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Abstract: The world of Faulkner’s work does not feel natural, comfortable, or recognizable in the cultural way that realist work feels to many readers. When you read some of his novels or stories, you’ll be strongly attracted by its mystery and darkness. One of the important elements causes such an effect is the best use of the gothic devices. And such devices function in two ways. First, it helps the story achieve its central purpose fully. Second, it strengthens the significance of its purpose. And A rose for Emily is one of such important cases.
Key words:gothic devicesmysteryscareattractiondeath
A rose for Emily is Faulkner’s first short story published in 1930. Set in town of Jefferson in Yoknapatawpha, the story focuses on Emily Grierson, an eccentric spinster who refuses to accept the passage of time, or the inevitable change and loss that accompanies it. Simple as it is in plot, the story is pregnant with meaning. As a descendent of the southern aristocracy, Emily is typical of those in Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha stories, who are the symbols of the Old South, but the prisoners of the past. In this story, Faulkner makes best use of the Gothic devices in narration, which gives this common story unlimited attraction and mystery. Meanwhile the central purpose is fully achieved and the significance of the purpose is strengthened. The deformed personality and abnormality Emily demonstrates in her relationship with her sweetheart is dramatized in such a way that we feel shocked and thrilled as we read along.
Under the influence of the Gothic literature, Faulkner, as a southern writer of America, accepted this writing technique in his works. And this made his stories and novels are so attractive and mysterious. The basic feature of Gothic novels and stories are Gothic castles, ridiculous cases, scared things and mysteries and the evil protagonist. Human beings are born with scare. The famous modern American Gothic novelist, Lovecraft said: The most ancient and strongest feeling of human is scare. When reading a Gothic story, we are scared strongly; meanwhile we feel that we are safe. That is to say, we can get a strong feeling of pleasure. Such kind of pleasure comes from the sublime feeling of Gothic novel concerning scare. Just as the feeling we get when we facing the high and steep mountain, roaring river, original wildness, forests, ancient ruins or lighting and thunder. We seemed to have experienced a kind of mysterious transcendental strength and couldn’t help being filled with admiration and scare. Just by using the Gothic devices, Faulkner could make his short story A rose for Emily so attractive and vibratory. At the very beginning of the novel, we felt very strong mysterious of Emily because of her unusual funeral: The whole town went to her funeral, 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. The author described what kind of a house of Emily. “It was a big, squarish house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires, and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street.” After so many years, only Miss Emily’s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps-an eyesore among eyesores. Here we see an exact old castle, mysterious, gloomy and clammy. At this very beginning we are attracted by this atmosphere. Then the scene was moved to when Miss Emily was alive. After her father’s death, Emily refused to give tax.
A deputation and the Aldermen knocked at her door. Then we got the first chance to have a look at the mysterious, gloomy house: First we saw a dim hall from which a stairway mounted into still more shadow. It smelled of dust and disuse—a close, dank smell. The Negro let them into the parlor. It was furnished in heavy, leather-covered furniture. When the Negro opened the blinds of one window, they could see that the leather was cracked; and when they sat down, a faint dust rose sluggishly about their thighs, spinning with slow motes in the single sunray.
What kind of feeling you got here? A grave is here, yes, it was just like a grave. Then we saw Emily just like a ghost: she looked bloated, 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 into a lump of dough as they moved from one face to another while the visitors stated their errand. She did not ask them to sit. Her voice was dry and cold. Though the author didn’t say any word about the visitors, we can imagine that they must be scared. The frightening old spinster vanquished them.
