Abstract

A Rose for Emily, the most representative short stories which is written by William Faulkner, one of the most distinguished American southern writers. In this fiction, the author created a tragic embodiment of the south——Emily with his clever conception and concise description. This thesis is intended to analyze the causes of Emily’s tragedy which the writer can illustrate from three aspects, Emily’s blind loyalty to Southern traditional culture, Emily’s ambivalent attitude towards patriarchal authority and Emily’s madness in love. On the one hand, the objective influence of Southern society led to Emily’s tragedy. On the other hand, Emily’s subjective characteristic resulted in her tragic ending. Especially the limitations of her self-consciousness caused the tragedy of Emily subjectively. This thesis aims at making readers unscramble the cause of Emily tragedy in a new angle. It hopes to waken the self-consciousness of women simultaneously, enlighten them from a deep point of view and make the modern women learn self-reliance, self-respect and self-directed.

Keywords: A rose for Emily; tragedy; female self-consciousness; limitation

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. Literature Review-2

3. Embodiment of Emily’s Tragedy-3

3.1 Emily’s Blind Loyalty to Southern Traditional Culture-3

3.2 Emily’s Ambivalent Attitude towards Patriarchal Authority-4

3.3 Emily’s Madness in Love-6

4. Causes of Emily’s Tragedy-8

4.1The Objective Function-8

4.2The Subjective Effects-9

5. Conclusion-10

Works Cited-11