It is important to remember that Emily Griserson, for all her eccentricities, not to mention her serious mental illness, is never laughed at or treated with contempt or disgust。 Although she has been twisted by forces beyond her control and deformed personality, she still struggles to assert her will even in madness。 There are something valiant and compassion with which Faulkner viewed and created all his fictional characters as well as the aspects of humanity at large they are meant to represent。

II。 The Female Image in the Story 

2。1 Southern Literature

The American South has been a unique region all long。 A Rose for Emily is the most well-known short story in America southern literature。 Southern literature is defined as American Literature about the Southern United States or by those writers who write from this region,and those writers who engaged in southern literature are called southern writers。 As for the representative among those southern writers, William Faulkner portrays the southern subject matters, southern characters, southern settings and so on。 Miss Emily in A Rose for Emily is one of the most famous image among them。 Those writers show us the conservative romanticist spirit, reflected simultaneously the universal truth of humanity, and constructed the myth of keeping the land pure from industrial corruption。 Recurring themes of the south, including family, culture, tradition, religion, love and so on。 As for a southerner, Faulkner, whose most works are related to the south, form a profound scrutiny of the problems with which the south has been beleaguered。 He struggles to add to the American renaissance of the 1920s and helps the usher in a whole group of southern authors of the 1930s。文献综述

Southern literary focuses on a common Southern history, the use of the Southern dialect, for the south, works in this period is marked by a feeling of the concrete and specific, a familiarity with conflict, a sense of community, religious wholeness, and a sense of tragic。 This is the place in which the South’s artistic and intellectual promptings took root and flourished。 Thus, William Faulkner’s works are mainly about the traditions of the south。 A Rose for Emily is one of his most prominent short stories which depicts a tragedy related to the old south。

2。2 The Female Image in the Story

A Rose for Emily is the most well-known short story in America southern literature, Emily Gerierson, the main character in A Rose for Emily, is an eccentric spinster who refuses to accept the passage of time or the inevitable change and loss, dominating by her father and his rigid ideals of social status (Zhang 617)。 As for a descendent of the Southern aristocracy, Emily, a typical female image in Faulkner’s Yoknapatwapha stories who is not only the symbol of the Old South but also the prisoner of the past。 Meanwhile, after her father died, she refuses to accept his death and hangs his picture in her living room which caused her deformed personality。 Faulkner’s points out that by alienating oneself from the reality, a person is bound to be a tragedy。 As for the symbol of the tradition and the old way of life, thus her death parallel with the decline of the Old South。 From another perspective, Emily begins to awake, struggling for her rights and her beings though under the serve oppression。 Although greatly influenced by traditional culture and moral values and the strict parental society, women at that time could just be obedient and do what they are told to do, well-protected by her father and brother who almost decided all of the things for her, even her marriage。 She has no alternative but just follow the way directed by them。 Oppressed by such kind of rules made her abnormal, she begins to choose the person that she loved even though Homer did not love her at all。 For her own sake, she chooses to be a woman with a strong rebelling spirits to fight against the old traditions even in an extreme way。 Such a female image set a good example for others in that as for a woman she is longing for love and a new life, and accordingly, she takes some concrete actions to achieve such goals。 To some extent, she could be regarded as a new representative at that time who rebels against the old traditions and struggle for her beings。来:自[优E尔L论W文W网www.chuibin.com +QQ752018766-