I think no one will forget the strongest, most unforgettable smell after reading this story. That was two years after her father’s death and a short time after her sweetheart. This smell was so strong that all her neighbors couldn’t stand it. One of the neighbors, a woman, complained to the mayor. Then, the next day he received two more complaints “we really must do something about it, judge. I’d be the last one in the world to bother Miss Emily, but we’ve got to do something.” That night the Board of Aldermen met for the smell matter. Now we can see how serious this smell matter was. And we could not help wondering what the smell was. But the author never really told us what it really was. He just said: after a week or two the smell went away. Here left us an enigma. And the author always talked of death and the indifferent, gloomy Miss Emily. The day after her father’s death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, as is our custom. Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body. Just as they were about to resort to law and force, she broke down, and they buried her father quickly. Why Emily did like this? Her abnormal behavior aroused our scare and curiosities to try to make it clear what’s wrong with her. So such is the gothic atmosphere’s effect. Then we know Emily did like just because her father had driven all the young men pursuing her. She was trying to grasp something belonging to her. Then her lover Homer Barron performed. And she fell in love with him and people began to see Emily and her lover on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy. Though she knew that people would think she was fallen, she carried her head high to show her nobleness and bravery to reaffirm her imperviousness. She was so eccentric that we are deeply attracted by her mysterious deeds. Like when she bought the rat poison, the arsenic. “ I want some poison,” she said to the druggist, with cold, haughty black eyes in a face the flesh of which was strained across the temples and about the eye-sockets as you imagine a lighthouse keeper’s face ought to look. Though the druggist asked several times why she wanted arsenic, she insisted she want it without any intention to answer that question. She just stared at him, her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went and got the frightening and scaring words: skull and bones and “for rats”. We are even more nervous about Emily and the story. Why she bought the arsenic, no one believed she would buy it for killing rats. The author was so brilliant that he knew how to keep us attracted by this plot and structure. All the people guessed that she would kill herself. But we knew how to keep us attracted by this plot and structure. All the people guessed that she would kill herself. But we knew she did not die until she was 74 years old. So we try to imagine what on earth did she use the arsenic for. Then the following sentence gave us a hint: and that was the last time we saw of Homer Barron. We are conscious that something might happen. But we still don’t know what really had happened. Just know something even more mysterious. From that time on her front door remained closed, save for a period of six or seven years, when she was about forty, during which she gave lessons in China-painting. Then the newer generation became the backbone and the spirit of the town, and the painting pupils grew up and fell away and did not send their children to her. Her front door closed the last one and remained closed for good. She refused everything from the outside even the mail. Daily, monthly, yearly we watched the Negro (her only servant) grew grayer and grayer and more stooped, going in and out with the market basket. And the author still told us she had evidently shut up the top floor of the house and she was often seen like the carven torso of an idol in a niche. So we will realized something must had happened in the top floor of the house. And then, she died at last. Her only servant—just like a ghost—his voice had grown harsh and rusty, as if from disuse. Then let’s see how the author tell us the ghostly Negro disappeared: the Negro met the first of the ladies at the front door and let them in, with their hushed, sibilant voices and the quick, curious glances, and then the disappeared. He walked right through the house and out the back and was not seen again. Then we know there still are many mysteries left. What did Miss Emily use that arsenic, and what had happened in the top floor of the house? Why it was shut for over 40 years and where is Mr. Homer Barron? So the author hinted us if we have a look at the top floor of the house, we’ll know all the things. Then that room in that region above stairs was broken down. Then we know all the things: the room was decorated like a bridal chamber. Though the room was pervaded with dust, we can see it clearly. And the man (of course Homer undoubtedly) himself lay in the bed, dead. He was killed! And Miss Emily killed her sweetheart with the arsenic obviously. What kind of feeling do you get here? And even worse thing was that “we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair.” Of course, we know that’s Miss Emily’s unique hair. I know you are sick when you read this. Poor Emily! She owned her sweetheart by killing him and to our great surprise; she slept with her sweetheart’s body.
And such is Faulkner, one of the greatest writers of the world. He used the gothic devices bestly, which gives his work A Rose for Emily unlimited attraction and mystery. Meanwhile the central purpose is fully achieved and the significance of the purpose is strengthened. We will never forget Emily is one of those who are the symbols of the Old South, but the prisoners of the past.
