现代大学英语精读六(第二版)教师用书Unit2分析

现代大学英语精读六(第二版)教师用书Unit2分析 Unit 2 A Rose for Emily William Faulkner Additional Background Information on William Faulkner William Faulkner was born and brought up in the American South and lived there for almost all his life. On November 14, 1888, the local newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi reported a news story: ―A terrible tragedy was enacted at Ripley on Tuesday afternoon of last week—the widely and well-known Col. W. C. Falkner being the victim.‖ Col. Falkner had run for the Mississippi legislature and had been elected. But before he took office he was shot dead by his rival. Col. Falkner had been a local hero and a legendary figure. He was a pioneer in Mississippi, organized a regiment to fight for the South in the Civil War, practiced law after returning from the battlefields, bought a large plantation, built the first railroad in his hometown, and wrote a novel, which became a national best-seller. This ―widely and well-known‖ Col. W. C. Falkner was William Faulkner‘s great-grandfather. On September 25, 1897, Faulkner was born in this distinguished family. He spent his youth in Oxford, a small town in Mississippi. Although the old colonel had died before Faulkner came into this world, the boy grew up listening to all sorts of stories about his great-grandfather and other people in his hometown. The stories that his Negro nanny told him and the gossip he heard from the townspeople resting and chatting in the small downtown square provided Faulkner with an oral tradition of storytelling as an important part of his education. During World War I Faulkner served in the Royal Canadian Air Force. After the armistice in 1918 he returned to Oxford, and for some time he led his life in a rather listless way. He attended the University of Mississippi but left the university within a year; he tried his hand at poetry but without much success; he went north to the cultural metropolitan city of New York, but was driven back home soon by loneliness. He became a postmaster, but after three years at most, he resigned from this post. All this time, Faulkner had been reading, first, whatever interested him, and, later, the great poets and novelists. In New York, Faulkner met Sherwood Anderson, a famous writer, and then when he traveled to New Orleans in 1925, he gained entry into this artistic center through Anderson. Inspired by Anderson, Faulkner began to write novels. Faulkner wrote 19 novels and nearly a hundred short stories. The setting of 15 novels and the majority of the short fiction is the American South. In his third book Sartoris (1929), he created the fictional Yoknapatawpha County. In the same year, he published The Sound and the Fury (1929), one of his masterpieces. This novel owes much to James Joyce and the stream of consciousness technique. In another major work As I Lay Dying (1930), Faulkner relates a terrifying comic story to a ritualized burial journey. In this novel he experiments with multiple-point-of-view narration. Light in August (1932) is also one of Faulkner‘s major novels. The high point of Faulkner‘s development is the brilliant Absalom, Absalom! (1936). His other major works include The Unvanquished, The Wild Palms, The Hamlet, The Town, The Mansion, Go Down Moses, A Fable, etc. As the setting of most of his works is the American South, Faulkner is regarded as a regional writer. But the word ―regional‖ is misleading because Faulkner deals with some of the major universal themes in literature so profoundly that his work is read and recognized nationally and internationally. As far as writing techniques are concerned, Faulkner is among the great experimentalists of the 20th century novel. His effective use of stream of consciousness, multiple points of view, symbolism and imagery, places him among the rank of outstanding modern writers along with James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. In 1950, Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Themes and Writing Techniques of “A Rose for Emily” Although ―A Rose for Emily‖ is one of his most frequently anthologized short stories and is widely used in the American classroom, Chinese students may find it difficult to understand and appreciate. Some of them may think it is a bizarre story about an old eccentric lady in an American Southern town. It‘s true that the setting of the story is the American South. Yet, the theme of the story is universal, transcending the boundaries of time and space. Like many other works of great literature, this short story tells about love, death, honor, pride, change, and loss. In ―A Rose for Emily‖ we can see how the author tells the good story skillfully; how he creates the requisite atmosphere for telling the story; how he maintains the suspense and unfolds the conflict bit by bit; and how he digs deep into the social world of his characters. This story is a rich and thmodern 20-century literary text. Those who are not very familiar with modern American literature may therefore encounter obstacles in reading this story: vague references, ambiguities, symbolism, imagery, experimental point of view, jumbled time sequences, avoidance of clear transitions, withholding of vital information, etc. By exploiting those ―tricks,‖ Faulkner hopes to invite readers to participate in the process of seeking the truths of the inner life of the characters in the story. Once we do, we will surely enjoy reading the story. It‘s like working at a puzzle: the more parts we start to figure out, the more interesting the puzzle will become. The 1950 Nobel Prize presentation speech called Faulkner as the ―unrivaled master of all living British and American novelists.