读思研UNIT7 SUMMARY

Summary："A Rose for Emily," written by William Faulkner, is a short story about the life and death of Miss Emily Grierson. The structure of this work is broken down into five individual sections, which all come together to form a masterpiece. As the story begins, the unnamed narrator gives a detailed description of Miss Emily's funeral. It is stated that the whole town was present for the funeral. The narrator describes the motivation for the town's attendance: "the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house" (Faulkner 1). The curiosity created by the town was due to Miss Emily's life of privacy. No individual had seen the inside of her house, with the exception of Miss Emily's "Negro" servant, in the last ten years leading up to her death. The first section of this short story additionally includes a description of the history behind the town's relations to Miss Emily. The narrator comments: "Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town" (1). This obligation began in the year 1894 when Miss Emily's father died; he left her nothing but the house. That year the town's mayor told Miss Emily she was exempt from all taxes because the town owed her father. Miss Emily accepted his exemption and the tradition began. As this section comes to an end, a new mayor tries to get Miss Emily to start paying taxes, but she refuses. The second section of "A Rose for Emily" describes Miss Emily's life shortly after her father's death. This section displays Miss Emily as a woman in deep denial. She actually tried to hide her father's dead body, but the wretched smell eventually drove the town to intervene: "Just as they were about to resort to law and force, she broke down, and they buried her father quickly" (3). The narrator ends this section by saying, "We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that" (3). The third section of this short story begins with the narrator saying Miss Emily was sick for a long time. This section then goes on to introduce Homer Barron, a "Yankee" construction worker, who was brought to town as the foreman of a company for paving the sidewalks of Jefferson. Miss Emily quickly grew fond of Homer, and they began spending every Sunday together. The town could not understand Miss Emily's relationship with Homer; they started saying "Poor Emily." Over a year later Miss Emily went to the drugstore and bought arsenic. The druggist asked Miss Emily what her intentions were for this poison, but she would not answer him. The fourth section began with the town's speculations of Miss Emily's need for poison. The narrator stated, "So the next day we all said, 'She will kill herself' and we said it would be the best thing" (5). After this initial reaction, the women of the town decided Miss Emily's suicide would be a disgrace. The ladies forced the Baptist Minister to visit Miss Emily. Although he would never say what happened that day, he would not go back. The minister's wife then decided to write Miss Emily's estranged relatives in Alabama, and in return two of her female cousins came for a visit, and Homer disappeared. After some time, the cousins went back to Alabama, and Homer went back to Miss Emily. The narrator says that was the last time Homer was ever seen. This section