［Notes］
［1］Philip M. Weinstein The Cambridge Companion to William Faulkner (shanghai foreign language education press, 2002)
［2］Wu Weiren History and Anthology of American Literature (Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 1990)
Key words:gothic devicesmysteryscareattractiondeath
A rose for Emily is Faulkner’s first short story published in 1930. Set in town of Jefferson in Yoknapatawpha, the story focuses on Emily Grierson, an eccentric spinster who refuses to accept the passage of time, or the inevitable change and loss that accompanies it. Simple as it is in plot, the story is pregnant with meaning. As a descendent of the southern aristocracy, Emily is typical of those in Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha stories, who are the symbols of the Old South, but the prisoners of the past. In this story, Faulkner makes best use of the Gothic devices in narration, which gives this common story unlimited attraction and mystery. Meanwhile the central purpose is fully achieved and the significance of the purpose is strengthened. The deformed personality and abnormality Emily demonstrates in her relationship with her sweetheart is dramatized in such a way that we feel shocked and thrilled as we read along.
Under the influence of the Gothic literature, Faulkner, as a southern writer of America, accepted this writing technique in his works. And this made his stories and novels are so attractive and mysterious. The basic feature of Gothic novels and stories are Gothic castles, ridiculous cases, scared things and mysteries and the evil protagonist. Human beings are born with scare. The famous modern American Gothic novelist, Lovecraft said: The most ancient and strongest feeling of human is scare. When reading a Gothic story, we are scared strongly; meanwhile we feel that we are safe. That is to say, we can get a strong feeling of pleasure. Such kind of pleasure comes from the sublime feeling of Gothic novel concerning scare. Just as the feeling we get when we facing the high and steep mountain, roaring river, original wildness, forests, ancient ruins or lighting and thunder. We seemed to have experienced a kind of mysterious transcendental strength and couldn’t help being filled with admiration and scare. Just by using the Gothic devices, Faulkner could make his short story A rose for Emily so attractive and vibratory. At the very beginning of the novel, we felt very strong mysterious of Emily because of her unusual funeral: The whole town went to her funeral, 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. The author described what kind of a house of Emily. “It was a big, squarish house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires, and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street.” After so many years, only Miss Emily’s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps-an eyesore among eyesores. Here we see an exact old castle, mysterious, gloomy and clammy. At this very beginning we are attracted by this atmosphere. Then the scene was moved to when Miss Emily was alive. After her father’s death, Emily refused to give tax.
A deputation and the Aldermen knocked at her door. Then we got the first chance to have a look at the mysterious, gloomy house: First we saw a dim hall from which a stairway mounted into still more shadow. It smelled of dust and disuse—a close, dank smell. The Negro let them into the parlor. It was furnished in heavy, leather-covered furniture. When the Negro opened the blinds of one window, they could see that the leather was cracked; and when they sat down, a faint dust rose sluggishly about their thighs, spinning with slow motes in the single sunray.
What kind of feeling you got here? A grave is here, yes, it was just like a grave. Then we saw Emily just like a ghost: she looked bloated, 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 into a lump of dough as they moved from one face to another while the visitors stated their errand. She did not ask them to sit. Her voice was dry and cold. Though the author didn’t say any word about the visitors, we can imagine that they must be scared. The frightening old spinster vanquished them.
