Published in April 1930, A Rose for Emily is one of his best received short works and has long been a hotspot of study。 Applying a flashback approach, William Faulkner pieces together the whole life of Emily Grierson from birth to death, and molds a lifelike and vivid personage of Emily。 Specifically, William Faulkner studiously disrupts the time order for mainly three reasons。 Firstly, it is used to create suspense atmosphere。 Secondly, it contributes to the creation of an emotional tone of darkness and horror (which is the feature of Gothic fiction)。 The horror themes, the atmosphere of horror story with suspense attract the readers。 Thirdly, Faulkner makes the article seem absurd or even "no order" so as to cover the image of Emily with a layer of gauze。 论文网

Once we lift the gauze and descend into her mysterious world, we can see an intact and clear image of Emily: a tough lady with a proud heart。 Many examples might be cited。 For instance, when her father, the backbone and the spirit of her family died, leaving her alone with a big gloomy house, she did not ask for any help but endured the pain of the disease herself for a long time。 Besides, the little uncompromising woman vanquished a deputation of aldermen, horse and foot by repeating “I have no taxes in Jefferson”。 Moreover, to retain her beloved man Homer Barron, she could balk at no sacrifice, even that of his live。 Being a tough lady, she never cried or even complained, but kept carrying her head high enough。 However, she is both fragile and tenacious。 It seems almost paradoxical but do reflect the fact that anyone is complex and flawed。 Let us put it in this way, she is timid and entrenched for unwilling to face what’s really happening。 But she is also stronghearted and noble because in her background is aristocratic traditions。 

Literature Review

Although A Rose for Emily only has less than 3700 words, it attracts growing interest of both critics and scholars at home and abroad such as: Moore G M (1992), Nick Melczarek (2006), Edwin Vartany (2011), Tezcan T (2014), Zhu Ye (1986), Cheng Xiling (2005), Zhou Wenjuan (2013), Fu Rongrong (2015) etc。 Some of these scholars analyze the frame of the article while others tend to focus their attention on the symbolic meaning as well as the implication or even irony of this fiction。 The researches conducted by these forerunners are pided into 4 aspects in the following paper according to its emphasis: from the viewpoint of structure, from the viewpoint of narrator and from the viewpoint of symbolism and other focuses。

During the study of the article structural configuration, the chronological order is a factor that cannot be neglected。 Faulkner creates an anomalous effect by applying flashback and foreshadow。 (Zhang, 2015) The narrator throughout the story flashes back and forth without considering the time sequence。 (Moore G M, 1992; Tezcan T, 2014) The reason why Faulkner blurs the chronology of events has already reached an agreement to some extent。 On the one hand, Faulkner wants to make the revelation of Miss Emily’s crime a shock, for time order is one of the most powerful ways to express emotion and theme。 (Zhu, 1986; Liu, 2007) On the other hand, it implies Emily Grierson’s inability to acknowledge the passage of time。 Furthermore, it hides the permalink for her battle to the time and change in the town of Jefferson by means of murder and necrophilia。 (Schwab M, 1991; Kriewald G L, 2003; Kriewald G L, 2012)文献综述

This article is also characterized by its narrator。 Kriewald G L (2014) points out that the third-person narrator could be understood the voice of whole town, but the voice is the most ghostlike: pervasive, shape-shifting and haunting。 In consequence, Emily is viewed and gossiped by the townspeople, which forces her stay indoors。 (Klein T, 2007) In addition, Edwin Vartany (2011) even depicts the image of the narrator “he might well be an old person and might, after all, like the very old, mix fantasy with memory。” From an omniscient perspective, the narrator likened the past to a “diminishing road” has already known that Emily is doomed to tragedy for being conservative。 (Cheng, 2005; Liu, 2007; Edwin Vartany, 2011)