Abstract

    A Rose for Emily, the most outstanding among the short stories of William Faulkner who is the representative of the southern novelists in America, demonstrates to us  the tragedy of a southern aristocratical lady—Emily Grierson--by telling a story of her falling in love with Homer (a black man from north America), her killing him and living with his body for decades of years. This paper aims to analyze the causes of Emily’s tragedy from the perspective of the southern aristocratic culture, social realities at that time, the influence of patriarchy as well as the contradiction between Emily and Homer for the purpose of exploring the feminism reflected in this story.    

Key words: Faulkner, Emily, causes of tragedy, southern Aristocratic, patriarchy, feminism

摘 要

《献给艾米丽的一朵玫瑰》是美国南方小说的代表人物威廉 • 福克纳的短篇小说代表作。在这篇小说中,福克纳塑造了一个没落的南方贵族小姐艾米丽和一个北方黑人荷默相爱但最终又将他毒死并与其尸骨共枕几十年的故事。本文旨在从南方贵族文化、社会现实、父权制度的影响以及艾米丽与荷默之间的冲突这四个角度讨论艾米丽悲剧的成因，以便更加深入地探讨福克纳作品中所折射的女性主义思想。

关键词: 福克纳；艾米丽；悲剧成因；南方贵族；父权制度；女性主义

1. Introduction
     It is world-widely acknowledged that William Faulkner (1897-1962) is one of the greatest novelists in the United States in the 20th century. Born in a notable family in New Albany, Mississippi, Faulkner, in his children, was often forced by his mother to make choices between being weak and being strong, for his mother was rather disappointed with his father who was very weak and incompetent. The great contrast of the glory of his grandfather and the abjection of his father, physical weakness (shorter than those of the same age) and family division had impelled Faulkner to rely on imagination. Young as he was, Faulkner took his grandfather as an example and was determined to be a great writer. Thus, Faulkner’s inspiration of literary creation largely came from his grandfather—a writer, politician as well as serviceman.