1、,A Rose for Emily献给爱米丽的一朵玫瑰花,William Faulkner威廉姆福克纳,“A Rose For Emily is a short story by American author William Faulkner first published in the April 30,1930 issues of Forum.This story takes place in Faulkners fictional city, Jefferson, Mississippi, in the fictional country.It was Faulkners first
2、short story published in a national magazine.,A Picture of Yoknapatawpha County( a little postage stamp of native soil),Character 1.Emily Grierson is a mysterious figure who changes from a vibrant and hopeful younggirl to a cloistered and secretive old woman. 2.Homer Barron is a foreman from the Nor
3、th.He is a large man with a dark complexion,a booming voice,and light-colored eyes. 3.Judge Stevens is a mayor of Jefferson. He is eighty years old.,4.Mr.Grierson is Emilys father.He is a controlling,looming presence even in death,and the community clearly sees his lasting influence over Emily. 5.To
4、be is a black African American, Emilys servant . 6.Colonel Sartoris is the former mayor of Jefferson.Colonel Sartoris absolves Emily of tax burden after the death of her father.,In section1 It was a big,squarish frame house that had once been white,decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balc
5、onies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies,set on what had once been our most select street.,纳税事件 They rose when she entered-a small, fat woman in black,with a thin gold chain descending to her waist andvanishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with atarnished gold head. Her skele
6、ton was small and spare; perhaps that was why what would have been merelyplumpness in another was obesity in her. She lookedbloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water,and of that pallid hue. Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, looked like two small pieces of coal pressed int
7、oa lump of dough as they moved from one face to another while the visitors stated their errand.,Her voice was dry and cold. “I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me. Perhaps one of you can gain access to the city records and satisfy yourselves.“ “But we have. We are the cit
8、y authorities, Miss Emily. Didnt you get a notice from the sheriff, signed by him?“ “I received a paper, yes,“ Miss Emily said. “Perhaps he considers himself the sheriff . . . I have no taxes in Jefferson.“,“But there is nothing on the books to show that, you see We must go by the-“ “See Colonel Sar
9、toris. I have no taxes in Jefferson.“ “But, Miss Emily-“ “See Colonel Sartoris.“ (Colonel Sartoris hadbeen dead almost ten years.) “I have no taxes in Jefferson. Tobe!“ The Negro appeared. “Show these gentlemen out.“,In section 2 1.The ladies didnt believe that a man, any man,could keep a kitchen pr
10、operly. When the terrible smell developed, they thought it was because the manservant didnt keep the kitchen clean. 2.The next day the mayor received two morecomplaints. One of them was from a man who came and pleaded to the mayor in a shy and timidway.,.,3.Miss Emily sat in the window with the ligh
11、t behind her. What people could see was her silhouette, a dark figure seen against a light background. In this image She didnt look like a living person but an idol, or a goddess. Such a image suited her rigid and stubborn personality, her arrogant character.,4.We had long thought of them as a table
12、au,Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door.从爱米丽与她父亲的站姿可以看出，在她们家 是父权的天下。她父亲对她要求很严厉，把所有向 她求婚的人都赶走了。,5. The day after Mr.Griersons death, t
13、he women of the town call on Emily to offer their condolences.Meeting them at the door,Emily states that her father is not dead, and she did that for three days.She finally turns her fathers body over for burial.,In section 3 1. Homer soon becomes a popular figure in town and is seen taking Emily on
14、 buggy rides on Sunday afternoons.2. At first we were glad that Emily would have an interest,because that ladies all said, “Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer.But there were still others, older people, who said that even grief could not cause a lady to forg
15、e noblesse oblige.,3. As the affair continues and her reputation is further compromised,she goes to the store to purchase arsenic. 4. “I want some poison,“ she said to the druggist. Shewas over thirty then, still a slight woman, though thinner than usual, with cold, haughty black eyes in a face the
16、flesh of which was strained across the temples andabout the eyesockets as you imagine a lighthouse-keepers face ought to look. “I want some poison,“ shesaid. “Yes, Miss Emily. What kind? For rats and such? Id recom-“ “I want the best you have. I dont care what kind.“,The druggist named several. “The
