To study the limitations of Emily’s self-consciousness, we first should have an idea of about what self-consciousness is, and what is related to self-consciousness. In accordance with Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary, “consciousness” is defined as “the state of being capable of using your senses and mental powers to understand what is happening” “the state of being aware of something” or “the ideas and opinions of a person or group” (352). When we talk about “self-consciousness”, particularly women, the description will be more detailed and the scope ought to be narrowed down. Female Consciousness refers to a kind of awareness which describes the economic, social and political relationship between one’s experience and the larger society. This is a personal motivation which makes women seek for independence and liberty. 

William Faulkner had been popular among a large amount of Chinese scholars since early 1980s. They have studied this story A Rose for Emily from different aspects. All the research findings reveal the tragedy of Emily from a certain level, especially from the perspective of social culture. However, perse people have different points of view, and none of these has been capable of exhausting its sources. This short story “A Rose for Emily” focuses on a peculiar Southern spinster Emily’s miserable life. To be frank, Emily is the voice of the writer William Faulkner. And Faulkner aims to show his nostalgia of the Southern civilization in A Rose for Emily. The way that Emily persisted to the traditional morality expressed the deep feelings of William Faulkner for the Southern civilization. Emily’s tragic fate is regarded as consecration of the faded traditional culture. In consequence, the writer William Faulkner not only treated Emily with great sympathy, but also showed his sincere worship by presenting a rose for Emily. 源-自/吹冰+,论^文'网]www.chuibin.com

2. Literature Review 

A Rose for Emily is quite a famed literary work of William Faulkner who is one of the great global literary giants. This fiction shows the conflict between the traditional rule and the new life style in the south of America. Meanwhile a number of scholars at home and abroad such as David bowling (1989), Reed, J. R (1997), Xiao Minghan (1997), Shao Jinti (1995), Huang Xue’r (1997), Zhang Deliu (1990), Wang Mingin (2002) and Guan Jianming (2003) etc. (Lin Liuchen, 2004:145) have already researched this work from the viewpoint of feminism, the contextual analysis, the interpretation of A Rose for Emily and so on.

As a matter of fact, A Rose for Emily arouses the interest of many critics as a noted short story and they criticize it from a plenty of perspectives at home and abroad in recent years. On the basis of the accomplishment created by the previous scholars, this thesis is intended to push the writer’s ideas forth by analyzing the tragedy of Emily. The study can be pided into two aspects: from the viewpoint of objective function, the tragedy of Emily is the consequence of Patriarchy and the Ladies System of the American South; from the perspective of subjective effect, the personality, especially the limitations of Emily’s self-consciousness which leads to the tragic ending of Emily. 

In reality, it is so necessary to cultivate female consciousness either in the past or present. As well as feminism, female self-consciousness made women ask for the equal right and freedom. Simone de Beauvoir in her works The Second Sex brings forward an important feminism: the principle of freedom. “Freedom means the scope to shape our own future. And oppression is the denial of the future.” (Myerson, 2008: 157) Therefore, the female consciousness means that females should be conscious of their own position, role and merit. And they need recognizing themselves as subjects in the objective world. Generally speaking, if women sober and make sense of their self-consciousness probably, they will try to take part in social activities and fulfill the historical mission, public responsibility along with the personal obligation. The women who have the capacity to balance the relationship with the traditional society, the patriarchal authority as well as the lover, must own the self-conscious. If Emily is this kind of woman, thus she may not endure this wretched existence and she could have a happy ending in this fiction.