I think no one will forget the strongest, most unforgettable smell after reading this story. That was two years after her father’s death and a short time after her sweetheart. This smell was so strong that all her neighbors couldn’t stand it. One of the neighbors, a woman, complained to the mayor. Then, the next day he received two more complaints “we really must do something about it, judge. I’d be the last one in the world to bother Miss Emily, but we’ve got to do something.” That night the Board of Aldermen met for the smell matter. Now we can see how serious this smell matter was. And we could not help wondering what the smell was. But the author never really told us what it really was. He just said: after a week or two the smell went away. Here left us an enigma. And the author always talked of death and the indifferent, gloomy Miss Emily. The day after her father’s death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, as is our custom. Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body. Just as they were about to resort to law and force, she broke down, and they buried her father quickly. Why Emily did like this? Her abnormal behavior aroused our scare and curiosities to try to make it clear what’s wrong with her. So such is the gothic atmosphere’s effect. Then we know Emily did like just because her father had driven all the young men pursuing her. She was trying to grasp something belonging to her. Then her lover Homer Barron performed. And she fell in love with him and people began to see Emily and her lover on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy. Though she knew that people would think she was fallen, she carried her head high to show her nobleness and bravery to reaffirm her imperviousness. She was so eccentric that we are deeply attracted by her mysterious deeds. Like when she bought the rat poison, the arsenic. “ I want some poison,” she said to the druggist, with cold, haughty black eyes in a face the flesh of which was strained across the temples and about the eye-sockets as you imagine a lighthouse keeper’s face ought to look. Though the druggist asked several times why she wanted arsenic, she insisted she want it without any intention to answer that question. She just stared at him, her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went and got the frightening and scaring words: skull and bones and “for rats”. We are even more nervous about Emily and the story. Why she bought the arsenic, no one believed she would buy it for killing rats. The author was so brilliant that he knew how to keep us attracted by this plot and structure. All the people guessed that she would kill herself. But we knew how to keep us attracted by this plot and structure. All the people guessed that she would kill herself. But we knew she did not die until she was 74 years old. So we try to imagine what on earth did she use the arsenic for. Then the following sentence gave us a hint: and that was the last time we saw of Homer Barron. We are conscious that something might happen. But we still don’t know what really had happened. Just know something even more mysterious. From that time on her front door remained closed, save for a period of six or seven years, when she was about forty, during which she gave lessons in China-painting. Then the newer generation became the backbone and the spirit of the town, and the painting pupils grew up and fell away and did not send their children to her. Her front door closed the last one and remained closed for good. She refused everything from the outside even the mail. Daily, monthly, yearly we watched the Negro (her only servant) grew grayer and grayer and more stooped, going in and out with the market basket. And the author still told us she had evidently shut up the top floor of the house and she was often seen like the carven torso of an idol in a niche. So we will realized something must had happened in the top floor of the house. And then, she died at last. Her only servant—just like a ghost—his voice had grown harsh and rusty, as if from disuse. Then let’s see how the author tell us the ghostly Negro disappeared: the Negro met the first of the ladies at the front door and let them in, with their hushed, sibilant voices and the quick, curious glances, and then the disappeared. He walked right through the house and out the back and was not seen again. Then we know there still are many mysteries left. What did Miss Emily use that arsenic, and what had happened in the top floor of the house? Why it was shut for over 40 years and where is Mr. Homer Barron? So the author hinted us if we have a look at the top floor of the house, we’ll know all the things. Then that room in that region above stairs was broken down. Then we know all the things: the room was decorated like a bridal chamber. Though the room was pervaded with dust, we can see it clearly. And the man (of course Homer undoubtedly) himself lay in the bed, dead. He was killed! And Miss Emily killed her sweetheart with the arsenic obviously. What kind of feeling do you get here? And even worse thing was that “we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair.” Of course, we know that’s Miss Emily’s unique hair. I know you are sick when you read this. Poor Emily! She owned her sweetheart by killing him and to our great surprise; she slept with her sweetheart’s body.
And such is Faulkner, one of the greatest writers of the world. He used the gothic devices bestly, which gives his work A Rose for Emily unlimited attraction and mystery. Meanwhile the central purpose is fully achieved and the significance of the purpose is strengthened. We will never forget Emily is one of those who are the symbols of the Old South, but the prisoners of the past.
［Notes］
［1］Philip M. Weinstein The Cambridge Companion to William Faulkner (shanghai foreign language education press, 2002)
［2］Wu Weiren History and Anthology of American Literature (Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 1990)