Notes on a Rose for Emily

William Faulkner(威廉·福克纳) * (1897-1962) * “A Rose for Emily” * 1931 * American | Significant & Visual Passages: a) “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument,” “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town.” (P409)---Emily acts as an embodiment of the old tradition. She is the spiritual pillar of the people who still live in their old time. b) “None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such. We had long thought of them as a tableau, 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.” “We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will.” (P411) “…beneath a mass of bought flowers, with the crayon face of her father musing profoundly above the bier and the ladies sibilant and macabre.”---The paternity leads to the tragedy at last. Emily’s father does not care of Emily at all, only taking her as one thing. He never thinks about his daughter’s expectation of marriage. He is always the authority at home, which means Emily does not any right to seek for her own life. Even after her death, she cannot get rid of her father’s control. c) “When we saw her again, her hair was cut short, making her look like a girl, with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows-sort of tragic and serene.” (P411)---It shows that Emily wants to begin her new life. However, “sort of tragic and serene” also indicates her final tragic ending. d) “She carried her head high enough-even when we believed that she was fallen. It was as if she demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the last Grierson; as if it had