The Application of Symbolism in A Rose for Emily——From the Perspective of Emily’s Portrait Depiction AbstractThe American writer William Faulkner enjoys a high reputation in the literature world and is especially renowned for his skillful application of symbolism in his works, among which the story A Rose for Emily is a typical one. In this study, efforts are made to discuss the application of symbolism in A Rose for Emily from a relatively new perspective-- Emily’s portrait depiction. Due to the unique character setting of the protagonist Emily, Faulkner uses a lot of words to describe the different portraits of Emily in various periods of her lifetime from the third person perspective, thus creating a gap between people’s perception--the “imaginary” Emily and the “real” Emily and leaving abundant room for readers to explore. Therefore, by studying the symbolic meanings behind those varied portrait depictions, we may get a little closer to the spiritual connotation of the novel. 52876

Keywords: symbolism; portrait depiction; the “imaginary Emily”; the “real Emily”

论象征主义与《献给艾米丽的玫瑰》——由艾米丽的肖像描写切入 

摘要美国作家威廉.福克纳在世界文学中享有盛名，其作品中象征主义手法的运用尤为出色。小说《献给艾米丽的一朵玫瑰》中象征主义手法淋漓尽致的体现就是一大典型。本篇论文着力从一个相对较新的角度探讨象征主义手法在小说《献给艾米丽的一朵玫瑰》中的运用。具体而言，即从主人公艾米丽的肖像描写角度出发，探讨象征主义在小说中的实际应用。由于作者福克纳对艾米丽独特的人物设定，小说运用大量篇幅刻画其在不同人生阶段的肖像变化，其中第三人称叙述视角的使用也在“人们眼中的艾米丽”与“真实的艾米丽”之间制造出一个认知偏差，由此赋予小说结尾更大的可能性并给予读者更多的探索想象空间。因而，通过研究不同的肖像描写背后所隐藏的象征意义，我们可能会对该小说的精神内涵有更进一步的了解。

毕业论文关键词：象征主义；肖像描写；想象中的艾米丽；真实的艾米丽

Contents

1. Introduction 2

2. Faulkner and Symbolism 3

  2.1 Symbolism in Faulkner's Works 4

  2.2 The Background of Faulkner's Using Symbolism in His Works 4

3. Portraits and Symbolic Meanings 5

  3.1 The Viewpoint--Third Person Perspective 6

      3.2 The Link between the Varied Portraits of Emily and the vaired Symbolic Meanings 10

4. The "Real Emily" and the Spiritual Connotation of the Story 11

      4.1 Revealing the "Real Emily" 12

      4.2 The Spiritual Connotation of A Rose for Emily 13

5. Conclusion 14

References 15

1. Introduction

    As one of the most renowned writers in American literature, Faulkner uses "Stream of Consciousness" in his writing frequently. Readers worldwide are quite familiar with his extremely subtle, emotional, complicated and sometimes Gothic stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, which are based on Lafayette County, Mississippi. His works show us a blueprint of a wide variety of characters active on the vast southern land of America including slaves or their descendants, poor white and Southern aristocrats. Indeed, A Rose for Emily is a typical masterpiece of this kind, and definitely, has become the focus of studying. Among all those research aspects, the study on Faulkner’s writing technique in A Rose for Emily, symbolism in particular, is extremely outstanding.