成都信息工程学院科处

1、The ColliBetn the Past and the Present- On the Nature of Time in William Faulkners “A Rose for Emily”信息外国语学院610225摘要：在其著名短篇小说献给的玫瑰中，对主人公的描写充分体现了其时间观。虽然经过多番努力，最终还是没能抗拒时间的流逝，而纳则通过经历说明了时间是不可战胜的。：时间观；过去；现在Abstract: In his famous short story “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner reveals his opiniontowards

2、 time through the dction of the protagonist Emily. She ultimay fails in herwith time, in spite of her great efforts. And Faulkner uses her experience to illustrate his themetime can not be defeated.Key Words: time, Faulkner, Emily, the past, the presentAmong William Faulkners short stories, the most

3、 cerated one could be “A Rosefor Emily” whichls a story of how a woman rivals with time from her youth to herlast breath. The protagonist Emily Grierson, who has lost the opportunity to get married when she is young because of her family, falls in love with a man named Homer Barron after her fathers

4、 death, and many years later, say, after her own death, the corpse of Barron is found out in her house. Seen from the surface, this story canbe labeled as a gothichich involves so many horrible factorch as murderand necrophilia, however, the theme is thought-provoking. It ishis very storytWilliam Fa

5、ulkner skillfully shows his opinions towards timewhen people are facing the lapse of time, whatition should they take? His protagonist, Miss EmilyGrierson, is the very victim of this collibetn the past and the present. Sheshrinkso her own world, a timeless environment, and lives there forever, payin

6、g no attention to the change of time. This ignorance of time leads to her solitude. Inillustrating his ideas towards time, Faulkner vividly dcts her gradual developmentof mind and her indulgencehe past.Her fathers death catalyses Emilys shrinking backo the elapsed time andlyblurs the distinction bet

7、n the past and the present. When she is young, she doesnt show any evident of her later indulgencehe past, but her character impstwhat she woulde later is bevable. She is complacent for her blood andobedient to her father compley. Although she has many suitors, the refusals fromher father break her

8、dream of getting married, however, she seems mute tot. MissEmily Grierson appears as a slender figure in whitehe background, her father ahe foreground, his back to her and clhing a horsewhip.1 Itspraddled silhouetteishis kind of strong protectiont Emily is madesessed wholly by her father,and gradual

9、ly hees the onlywhom Emily could cling to and the placewhere she could validate her identity. Therefore, after her fathers death, Emily, for1James K. Bowen and Richard Vander Beats eds. American Short Fiction: Reading and Criticism. New York: TheBobs Merrill Company, INC, 1970 , p232thetime in her l

10、ife, experienthe cruelty of times flowing all by herself. Timetakes away nearly everything she used to have, because her father is the owner ofeverythingt should belong to her. The present is insecure and fluid, whereas thepast is warm and stable. Thus, attractions from this comparison draw Emilyo t

11、hemourning of the past. And after his funeral, Emily cuts her hair short and looks like a girl with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows-sort oftragic and serene2 This image suggestst she has already begun her retreato theworld of the disappeared past. She is aware of the fa

12、ct t the present time has taken her good days away, thus the hair, which symbolizes the feeling of mourning, is contributed to remember the past.Gradually, shees fully indulgedhe past then, and this feeling is furtherstrengthen by other incidents. Her lover Homers death solidifies time and makes the

13、 past time touchable for her. Homer Barron, according to Faulkner, is the represen ive of the present and the fluid time. To make the distinction bet n Emily and him which symbolizes Faulkners opinion towards the varied modes ofcted. Homer Barron “would behe center of the group”3time, two images are

14、 dwherever is noisy, which suggestst he is energetic and easy-going. Change andinstability exist in him, and therefore, there must be somethingt revolts the stresson the deast. And as to Emily, her upright bodyhe night is “motionless ast4of an idol.”An idol means petuation and stability, an object w

