从小镇人集体视角分析艾米丽悲剧的社会原因_英语论文

The Townspeople in “A  Rose for Emily”

摘要

美国作家威廉福克纳的小说《献给艾米丽的玫瑰》以叙述者回忆的口吻时序颠倒手法记录着艾米丽愈发古怪的行为。这篇短篇小说以第一人称的视角叙述了人们去参加一位已经上了年纪的南方姑娘葬礼的情形。这里的第一人称指的是“我们“，即镇上的男人，他们对艾米丽的关注比镇上任何人都要积极。除此之外，“他们”也是故事的重要组成部分，他们代表着和父亲同辈的老一代人，他们也是父系社会的忠实维护者，所以即使父亲时候，他们依旧是阻扰艾米丽追求幸福的重要因素。第三类是弱势的女性群体，尽管她们跟艾米丽一样是时代的受害者，但她们不遗余力通过妇道人家的评头论足阻止艾米丽对于爱情的追求，不断攻破艾米丽的心理防线。借助这三类人的视角，本文将重点分析不同社会群体语言和心理特征进一步探讨艾米丽悲剧人生的重要社会原因。小镇原本是民风淳朴、村民质朴的，然而，作为贵族后裔的艾米丽，即使父亲去世后终于可以追求自己的幸福时，却依然受到小镇人的过分关注和评头论足，冷漠的态度，最终使艾米丽不负重压，放弃了对于爱情和幸福的追求而导致悲剧人生。因此，小镇人这个群体所营造的社会氛围是如此的，而艾米丽作为小镇人其中一员，为了融入小镇必须得具有这个小镇的社会属性，然而艾米丽对于爱情的自由追求恰恰与社会是格格不入的，不可避免地遭遇了人生悲剧。

关键词：老人；女性；男性；贵族；冷漠；压力

Abstract 

“A Rose for Emily” proceeds in a nonlinear fashion to the narrator's recollections of Emily's archaic and increasingly strange behavior throughout the years. It is a short story which opens with a brief first-person account of the funeral of Emily Grierson, an elderly Southern spinster. Here the first-person refers to “us”, which stands for the men who pay most attention to Emily. Besides the men, the second- person account of “they” is also a part of the story which represents the group--the old people, who are the hard-core protectors of the patriarchal authority. They are a lasting existence of her father, which imposes much stress on Emily’s pursuit of love after her father’s death. The third group are the vulnerable group--the women, although they are the same victims of the times like Emily, they spare no efforts to prevent Emily from happiness by making irresponsible remarks. From the three different groups’ angles, this paper focuses on the social causes of Emily's tragic fate through studying their linguistic and psychological characteristics. Jefferson, a small town, should be of simple folkway with people of artless grace and simple goodness. However, Emily, a descendant of the aristocracy, is under pressure from the townspeople’s obsession with finding fault, and finally, her pursuit of love and happiness are hindered by the excessive attention from these different groups. This contributes significantly to Emily’s tragedy. Since Emily lives in that society, she must subject herself to the social system and integrate herself into the community. But as a rebellious female in a male-dominated society, her pursuit of love and happiness are doomed to fail.

Key words:  old people; women; men; aristocracy; indifference; pressure

Contents

Introduction 1

Relevant Studies of “A Rose for Emily” in Literary Criticism 1

I. The Irony in Their Language Spoken 3

1.1 “Rose” and “Poor Emily” 3

1.2The Irony in Social Environment 4

II. Town People’s Linguistics and Characteristics 5

2.1. Three Groups of People in Narration 5

2.1.1The Representative of Old Generation-Patriarchal Authority 5

2.1.2 The Men’s Effect on Emily 6

2.1.3 The Vulnerable Women Group’s Influence 6

2.2 Emily’s Complex Psychological Process of Change 7

III.Three Pairs of Contradiction 7

3.1The Old People and the New Generation 7

3.2The South and the North 8

3.3 The Negro and the Townspeople 8

Conclusion 9

References 10