‖ He is regarded as a ―deep psychologist.‖ ―A Rose for Emily‖ lives up to that high praise. Implicit Chronology (approximate) The narration of ―A Rose for Emily‖ does not follow a normal chronological order. Instead, it shifts in time frequently and gives out bits of information about the main character, Miss Emily, in such a way that the reader has to piece them together by himself/herself. The following implicit chronology has been worked out on the basis of the information from the text. ca. 1855: Miss Emily was born to the richest family of slave-owners in the town. 1861: The American Civil War broke out; Confederate troops from the town were commanded by Col. Sartoris. 1865: The American Civil War ended. 1870s: Mr. Grierson, Miss Emily‘s father, had the family house built in the Gothic revival style. ca. 1886: Mr. Grierson died; Miss Emily‘s inheritance was only the house; she was over thirty. ca. 1887: Homer Barron, Northern construction foreman, arrived; he and Miss Emily started courting. ca. 1888: Homer Barron could be seen no more; the smell in the house was noticed. 1894: The Young Colonel Sartoris, as mayor of the town, exempted Miss Emily from taxes for life. ca. 1919: The Young Colonel died. ca. 1927-1928: The tax delegation visited Miss Emily. ca. 1929-1930: Miss Emily died at the age of 74. Notes: ―ca.‖ is short for circa, meaning ―about‖ used before an approximate date or figure. We must remember that Faulkner is not always accurate about the exact time of a certain event. The purpose of working out this chronology is to give students a rough idea of the time frame in which the story took place. Structure of the Text Part I (Paras. 1-14) This part begins with the death of Miss Emily, the daughter of an eminent Southern family and indicates who Emily was. , When Miss Emily died, all the people in the town went to her funeral. (Para. 1) , Miss Emily lived in a big old house on one of the best streets of the town. (Para. 2) , When Miss Emily was alive, the older generation treated her as a tradition, a duty, a care and a sort of hereditary obligation. The mayor remitted her taxes. (Para. 3) , When a new generation came along, its members wanted her to pay taxes like everyone else. A deputation visited her, but she firmly dismissed them. (Paras. 4-14) Part II (Paras. 15-28) In this part, there is a time shift to thirty years before the visit of the deputation. , There was a bad smell from Miss Emily‘s house. That was two years after her father‘s death and a short time after her sweetheart disappeared. (Para. 15) , The neighbors complained about the bad smell, but the town authorities didn‘t want to embarrass Miss Emily by telling her straightforwardly. (Paras. 16-23) , So, one night, four men secretively crossed Miss Emily‘s lawn and sprinkled lime, and soon after that the smell was gone. (Para. 24) , The townspeople felt sorry for Miss Emily because her father was so proud that he drove all her suitors away, and when he died, he left her almost nothing apart from the house. (Paras. 25-26) , The day after her father‘s death, people came to offer their condolences, but Miss Emily refused to let them in the house, telling them that her father was not dead. (Paras. 27-28) Part III (Paras. 29-42) It describes how a construction foreman named Homer Barron, a Yankee, courted Miss Emily and how she behaved after her sweetheart disappeared. , Because Miss Emily was courting a day laborer, a Northerner, people began to pity her. (Paras. 29-33) , One day Miss Emily went to the drug store and bought poison. When asked what it was for, she refused to answer. (Paras. 34-42) Part IV (Paras. 43-53) This part describes in more detail how Emily and Homer Barron were seen together and what happened to Emily after his disappearance. , When people saw Emily and Homer Barron together without any signs of their getting married, they thought she was providing a bad example to the young and asked Emily‘s relatives to persuade her to get married. They were relieved to see that there were preparations for a marriage. (Paras. 43-45) , Homer Barron went away and came back, and was admitted into the house one evening. That was when he was last seen. (Para. 46) , Miss Emily did not appear on the streets for a long time. She grew older and her hair grew grayer. She died at the age of seventy-four. (Paras. 47-53) Part V (Paras. 