17、yll kill anything up to an elephant. But what you want is-“ ”Arsenic,“ Miss Emily said. ”Is that a good one?“ ”Is . . . arsenic? Yes, maam. But what you want-“ ”I want arsenic.“ The druggist looked down at her. She looked Back at him, erect, her face like a strained flag. “Why, of course,“ the drugg
18、ist said. “If thats whatyou want. But the law requires you to tell what youare going to use it for.,Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye, until helooked away and went and got the arsenic and it up. The Negro delivery boy brought her the package; the dr
19、uggist didnt come back. When she opened the package at home there was written on the box, under the skull and bones:“For rats.“,In section 4 1.Some of the townpeople fear that Emily will usethe poison to kill herself. Her potential marriageto Homer seems increasingly unlikely, despitetheir continued
20、 Sunday ritual. Then some of ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people. Themen did not want to interfere, but at last the ladiesforced the Baptist minister-Miss Emilys peoplewere Episcopal- to call upon her. He would neverdivulge what happened durin
21、g that interview, buthe refused to go back again. in Alabama.,The next Sunday they again drove about the streets, and the following day the ministers wife wrote to Miss Emilys relations.2. Emily orders a silver toilet set monogrammed with Homers initials.Homer, absent from town,but we believed that
22、he had gone to prepare for Miss Emilys coming,or to give her a chance to get rid of the cousins. 3.After the cousins departure, Homer enters theGrierson home one evening and is never again.,.,4. Now Miss Emily no longer wentout.Now and then we would see her in one of the downstairs windows-She had e
23、vidently shut the top floor of the house-like the carved, torso of an idol in a niche,looking or not looking at us,we could never tell which. Thus she passed from generation to generationdear,Inescapable,impervious, tranquil,and perverse.,Niche (神龛),In section 5 1. with the crayon face of her father
24、 musing profoundly above the bier and the ladies sibilant and macabre; and the very old men -some in their brushed Confederate uniforms-on the porch and the lawn, talking of Miss Emily as if she had been a contemporary of theirs, believing that they had danced with her and courted her perhaps, confu
25、sing time with its mathematical progression, as the old do, to whom all the past is not a diminishing road but, instead, a huge meadow which no winter ever quite touches, divided from them now by the narrow bottle-neck of the most recent decade of years.,停尸架上方悬挂着她父亲的炭笔画像，一脸深 刻沉思的表情，妇女们唧唧喳喳地谈论着死亡，而 老
26、年男子呢有些人还穿上了刷得很干净的南方 同盟军制服则在走廊上，草坪上纷纷谈论着爱 米丽小姐的一生，仿佛她是他们的同龄人，而且还 相信和她跳过舞，甚至向她求过爱，他们把按数学 级数向前推进的时间给搅混了。这是老年人常有的 情形。在他们看来，过去的岁月不是一条越来越窄 的路，而是一片广袤的连冬天也对它无所影响的大 草地，只是近十年来才像窄小的瓶口一样，把他们 同过去隔断了。,2 . A thin, acrid pall as of the tomb seemed to lie everywhere upon this room decked and furnished as for a brida
27、l: upon the valance curtains of fadedrose color, upon the rose-shaded lights, upon thedressing table, upon the delicate array of crystal and the mans toilet things backed with tarnishedsilver, silver so tarnished that the monogram wasobscured. Among them lay a collar and tie, as if they had just bee
28、n removed, which, lifted, leftupon the surface a pale rescent in the dust. Upona chair hung the suit, carefully folded; beneath itthe two mute shoes and the discarded socks.,这间布置得像新房的屋子，仿佛到处都笼罩 着墓室一般的淡淡的阴惨惨的氛围：败了色的玫瑰 色窗帘 ，玫瑰色的灯罩，梳妆台，一排精细的水晶 制品和白银做底的男人盥洗用具，但白银已毫无光 泽，连刻制的姓名字母图案都已无法辨认了。杂物 中有一条硬领和领带，仿佛刚
29、从身上取下来似的， 把它们拿起来时，在台面上堆积的尘埃中留下淡淡 的月牙痕。椅子上放着一套衣服，折叠得好好的； 椅子底下有两只寂寞无声的鞋和一双扔了不要的袜 子。,3 . The body had apparently once lain in theattitude of an embrace, but now the long sleepthat outlasts love, that conquers even the grimaceof love, had cuckolded him. What was left of him,rotted beneath what was left
30、of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him laythat even coating of the patient and biding dust.,那尸体躺在那里，显出一度是拥抱的姿态，但 比爱情更能持久、那战胜了爱情的煎熬的永恒长眠 已经使他驯服了。他所遗留下来的肉体已在破烂的 睡衣下腐烂，跟他躺着的木床黏在了一起，难分难 解了。在他身上和他身旁的枕头，均匀地覆盖着一 层长年累月积下来的灰尘。,Then
31、 we noticed that in the secondpillow was the indentation of a head.One of us lifted something from it, andleaning forward, that faint and invisibledust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair.,后来我们才注意到旁边那只枕头上有人 头压过的痕迹。我们当中有一个人从那上面 拿起了什么东西，大家凑近一看这时一 股淡淡的干燥发臭的气味钻进了鼻孔原 来是一
32、绺长长的铁灰色头发。,Barron的出现使她对自己的生活感到厌倦， 再也不愿意继续孤独的日子，所以她尝试出 门和人接触，可是父亲对她的影响太深。她 那高傲的心深爱着Barron，却不懂的与他交 流爱的情感。于是当她将要和Barron结婚的 时候，才发现这一切并不是Barron想要的， 因为Barron对自由的执着使他不愿意对婚姻 做出承诺。所以，当Emily知道自己不能拥有 Barron时，她唯一能做的就是把Barron带入 自己的世界。,在奥地利，玫瑰是爱情，爱慕和敬仰的 表示；而另一方面，Emily这一生中没有任何 点缀和光明，更没有鲜花所代表的生气，所 以Rose是叙述者在影射自己。以此推论，这 个故事当依着“执着”为线索。首先，Emily的 父亲对她执着的占有，而后是Emily对Barron 爱的执着，Barron对自由的执着，还有叙述 者对Emily执着的情感，知道Emily过世，叙 述者仍一直关心注意着她。,Thank You!,