15、hich couldtriumph over time, and it also contains the quessence of the past time. Thus, theyare the children and represenives of two opite time spa. Judged from thisangle, Homerswith Emily could bereted as a collibetnthe past and the present. Emily herself noti threatened by Homers desertion, the pr

16、esent forthis problem, so, when she is her to take revenge on it becauseit has deprived everything from her and is endeavoring to take her only love awayagain. Therefore, she takes Homer with hero her own world, the world of the past,and the only way to achieve this is death. Death, though being an

17、extreme, could stopthe forever-going of time as she expects. Moreover, the murder could bereted asher murder of the objective time, thus Emily could be indulged in her subjectivetime,5 andt is the past. For Emily, the fluid time could not take Homer away anymore, and her love could stay with her in

18、hast world as her consolation.Not only does Emily triumph in keng Homer in her world, she also rejects anyexisting or potential changes to her impresof the past world. Her house lifting itsstubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumpsaneyesore among eyesores6 symbolize

19、s a juxtaition of the past and the present,which impst Emily herselfalthough she liveshe present, is decayed in her2James K. Bowen and Richard Vander Beats eds. American Short Fiction: Reading and Criticism. New York: TheBobs Merrill Company, INC, 1970, p2323James K. Bowen and Richard Vander Beats e

20、ds. American Short Fiction: Reading and Criticism. New York: TheBobs Merrill Company, INC, 1970, p2334James K. Bowen and Richard Vander Beats eds. American Short Fiction: Reading and Criticism. New York: TheBobs Merrill Company, INC, 1970, p23256,献给的一朵玫瑰的哲学J.师范大学学报, 2006, (1)James K. Bowen and Richa

21、rd Vander Beats eds. American Short Fiction: Reading and Criticism. New York: TheBobs Merrill Company, INC, 1970, p229mind. Also, Emily rejects to be “stained” by the products of the fluid time such as abox, becauset is a kind ofruder to her world of the past time and it shouldnot be compatible with

22、 her isolated life. She is regardless of the death of the taxcollector either, just the same ast of her father. In her mind she has no taxes,ignoring the factt thewho promised her not to pay taxes has died over ten he long past and she could not accept the fact inyears.t promise is a promisethe pres

23、ent. Time is stagnated in her mind. All these facts revealt Emily is alreadydeeply indulged in her dead world and sticks to her such views about time until herlast breath. eventually.he collibetn the past and the present, shees the victimTo Faulkner, he ses oncehe story about his opinion towards tim

24、et “all thepast is not a diminishing road but, instead, a huge meadow which no wer ever quitetouches.”7 And this should be Emilys exact and major feeling towards time. She is crazy about the past and needs the consolation of a “meadow” of the past. To achieve t, she awards herself witht “meadow”the

25、room above stairs. It is the place where Emily and Homer could be together, a timeless place where death could not separate them according to her. The reality, however, does not go on as she wishes. Although everything is under careful arrangement to show a forever-beautifulmoment, for exle, there a

26、re the rose curtains and rose-shaded lightshat room,time eventually conquers everything. What Emily be ves in and values is dusted by time and could not help in remaining the dreamy quality of the past time. The most ironical of all, however, is the corpse. “The body had apparently once lain in the

27、attitude of an embrace, but the long sleep t outlasts love, t conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him.”8 No matter how much she wants, Homersembrace could not last longern time itself. Apparently, Faulkner suggestst thepresent time could not be conquered, no matter wh tion is taken by p

28、eople to stop the flowing of it, the efforts will be in vain. Emily only lives in an imagined past which is created by herself alone.Thus, in the collibetn the past and the present, Emily is made a victimbecause of not only herself but also influence from others. Emily is made to retreat to the past

29、, and then, she endeavors to triumph over time through her efforts after shehas found out the merits of livinghe past. However, her dream ofing timevanishes in the end. The fluid time takes her father away, then conquers Homers embrace, and ultimay, she herself diesshe also subjects to death. According toshe factt he could never get rid of times