54-60) This part describes what happened after Emily‘s death—in an upstairs room, which no one had entered except Miss Emily herself, the dead body of Homer Barron was found. It had been lying in that bed for forty years. Detailed Study of the Text 1. What is the meaning of the title “A Rose for Emily?” The meaning of the title is ambiguous, and can be interpreted in various way. A rose is a cliché, symbolizing love and a pledge of faithfulness. From the story, we can see Miss Emily was denied by love. So, in this sense, the title has an ironic meaning. A rose can also mean a kind of memorial or an offering in memory of someone. Then, who offered a rose to Emily? Faulkner intentionally leaves the answer for the readers to find out. But different readers may arrive at different answers. Ambiguity is one of the characteristics of this story. Students should be encouraged to give their own interpretations and give answers to questions that may arise during their reading and class discussion. 2. Who is telling the story? thYou learn a lot about many 20-century literary text by asking, ―who is telling the story?‖ That is ththnot a very important question as regards 18-century fiction or even 19-century fiction because the narrator in stories written in those periods is usually a person who knows everything at any given moment. This is called ―the omniscient (all-knowing) narrator‖. Modern writers of the th20-century, such as Faulkner, like to experiment with different narrative voices. In his long fiction, Faulkner often uses several narrative voices. In ―A Rose for Emily‖, he chooses to use ―we‖, the people of the town, as the collective narrator. The first sentence of the story is, ―When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral...‖ In the following sections, ―we‖ frequently appears as the narrator. 3. Why did the author choose to use this collective narrator? ―We‖ are the ordinary people of the town, representing the gossip of the town. They are, most of the time, not participants but observers of events. They are detached from Miss Emily, and therefore different from the ―ladies‖ or ―older people‖ mentioned in paragraph 31, who are more socially involved with Miss Emily, thus tending to be more judgmental. The townspeople are mainly interested in keeping track of events and sharing the information with people coming from outside the town. Yet, as people living in a small town in the South, they have their own values and attitudes. On the whole ―we‖ should be regarded as a reliable narrator. However, ―we‖ are unable to tell the story in a straightforward and systematic manner. As non-participants in the major events, this collective narrator does not know everything, hence this narrative point of view is limited. For example, none of ―us‖ had been inside Miss Emily‘s house until her death. So inevitably there are gaps in the narration that are bound to cause confusion among readers or listeners. That leaves a lot of room for readers to participate. As readers, we have to fill in the gaps and piece together the scattered bits of information by ourselves. This is the burden the author places on us, and at the same time, it is part of the enjoyment in reading such a story. 4. When Miss Emily Grierson died, our 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, which no one save an old manservant—a combined gardener and cook—had seen in at least ten years. (Para. 1) save: prep. formal except for. e.g.: She answered all the questions save one. Translation: 埃米莉?格里尔森小姐去世时，全镇的人都去送葬了。男人们去是出于尊敬，因 为一个纪念碑倒下了。女人们则是出于好奇，想看看埃米莉小姐的房子里面到底是什么样子， 因为除了一个作花匠兼厨师的老男仆之外，起码有10年没别人踏进过她家的大门了。 5. What is the function of Paragraph 2? This paragraph provides details about the setting of the story—the place being the Southern town of Jefferson and the time being after the South was defeated in the American Civil War. From the descriptions of the appearance of Miss Emily‘s house, we learn something about her family and her character, and from the visible changes on the streets over the years we get to know something about the historical and social changes that were taking place. 6. It was a big, squarish frame 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. (Para. 2) frame house: a house made of wood the heavily lightsome style of the seventies: This house was built in the 1870s, after the end of the American Civil War. Compared with the solemn houses with columns in the Greek revival style built before the war (such as those we see in the movie Gone with the Wind), this Gothic revival style was fancy and frivolous. select: adj. formal choice, excellent, outstanding; only lived in, visited or used by a small number of wealthy people Note: The detailed description of the house reveals the identity of the Griersons as one of the richest families in the town. 7. But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; 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. (Para. 2) garage: a business establishment where motor vehicles are stored, repaired, serviced, etc. august: (accent on the second syllable) inspiring awe and reverence; imposing and magnificent; worthy of respect because of age and dignity, of high position, etc. coquettish: like a girl or woman who, merely from vanity, tries to get men‘s attention and admiration cotton wagon: a wagon carrying cotton driven to town to wait for cotton gins to separate the cotton fibers from the seeds an eyesore among eyesores: 丑中之丑 An eyesore is something