My Review of A Rose for Emily, 献给艾米丽的玫瑰英文读后感

My Review of “A Rose for Emily”

--By Cave dweller William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is a short story which mainly describes a faded southern aristocrat, Emily Grierson's tragic life. An unnamed narrator vividly tells six impressive anecdotes to present Emily's life with an intelligent use of flashbacks. But after reading the story, we can divide it into six parts according the chronological order.

The first part is the death of Emily's father. When her father died, the house is all that is left to her. This part reveals that to a certain extent, her father who has driven away all the young men should be responsible for her tragedy.

The second part is Emily's miserable relationship. She falls in love with a foreman named Homer Barron, a dark, ready man, who has no interest in marriage. Then people are told that the man deserts her.

The third is "the smell". After her father's death and heart-broken love, she only has a manservant. So her house smells bad. The people in town complain about it. In the end, they solve it by sprinkling lime around her house.

The fourth part is Emily's teaching life. She gives lessons in china-painting several years and then closes her front forever.

The fifth is the confrontation between Emily and the deputation. The young generation is dissatisfied with the edict of remitting her taxes. They send a deputation to negotiate this problem. But they failed. She vanquished them.

The sixth part is Emily's funeral and the discovery of the dead man in her house. After the funeral, people decide to open the room which no one has seen in forty years. Then, they find a dead man in bed.

The setting of the story is the declining of the southern aristocrats in America.

The novel has been regarded as a Gothic horror tale, a study in abnormal psychology as well as an allegory of the relations between North and South. The novel's name is "A Rose for Emily", it tells little about rose, but much about the tragic heroine, Emily. Therefore,

the rose represents Emily, which actually is an elegy sighting the lost prosperity of the South aristocracy. So the memory of the South aristocrats' glory is prominent in southern people's minds, which causes various conflicts and contractions in their psyche. Apparently, Emily is one of these people who think all the past is not a diminishing road but a huge meadow. Emily does not in her time but in the lost glory of South aristocracy. Her eccentric and wired behaviors are the surface of her psychological world which fills with conflicts and complexity. Her own unhealthy psychological world can be considered as a cause of her tragic life. The incorrect family education has caused her tragedy. Her father's archaic thoughts have passive influence on her life. Her father drives away all the young men. Her father interferes in her life too much.