveness,compassion,and understanding can
38、only come by facing the facts of the past and the present,which are tangled up together in an tight knot.Faulkner is both mercilessly subtle,and painfully blunt in this story,but we can feel the spirit of compassion rushing through.By showing us that Emily is insane,Faulkner gives us space to feel c
39、ompassion for her,and to forgive her for her crime.Colonel Sartoris invented an involved tale to the effect that Miss Emilys father had loaned money to the town,which the town,as a matter of business,preferred this way of repaying.The newer generation might revoke this deal because it represents the
40、 kind of privileging that lead to Emilys eventual decline.Maybe not remitting her taxes would have pushed her towards being an ordinary member in the community.we remembered all the young men her father had driven away,and we knew that with nothing left,she would have to cling to that which had robb
41、ed her,as people will.This contributes to the readers compassion for Emily,and perhaps represents a genuine moment of compassion on the part of the town.This selection also indicated the conservative thoughts of her father which are main reason for the tragedy of Miss Emily-THANK YOU!name:Techniques
42、 Stream of consciousness Authorial transcendence(disappearance of an author in a text:authorial intrusion should be reduced to the lowest minimum)Mythic/biblical structures Scrambled（杂乱的）chronologyLanguage and style His language is rich in symbols and images and heavily tainted with biblical and cla
43、ssical allusions.He has a large capacity of diction with rich nouns and abundant adjectives;his sentences are usually complicated with parallel structures.Moreover,he is known for his interior monologues,his fragmentary time and juxtaposition of the past and present.He also brings the stream-of-cons
44、ciousness technique and multiple points of view into their full play.Point of View of the Story“A Rose for Emily”is a successful story not only because of its intricately（错综复杂地）complex chronology（时间顺序）,but also because of its unique narrative point of view.The story is told by an unnamed narrator in
45、 the first person collective.By using the“we”narrator,Faulkner creates a sense of closeness between readers and his story.we unquestionably speaks for the community or the town people in general,in this way all that Emily does is observed,surmised and reacted to by the community.Faulkner adopts this
46、 narrative technique in order to show that the tragic story of Miss Emily is well known in town and that,for all her eccentricities,Emily is not an isolated freak with no relation to human being in general or her community in particular;she is rather linked to the community and forms part of it.From
47、 the voice of we,the reader gets to know various sub-groups and generations within the community who react to the smell differently with the passing of the time.Faulkners intention of using“we”To show that the tragic story of Miss Emily is well known in town For all her eccentricities,Emily is not a
48、n isolated freak with no relation to human being in general or her community in particular,she is rather linked to the community and forms part of it.From the voice of we,the reader gets to know various sub-groups and generations within the community who react to the smell differently with the passi
49、ng of the time.Comment“A Rose for Emily”is a classic story which is essentially an analysis of the underlying cause for the failure and decay of the south before the Civil War.Through the life of Emily,the author reveals the fate of the aristocracy and the new changes in the south of America after t
50、he Civil War.Faulkner penetrates deeply into the psychological motivations for mans actions.We profoundly sense his inner conflict and his combined feeling of love and hatred for the South.A Rose For Emily-The ZombiesThe summer is here at lastThe sky is overcastAnd no one brings a rose for EmilyShe