that is very ugly, especially a building surrounded by other things that are not ugly. Note: In former times, the street housed only the best families. Then great changes took place: garages and cotton gins were built and erased the aristocratic atmosphere of the neighborhood. While the street became modern and commercial, only Miss Emily‘s house remained untouched. Although her house was rundown, it retained the air of a stubborn and frivolous girl. The cotton wagons and gasoline pumps were ugly, but this house, which was old, disintegrating, pretentious, and completely out of place, was even less pleasant to look at. Here, the author personifies the buildings on the street, especially Miss Emily‘s house by using words like ―lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay.‖ This detail shows that the house and its owner share the same characteristics. 8. And now Miss Emily had gone to join the representatives of those august names where they lay in the cedar-bemused cemetery among the ranked and anonymous graves of Union and Confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson. (Para. 2) cedar-bemused: transferred epithet to bemuse: to plunge in thought; to preoccupy, usually in the passive voice. When ―we‖ visit the cemetery, we would be plunged in thought, meditating, thinking about the dead, the war, and history. Cedars are long-lived pine trees often planted in cemeteries. Translation: 不过，现在埃米莉小姐也加入到那些名门望族代 表 关于同志近三年现实表现材料材料类招标技术评分表图表与交易pdf视力表打印pdf用图表说话 pdf 的行列中了。他们在令人沉 思的雪松陪伴下长眠于公墓，他们的墓碑周围埋葬着一排排南北战争中在杰斐逊战场上阵亡 的南军和北军的无名士兵。 9. Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town… (Para. 3) Miss Emily had lived a long life and had become a tradition because she represented the aristocracy of the Old South that had lost out in the Civil War. She was a care because she was old, unmarried, and without family, and the people in the town felt they must take care of her. They felt that taking care of her was their duty and obligation. And this obligation passed from generation to generation as long as she lived. Translation: 埃米莉小姐在世时，一直是传统的化身，是履行责任和给予关照的对象，这是 全镇人沿袭下来的一种义务…… 10. … dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris, the mayor—he who fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron—remitted her taxes, the dispensation dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity. (Para. 3) Colonel Sartoris: He was the son of the Old Colonel who organized a regiment to fight in the Civil War. For more information about Colonel Sartoris, see Note 4 to the text. Mixing up the two Sartorises would lead to confusions in time when the plot is concerned. to father: to bring into being; to found, originate, or invent edict: an official public proclamation or order issued by authority; decree no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron: 黑人妇女上街时必须系上 围裙. By the time the mayor issued this edict, the Civil War had been over for almost 30 years. By law, Negroes were free. In reality, they were still discriminated against and strictly segregated from white people. In towns like Jefferson in the Deep South, Negro women were primarily house servants in rich white people‘s homes. As servants, they wore aprons at work, so an apron was the sign of a house servant. Colonel Sartoris‘ edict obviously involved racial discrimination, revealing his reactionary attitude towards issues of race. dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity: 从她父亲去世时开始直到永远. The two things Colonel Sartoris did—promulgating the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron and remitting Miss Emily‘s taxes—were not directly related. But they are mentioned in juxtaposition to show the difference in treatment Colonel Sartoris accorded white upper class women as opposed to Negro women. 11. Not that Miss Emily would have accepted charity. (Para. 3) ―Not that‖ is used to say that what follows is not true. Miss Emily would not have accepted charity, which she would have found humiliating. When her father died, Miss Emily was quite poor, but being a proud woman from an august family, she would not accept charity. Colonel Sartoris, born into another aristocratic family in Jefferson, had elaborate ideas about how white upper class women should be treated. With the decline of the South after the war, the fortunes of these rich white families also declined. Colonel Sartoris knew that the wives and daughters of failing plantation owners enjoyed very high but also outdated status. Nonetheless, he felt that they should be looked up to, respected and taken care of. He knew exactly what Miss Emily needed and how she felt, and thus he invented a tale to justify the edict so that he could give her financial assistance that would not appear to be charity. 12. Only a man of Colonel Sartoris’ generation and thought could have invented it (Para. 3) Colonel Sartoris was the son of the real Colonel, John Sartoris, who fought in the Civil War. From Faulkner‘s novel Sartoris we learn that the Young Colonel inherited his father‘s plantation as well as his military title. He was the mayor of Jefferson. After his death in 1919, his family declined. As a member of the last Southern aristocratic generation, he tried to cling to past glory, and had very traditional ideas about deferring to white women of the elite class. 