3.2 Human-society violation of ethics 10

3.2.1 The smell 10

3.2.2 Emily’s resistance of the changes 10

3.2.3 Conflict between South and North 11

3.3 Human-religion violation of ethics 12

3.3.1 Emily and Faulkner 12

3.3.2 Emily and Homer 14

4. Conclusion 15

References 16

1. Introduction

1.1 A brief introduction to William Faulkner and A Rose for Emily

William Faulkner(1897-1962), considered as one of the representatives of stream of consciousness, was a prolific American writer of novels, short stories, poetry and screenplays, among which his novels and short stories made him primarily known by the public, though he started his literary career by writing poems. He has won the Nobel Prize once and the Pulitzer Prize twice. His writing style is marked by interior monologue, multiple points of view, disruption of time sequence and open-ended, which has profound and significant impact on American literature and other writers’ literary creation as well. 

The stories of his fruitful literary production, covering an amount of 120 short stories and 19 novels, are mostly set in Yoknapatawpha County, a fictional kingdom created by William Faulkner, a symbol of Faulkner’s works and a well-known fictional spot in literature, and chiefly concerns southern aristocratic families, American Civil War, human situation, spiritual deterioration, loss of love and want of emotional response, racial issues, etc. William Faulkner was born and bred in American South, so it is no wonder that he has a peculiar southern complex for American South, which can also be traced through the characters he portrayed and the stories he constructed. He exposed us straightly to various issues occurred in American south at a time when it was going through significant changes and went through an irresistible decay. Therefore, he is also considered as one of the most significant writers of Southern Literature in the United States. 

A Rose for Emily(1930), consisting of 5 chapters, is a classic work representing William Faulkner’s favorite subject matter, theme and style, telling a story about the tragic life of Emily Grierson, who was born to a noble family. Like Faulkner’s many other works, the short story is also set in the southern town of Jefferson in Yoknapatawpha County. It begins with the death of Miss Emily, and the story goes on with inverted time sequence. Miss Emily’s father Mr. Grierson, a typical figure of patriarchal society, manipulated Miss Emily’s life and deprived her of the freedom to court with her suitors, resulted in her still being single at the age of 31 when he died. Mr. Grierson’s death inflicted so much sorrow on Miss Emily that she fell ill for some time. The next year she was seen courting with a Yankee foreman named Homer Barron, far beneath her in terms of social class in the opinion of the town’s people. Although Miss Emily loved Homer and seemed to marry him, she was betrayed by Homer. In order to be with Homer eternally, Miss Emily bought arsenic and poisoned her lover. The remains was found until the death of Miss Emily.