-
Symbolism in A Rose for Emily
Abstract
：
A Rose for Emily is one of the most
representative short novels written by
American writer
―
William
Faulkner
，
which
immediately aroused interest in
readers
owing to its suspense and a striking conclusion.
The
novel mainly talks about a
startling story. At first
，
the symbolic
meanings of the
characters in the novel will be studied. Then
the symbolic meanings of scenes will be
analyzed. At the last
，
the paper will be developed to analyze
the rose
’
s implications
in the story and the whole western
culture based on others
’
research. As for the symbolism using in
Faulkner
’
s
works
，
many
scholars focus on the study in single or the
research of
“
rose
”
. By collecting and reading
scholars
’
literature
materials
，
the author summarizes
Faulkner
’
s symbolism in the
paper and held forth a new idea which
is the symbolism of
characters and
scenes.
Key
words
：
William
Faulkner
；
A Rose
for Emily
；
characters
；
scene
；
rose
；
symbolism
摘
要：
《献给艾米丽的玫瑰》是美国作
家威廉
?
福克
纳的短篇小说的代表作。
这篇小说因其曲折的情节和扣人心
弦的结尾而引起读者的兴趣。这篇小说讲述了在南方清
教徒
传统下身心受到压抑而导致心理变态的艾米丽的惊心怵目
的
故事。本文首先分析了人物的象征意义，然后分析了场景
的象征意义，
< br>最后在前人研究的基础上，
拓展分析了
“玫瑰”
在本文乃至整个西方文化的隐含意义。对于福克纳象征手法
的运用，许多
学者着重于单个研究或是重点对“玫瑰”进行
研究。本文通过搜集阅读他人的资料，对福
克纳的象征手法
进行总结，并提出新的观点，即人物与场景的象征意义。
关键词：威廉
?
福克纳；
《献给艾
米丽的玫瑰》
；人物；
场景；玫瑰；象征主义
< br>
r One Introduction
Published in
1930
，
A Rose for
Emily was one of the best
known and the
most widely read novel among William
Faulkner
’
s short stories.
The story happened at the period of the late
nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries when the town was
learning to
live with South
’
s loss in
the civil War and the
consequent
dismantling of the slavery-based society that had
preceded it. Because of the loss in the
Civil War
，
people
in the
south led a poor life.
Especially the white people
，
their life
suddenly become
poor because most of the slaves went to the
north to work for the northern
industry
，
so the
white people
couldn
’
t get
accustomed to the life change in a short
time
，
but they
still pretended to be noble and kept their
family
’
s
dignity.
1.1
Brief introduction to William Faulkner
William
Faulkner is one of the most prominent writers in
American literature. He was the winner
of the 1950 Nobel Prize
for literature
for his powerful and artistically unique
contribution to the modern American
novel. Faulkner was
raised in and
heavily influenced by the state of
Mississippi
，
as
well as by the history and culture of
the south as a whole.
When he was four
years old
，
his
entire family moved to nearby
town of
Oxford
，
where he
lived on and off for the rest of his
life. Oxford is the model for the town
of
“
Jefferson
”
in his
fiction
，
and Lafayette
country
，
Mississippi
，
which contains
the town of
Oxford
，
is the
model for his fictional
Yoknapatawpha
Country. Based on the southern history and
social reality
，
his works have been regarded as the
representatives of the American
Southern literature.
1.2 Brief
introduction to A Rose for Emily
A Rose for
Emily is one of the most representative short
novels written by William Faulkner in
1930. It immediately
aroused interest
of readers owing to its suspense and striking
conclusion. The story with flashback
presents a particular
romance of an
American lady Emily living in a declined
aristocratic family of American South.
Emily’s father was so
arrogant and
proud of his noble hierarchy that he rejected each
suitor of his lovely
daughter
，
which
resulted in Emily
’
s pride
and spinsterhood in thirties. When her
father died
，
Emily was
determined to
abandon her aristocratic poison and plunged
into a passionate love in order to
pursue her personal
happiness. By
chance
，
she met a
day laborer named Barron
from north and
frantically fell in love with him.
However
，
a
southern lady
’
s
love with a northern worker was rebuked by
local people.
What
’
s
more
，
Barron was
such a dissipated and
debauchery
playboy that he did not intend to marry Emily.
Deserted by
Barron
，
Emily
could not accept the fact that her
one
and only love ended up with failure. In order to
retain her
love
，
appease other
’
s
remarks and also protect her
reputation
，
Emily
poisoned Barron and concealed his corpse on her
bed
until her death forty years later.
After Emily
’
s
funeral
，
neighbors entered her secret bedroom
and discover truth.
r Two Different symbolic
meanings of different
characters
2.1
Symbolic meaning of Emily
As a main role of the
story
，
Emily has
complicated
symbolism. Faulkner uses
flashback to tell the story. In the first
chapter
，
the writer writes that when Miss Emily
Grierson died
，
their whole town went to her funeral
and the mayor remitted
her taxes. So
Emily is the symbolism of a
tradition
，
a
duty
，
and a
care
；
a sort of
hereditary obligation upon the town. In
the second
chapter
，
the
writer writes that she can
’
t
clean up
her house and it smells bad.
The people held very strong views
on
this matter
，
but
Emily doesn
’
t care about it.
So Emily is the
symbolism of eccentric
and arrogance. In the third
chapter
，
the
writer writes that Emily falls in love with Homer.
They begin
to go around together.
People think that they will get married.
At that time
，
Emily
’
s father is
aristocracy. Homer is a Yankee.
Emily
loves him with great courage.
Emily
，
likes
other women
，
is
desirous of love. She stays with Homer in spite of
public
disapproval. So Emily is the
symbolism of romantic love.
Unluckily
，
she is abandoned by Homer. So she
poisons him and
sleeps with him for a
long time. So Emily is the symbolism of
cruelty and cold.
In
the novel
，
there
is a big collision
between the new
system and the traditional lifestyle. Free
postal service also indicates the
difference between two
cultures. The
north influences the south from the political to
the economic and culture.
However
，
the old
forces in south
are not easily
intimidated. Someone such as Emily bravely
resists the invasion of north. So Emily
is the represent of the
South.
2.2
Symbolic meaning of Emily
’
s
father
Emily's father is the guy with the
gigantic horsewhip. He's
only referred
to as
“
Emily's
father
”
. Faulkner himself
didn't
approve of the man at all. In an
interview
，
Faulkner expounds
on this
character
：
In this case
there was the young girl with a young girl's
normal aspirations to find love and
then a husband and a family
，
who was brow-beaten and kept down by
her father
，
a
selfish
man who didn't want her to
leave home because he wanted a
housekeeper
，
and it was a natural instinct of ?C
repressed
which ?C you can't repress it
?C you can mash it down but it
comes up
somewhere else and very likely in a tragic
form
，
and
that was simply another manifestation
of man's injustice to
man
，
of the poor tragic human being
struggling with its own
heart
，
with others
，
with its
environment
，
for
the simple
things which all human
beings want. In that case it was a young
girl that just wanted to be loved and
to love and to have a
husband and a
family.
（
Quoted in
Faulkner
，
1950
：
62
）