13. When the next generation, with its more modern ideas, became mayors and aldermen, this arrangement created some little dissatisfaction. (Para. 4) Note: This sentence indicates that by now Mayor Sartoris had died and many years had passed. Occasionally the narrator points out the exact year of a certain event, but usually he makes only vague time references to keep readers guessing and sorting out an approximate chronology. Faulkner is implying that, most of the time, the townsfolk who make up the ―we‖ are not very precise about dates. with its more modern ideas: The author makes frequent contrasts between the present and the past. The Griersons, Colonel Sartoris, Old Judge Stevens, etc., represent the past, and the new generation, the new mayors and aldermen, represent the present. 14. On the first of the year they mailed her a tax notice. (Para. 4) Here, the author does not say which year, but later, in Paragraph 14, we learn that the visit was made almost ten years after Colonel Sartoris‘ death. 15. They wrote her a formal letter, asking her to call at the sheriff’s office at her convenience. (Para. 4) Note: First they sent a notice. As they got no reply, they wrote a formal letter in a very polite tone, asking her to come to the sheriff‘s office when it was convenient for her. sheriff: In the U.S., a sheriff is the chief law-enforcement officer of a county, charged in general with keeping the peace and executing court orders. 16. A week later the mayor wrote her himself, offering to call or to send his car for her… (Para. 4) This shows the special status Miss Emily held and the kind of care she received. 17. …and received in reply a note on paper of an archaic shape, in a thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink… (Para. 4): Note: Miss Emily ignored the tax notice and the formal letter from the aldermen. She only replied to the letter from the mayor. This points to the fact that she was arrogant and thought of herself as too important to deal with ordinary people. in a thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink: 字体纤细，书法流畅，墨水已褪色了. One of the class markers of cultivated femininity in Miss Emily‘s generation was elegant, wispy handwriting. 18. A deputation waited upon her… (Para. 5) deputation: a group of people who are sent to talk to someone in authority, as representatives of a larger group to wait upon: to call on or visit (especially a superior) in order to pay one‘s respects, ask a favor, etc. Note: This brief sentence again shows Miss Emily‘s unique position in the town. 19. …since she ceased giving china-painting lessons eight or ten years earlier. (Para. 5) China-painting (瓷器彩绘) was a traditional decorative skill and a common pastime for well-to-do women at that time. Miss Emily gave china-painting lessons at home in order to earn some money. The fact that she ceased giving the lessons indicates that she no longer admitted anyone into her house and that she had become more isolated from the outside world. 20. They were admitted by the old Negro into a dim hall from which a stairway mounted into still more shadow. (Para. 5) Note: Here the author is describing the inside of the house. Words like ―dim‖ and ―shadow‖ create a mysterious atmosphere. No one could see anything very clearly inside her house—or, perhaps, in her character. Translation: 老男仆把他们引进光线黯淡的门厅，厅里的楼梯通向更加阴暗的楼上。 21. It smelled of dust and disuse—a close, dank smell. (Para. 5) Note: The smell was one of decay. dust and disuse: alliteration disuse: the state of being or becoming unused; lack of use close: stuffy dank: disagreeably damp; moist and chilly Translation: 房间里灰尘弥漫，散发着因长久不用而产生的气味——潮湿、发霉、令人窒息。 22. 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 sun-ray. (Para. 5): when the Negro opened the blinds of one window: This detail shows that normally the blinds of all the windows in the house were closed. This is proof that she wanted to cut herself off from the outside world. blinds: a covering that can be pulled down over a window; window shade, window shutters 卷帘 the leather was cracked: This is a sign of poverty and decay. Translation: 当黑人男仆打开窗户的卷帘时，他们看到家具上的皮子已经破裂。当他们落座 时，一屡细细的灰尘在大腿周围慢慢扬起，尘粒在房间里唯一的太阳光束中缓缓地旋转。 23. They rose when she entered—a small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head. (Para. 6) with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt: The gold chain was the chain of a watch. The fact that it vanished (disappeared) into her belt means that the watch was hidden under her belt and therefore invisible. In Paragraph 7, the narrator tells us, ―Then they could hear the invisible watch ticking at the end of the gold chain.