closed with Miss Emily's death, at age seventy-four. The fifth, and final, section returns to the funeral of Miss Emily Grierson. The narrator says that her "Negro" servant opened Miss Emily's door and vanished forever. The funeral was held on the second day after Miss Emily's death. Upon her burial, the town began an inspection of the house that was closed for the last ten years. What they found was astonishing. Miss Emily had been hiding Homer's dead body. He was laid out in a bed; next to him was an imprint, and one of her long gray hairs.评论：在献给爱米丽的一朵玫瑰花中，福克纳运用了“时序颠倒"、“多角度”、“哥特式"、“象征、比喻”等写作手法。下面将对这些方法作些分析。在他的许多作品中，对时间概念的处理都是匠心独运。他常常假以颠倒时序的技法，给读者造成“连续现在”的感觉，即将过去、现在和将来的事件熔入一炉，万千事物，甚至是多少个春秋之前的事件，仿佛是在同时发生。一切事物都是小说的“现在”的一部分。献给爱米丽的一朵玫瑰花开篇便写道：爱米丽·格尔生小姐驾鹤西去，镇上的人都去送丧，继而描述了她的家宅，并忆起了她在世时，围绕纳税问题与第二代年轻的镇长及参议员所发生的争执。第二章则描述了因爱米丽小姐宅院中散发的熏天臭气，邻里们的各式反映，接下去又写了她父亲卒命后，她的怪诞行为。第三章则着墨于她和荷默 .伯隆相识，又遽然转向她去药店买砒霜的细节。第四章开头写她与荷默的模糊关系及她为筑爱巢所做的一些准备工作，转笔又记述了她四十岁左右给镇上的孩子们讲授绘画课。此后她将自己锁进豪宅大院，直到天夺其魄。最后一章描述了她命赴黄泉后，邻里们进入她神秘的房间，所目睹的令人惊魂丧胆的一幕。柏格森的哲学对福克纳的创作产生了很大的影响。福克纳也曾明确说道，他很同意柏格森关于时间的流动性的理论。福氏打破了传统的时间观念，将诸多事情，颠倒时序，置于一“连续现在”的场景中，一切似是发生在人们眼皮底下的事，从而使故事深为可信，读者对这诸多“事实”也就更容易接受。这种颠倒时序的写作方法亦使故事更加曲折回转，起伏跌宕。它打破了读者传统的阅读习惯，同时也为读者留出了更大的参与及思考的空间，也更能激发读者的阅读兴致。诚然，这种写作方法更重要的是有助于人物的塑造。南北战争后,甚至到了本世纪初，南方贵族的子孙后代一方面表现了强烈的失落感，从另一方面看,他们则仍然沉醉在祖上的功德、荣耀中,留恋着昔日的贵族生活方式，以及维系这种生活的社会道德体系、旧的传统及价值观念。爱米丽这位腐败了的贵族家庭的遗物，便可视为南方贵族庄园主阶级的代表。为了向读者揭示爱米丽愚顽守旧的内心世界，福克纳在他构制的“时序颠倒”的时空里，以多个细节对她的这一心态进行描述：“等到思想更为开明的第二代人当了镇长和参议员时，”他们要求爱米丽小姐交税，她却回答说：“你们去找沙多里斯上校（沙多利斯上校死了将近十年了）”。(1)当她父亲过世后，她坚持认为：“她的父亲没有死。一连三天她都是这样，不论是教会牧师访问她也好，还是医生想劝她让他们把尸体处理掉也好。”(2)“全镇实行免费邮递制度之后，只有爱米丽小姐一个拒绝在她门口钉上金属门牌号，附设一个邮件箱。”(3)这些细节穿插在“连续现在”的章节中，不但不会使读者产生重复感，而且会通过这些不同的事例，多侧面地加深了对爱米丽这一形象的认识，她的顽冥不化，刻意守旧的心态，便跃然纸上。传统的小说家一般用“全能角度”亦即作家无所不在，无所不知的角度来叙述，或用书中主人公自述的方式来叙述。在远大前程中，狄更斯就是以主人公匹普“我”的口吻进行叙述的。在献给爱米丽的一朵玫瑰花中，福克纳则采用了现代派的写作手法，他用表示集体的“我们”或“我们全镇”人的眼光去猜度、关心、注视着爱米丽的言论、行动、生活和爱情。爱米丽这一形象具有多面性及复杂性。福克纳以生花妙笔描述了爱米丽的容貌、性格、身分等。“她的头发已经剪短，看上去像个姑娘，和教堂里彩色玻璃上的天使不无相似之处有几分悲怆肃穆。”(4)“她看上去象长久泡在死水中的一具死尸，肿胀发白。”(5)“爱米丽小姐在世时，始终是一个传统的化身，是义务的象征，也是人们关注的对象。这是全镇沿袭下来的对她的一种义务。”(6)“她就这样度过了一代又一代高贵，宁静，无法逃避，无法接近，怪僻乖张。”(7)总之，爱米丽在人们的心目中是一位恨不起、爱不上的复杂的形象。在揭示爱米丽负面性格的同时，福克纳还注意以多样的统一这一规律，刻意向读者展示了爱米丽性格的另一面。她面对亲属邻里的种种干涉及蜚短流长，以百折不回的精神，单枪匹马地去追求个人的幸福及爱情。从这种意义上讲，也许值得向她献上一朵玫瑰。作者在小说的结尾使用了哥特式小说的手法：爱米丽升天安葬后，邻居们撬门进入了她的房间，发现里面虽尘埃厚积，但一切布置陈设却像新婚洞房一样，继而进入他们视线的却是十分阴森可怖的一幕：“俯视着那没有肉的脸上令人莫测的龇牙咧嘴的样子。那尸体躺在那里，显出一度是拥抱的姿势”(8)这虽似哥特式小说的故事情节，但福克纳却写出了新意。他对此仅用了五百余字，在整篇中占了很小的比例，而且故事发展自然可信。爱米丽小姐出身名门，三十有余，红颜香消，尚觅不到如意郎君。年轻时，碍于门第之见及父亲的干涉，居高不下，奈何家境败落，不得已认识了来自北方的小工头荷默·伯隆。但他却只有问柳寻花之心，没有成婚立家之意。他试图抛掉爱米丽。一向酷傲的爱米丽在失去了父亲，失去了亲朋，失去了家业及贵族地位后，对伯隆这最后一根稻草，紧紧抓住不放，似乎也在情理之中了。福克纳以哥特式的情节，为该短篇作了结尾，这大大提高了其故事性，也增强了其悲剧张力，但该短篇却没有像有些人认为的那样，落入彼时泛滥于南方的哥特式小说的俗套。福克纳在本篇中还使用了许多修辞手段，如象征、比喻等。作者在描写爱米丽家的房子时写道：“那是一幢过去漆成白色的四方型大木屋，坐落在当年一条最考究的街道上，还装点着十九世纪七十年代风格的圆型屋顶、尖塔和涡型花纹的阳台，带着浓厚的轻盈气息。可是汽车间和轧棉机之类的东西侵犯了这一带庄严的名字，把它们涂抹得一干二净。只有爱米丽小姐的屋子岿然独存，四周簇拥着棉花车和汽油泵。房子虽已破败，却还是执拗不驯，装模作样，真是丑中之丑”。(9)爱米丽家的房舍象征着已经和行将灭亡的旧物事，但这些旧的东西自然不会轻易退出历史舞台。文中的“败了色的玫瑰色窗帘，玫瑰色灯罩”，(10)也具有象征意义。玫瑰多用来象征爱情及幸福，但爱米丽小姐由“对什么年轻男子都看不上眼”(11)的豪门丽姝，变成了一位嫁不出去的老小姐。她的生活中，虽然也曾有过幸福及爱情，但这些却像玫瑰花一样，须臾间便败落褪色了。福克纳笔下的爱米丽的形象极端壮美妍，又媸陋不堪；既乖张、弃世、残酷，又温情、入世、和善；既高贵、高傲、高不可攀，又俗陋、卑下、屈尊俯就。综上所述,福克纳主要以现代派写作方法，塑造了爱米丽这一艺术形象。如果说，狄更斯以传统的创作手法写就的郝薇香只是一个坏女人的典形，那么，爱米丽则是一位腐朽没落阶级的“守望人”，她的形象更加鲜明、深刻，更具多面性及复杂性，同时也更具代表性。同传统的写作方法相比，现代派的创作方法不仅是时代发展的必然产物，而且具有很强的表现力及生命力。 4