‖ Pay attention to the symbolic meaning of the watch. If the watch vanished into her belt, that means she did not look at the watch. The watch is a symbol of time. In his novel The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner also uses watches and clocks as symbols of time. Just as one of the characters in that novel tried to smash a watch to stop time, Miss Emily, by making her watch invisible, tried to ignore the passage of time as well as any changes it might have brought about. leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head: In Paragraph 5, we see a tarnished gilt easel in her house. Now there are her gold chain and the gold head of an ebony cane. Gilt and gold suggest wealth. To tarnish means to lose luster, to discolor, to grow dull. This word ―tarnish‖ can also mean to besmirch or sully (a reputation, a person‘s honor, etc.). The repeated use of the word underlines the fact that the Grierson family used to be rich and august but now had lost its splendor. 24. Her skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that was why what would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her. (Para. 6) plumpness and obesity: Plumpness means being full and round in form; being chubby. Obesity means being very fat; unhealthily fat. A note on word choice: fat, plump, obese, overweight, large, heavy, chubby, stout, tubby, etc. If you want to be polite, do not say that people are fat. (A little) overweight or just large would be more polite. In American English, you can also say that someone is heavy when you don‘t want to be offensive. Plump is most often used of women and children and means slightly (and pleasantly) fat. Chubby is most often used of babies and children and also means pleasantly fat and healthy-looking. When you describe adults, stout means slightly fat and heavy and tubby means short and fat, especially around the stomach. If someone is extremely fat and unhealthy, he/she is obese. Obese is also the word used by doctors. Translation:(因为)她的骨架小，换了别人只是有点富态，而到她身上就显得肥胖了。 25. She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. (Para. 6) bloated: full of liquid or gas and therefore bigger than normal, in a way that is unpleasant 膨胀 的;臃肿的 hue: color, a modification of a basic color 色度;色调 Note: In this sentence Miss Emily is being described as a dead person, drowned, bloated and pale. Both the house and the owner are in decay. Shutting herself from the outside world and living in complete self-isolation, Miss Emily seemed like a living corpse. 26. “Perhaps he considers himself the sheriff...” (Para. 10) Her remark shows that she only acknowledged the authority of Colonel Sartoris, proving that she was a truly proud and stubborn woman. 27. “But there is nothing on the books to show that, you see we must go by the...” (Para. 11) But there is no written document to show that. You see we must be guided by the written documents. to go by: to be guided or led by Note: Earlier Miss Emily also admitted, ―Colonel Sartoris explained it to me.‖ Clearly the dispensation was only an oral permission. In the old days, things were done in the old-fashioned way: the verbal permission of Colonel Sartoris was as good as a written document. The new generation acted differently: they wanted to be guided by written documents. on the books: in written documents 28. “See Colonel Sartoris.” (Colonel Sartoris had been dead almost ten years.) (Para. 14) From the novel Sartoris we learn that the Young Colonel died in 1919. So we can infer that the deputation‘s visit to Miss Emily must have occurred in approximately 1928-1929. Miss Emily‘s insistence on their seeing Colonel Sartoris, who had been dead almost ten years, proves how she refused to acknowledge change. 29. How does the narration shift in time in Section II of the story? In this section, time shifts back to thirty years before the visit of the deputation. There was a bad smell coming from Miss Emily‘s house. That was two years after her father‘s death and a short time after her sweetheart had disappeared. 30. So she vanquished them, horse and foot, just as she had vanquished their fathers thirty years before about the smell. (Para. 15) to vanquish: to conquer or defeat in battle; to defeat in any conflict, as in argument horse and foot: a military idiom from the American Civil War, meaning totally 就这样她彻底打败了他们，把他们打得人仰马翻，正如三十年前在气味问题上她击败了他们 的父辈一样。 31. That was two years after her father’s death and a short time after her sweetheart—the one we believed would marry her—had deserted her. (Para. 15) Her sweetheart and his deserting her are mentioned here as if casually. Actually this is an important detail. The narrator will come back to it. This is one of the characteristics of Faulkner‘s narrative techniques—throwing out a bit of information here and there for the reader to piece together in order to get a complete picture. 32. A few of the ladies had the temerity to call, but were not received… (Para. 15) temerity: foolishness or rash boldness that results from underestimating danger or failing to anticipate consequences Translation: 有几位妇女冒失地去探望她，但被她拒之门外…… 33. “Just as if a man—any man—could keep a kitchen properly,” the ladies said; so they were not surprised when the smell developed. (Para. 16) What the ladies said meant that they did not in the least believe a man, any man, could keep a kitchen properly. So when the bad smell developed, they believed it was because the manservant didn‘t keep the kitchen clean. 34. It was another link between the gross, teeming world and the high and mighty Griersons. (Para. 16) The Griersons and the townsfolk belonged to two entirely different worlds. After her father died, Miss Emily shut herself in the house, retreating to the world of her past. However, complaints about the smell linked the two worlds and compelled Miss Emily to deal with the other world. gross: vulgar, coarse; lacking in fineness; disgusting, offensive teeming: full of (people and animals) high and mighty: talking or behaving as if you think you are more important than other people 35. “Why, send her word to stop it,” the woman said. “Isn’t there a law?” (Para. 19) word: Here it means a command, order or authorization. e.g. They were waiting for the word to go ahead. “Isn’t there a law?”: The ―law‖ here refers to health or hygiene regulations passed by the town authorities. 36. The next day he received two more complaints, one from a man who came in diffident deprecation. (Para. 21) The next day the mayor received two more complaints. One of them was from a man who pleaded with the mayor in a shy and timid way. Note: This shows that the smell was bothering everybody and that even a shy man found it hard to put up with the situation any longer. diffident: timid, shy; lacking self-confidence; marked by hesitation in asserting oneself deprecation: an expression of disapproval 37. “…will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?” (Para. 23) Judge Stevens, eighty years old, was an old Southern gentleman. He thought it was bad to tell a lady to her face that she smelled bad. So he didn‘t approve of sending her word to clean up the kitchen in a direct way. 38. So the next night, after midnight, four men crossed Miss Emily’s lawn and slunk about the house like burglars, sniffing along the base of the brickwork and at the cellar openings while one of them performed a regular sowing motion with his hand out of a sack slung from his shoulder. (Para. 24) to slink: to move in a quiet, furtive, or sneaking manner, as out of fear, guilt, etc. brickwork: the part of the house built of bricks 于是，第二天午夜之后，四个男人穿过埃米莉家的草坪，像破门入室的盗贼一样偷偷摸摸地 绕着房子转悠，在房子的砖石地基部分以及地窖的通风处使劲地嗅着，其中一人从背在肩上 的袋子里不时掏出一些药粉，好像播种一样将它撒在地上。 39. As they re-crossed the lawn, a window that had been dark was lighted and Miss Emily sat in it, the light behind her, and her upright torso motionless as that of an idol. (Para. 24) Note: This is one of the vivid images of Miss Emily that the author creates in this story. Here Miss Emily sat in the window with the light behind her. What people could see was her silhouette, a dark figure seen against a light background. The fact that she was motionless suited her rigid and stubborn personality. In this image, she didn‘t look like a living person, but like an idol, or a goddess. There are other images of Miss Emily in this story. Pay attention to them and ask yourself why Faulkner portrays her in such a way and how these images change over time. 当他们又穿过草坪往回走时，原先一扇黑洞洞的窗子突然点亮了灯。埃米莉坐在窗口，灯光 照着她的背后，她那挺直的身躯纹丝不动，就像一尊神像。 40. People in our town, remembering how old lady Wyatt, her great-aunt, had gone completely crazy at last, believed that the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were. (Para. 25) People in the town felt that the Grierson family regarded themselves as more important than they deserved to be. The fact that Miss Emily‘s great-aunt, old lady Wyatt, had gone crazy was believed to have to do with this blind, excessive self-importance. 41. 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. (Para. 25) tableau: a striking scene or picture, frozen in time for dramatic effect; a theatrical device in which a group of people who do not speak or move are arranged on stage to show a famous event or a dramatic moment to spraddle: colloquial or dialect to spread the legs in a sprawling or straddling fashion back-flung: 向后开的 Note: This sentence depicts a central image that reveals several facts about the relationship between the father and daughter in the Grierson family. First, the positions of the father and daughter are meaningful. The father was standing in the foreground while Miss Emily was standing in the background. This shows the father‘s dominant position and the daughter‘s subordinate role. The father‘s spraddling adds to his image as a stern patriarchal figure. Second, the father turned his back to her. This shows that he refused to listen to her, denying her wishes. Then Mr. Grierson was clutching a horsewhip, which is clearly a symbol of power, authority, and strict control. Miss Emily‘s slender figure suggests vulnerability, and her white dress symbolizes purity, the most valued quality of Southern white women. The fact that the two of them were framed by the back-flung front door may be interpreted in different ways. One interpretation is that the father was blocking the door, suggesting Miss Emily was unable to walk out of the house and choose her suitor freely. Another interpretation is that the door was open for suitors but the suitors were driven away by the father holding a horsewhip. Apparently the author intends to imply many meanings with this image. Also we should compare the image of Miss Emily in this picture with other images of her at different times, such as how she looked after her father‘s death. 42. So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn’t have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized. (Para. 25) When she got to be thirty and was still single, people in the town would have denied that they wanted such an outcome but it did confirm their predictions—Miss Emily was still single because the Griersons held themselves too high for what they were, and all the young men who had come to court Miss Emily had been driven away by her father (See Para. 28). They knew that even though there was insanity in the family (the great-aunt Wyatt), Miss Emily wouldn‘t have turned down all of her chances if they had really existed. 因此，当她30岁仍未嫁人时，确切地说我们并不觉得高兴，只是觉得这 证明 住所证明下载场所使用证明下载诊断证明下载住所证明下载爱问住所证明下载爱问 了我们原来的 想法;就算她的家庭有精神失常的家族史，她也不至于拒绝所有的机会，如果真有那么多人 向她求婚的话。 43. Being left alone, and a pauper, she had become humanized. (Para. 26) Without her father‘s over-protection and without much money, she had become an ordinary person， like other townspeople. 44. Now she too would know the old thrill and the old despair of a penny more or less. (Para. 26) Ordinary people often become excited or worried by having a penny more or a penny less. Being poor, now she, too, would learn to appreciate the value of money, like other people in the town. old: familiar, experienced, heard or seen many times before 45. How did Miss Emily behave when her father died? (See Para. 27) She told the ladies who came to see her that her father was not dead. She refused to let anybody in her house. She behaved in this way for three days. Then she broke down. They buried her father quickly, because otherwise the body would begin to smell. This detail sets us up for what is going to happen later to Homer Barron. 46.… and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will. (Para. 28) Miss Emily refused to let the townspeople take away her father‘s body for burial. She tried hard to hold onto it as long as possible. Note that the narrator says, ―... she would... cling to that which had robbed her‖, rather than ―her father who robbed her‖. The implied meaning is that what robbed her of love, marriage and freedom was not only her father as an individual, but the traditional social force he represented. Even so, she would cling to these same conservative values. 47. 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. (Para. 29) It is obvious that there is something else beneath Miss Emily‘s change in her appearance. In the essay Changing Portraits in “A Rose for Emily”, Janice A. Powell points out, ―The images in this passage reveal a woman stripped of her sexuality. In this portrait, Emily assumes the semblance of a girl instead of a sexually mature woman of thirty. Her cut hair is especially important. Since ancient times, a woman‘s hair has symbolized her sexuality. Emily‘s hair, along with her sexuality, has been cut short through her father‘s pride. The cut hair also introduces religious imagery, for an initiate into a nunnery shears her hair as a symbol of her chastity. In addition, the adjectives ?tragic and serene‘ envisage a Madonna, a holy virgin, as an addendum to the primary image of angels who, although often depicted as women, are asexual.‖ However, the symbolic meaning of Miss Emily‘s short hair is rather ambiguous. It could also indicate that, with her hair cut short, Emily has become a liberated woman, determined to abandon her former role as a genteel, upper-class lady. Short hair usually makes a woman appear stronger and more independent in character. This quality can be seen in the fact that she engages in a relationship with Homer Barron, a Yankee foreman, despite the town‘s traditional social prejudices. 48. …and a foreman named Homer Barron, a Yankee—a big, dark, ready man… (Para. 30) Yankee: Homer Barron is a man from the victorious North who, after the Civil War, came to South in the hope of making money. Though the word does not appear in the text, these men were commonly called ―carpetbaggers‖, and were objects of scorn or suspicion to most Southerners. ready: clever and skillful mentally or physically 49. Presently we began to see him and Miss Emily on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy and the matched team of bays from the livery stable. (Para. 30) livery stable: a stable where horses and carriages can be hired 不久，礼拜天下午我们常看到他和埃米莉小姐驾着一辆从马车店租来的轻便马车出门，车轮 是黄色的，配套的马是红褐色的。 50. a day laborer (Para. 31): an unskilled worker paid by the day临时工 51. But there were still others, older people, who said that even grief could not cause a real lady to forget noblesse oblige—without calling it noblesse oblige. (Para. 31) But there were still others, older people, who said that no matter how sad Miss Emily was (over her father‘s death), she should not forget that she had certain obligations as a member of the nobility, though a real lady would not describe her self-restraint using the expression ―noblesse oblige‖. Note: The implied meaning is that it should be unthinkable for Emily as part of the local ―nobility‖ to consider marrying a man so far beneath her. 52. They had not even been represented at the funeral. (Para. 31) 甚至举行葬礼时这家都没派人出席。 53. This behind their hands; rustling of craned silk and satin behind jalousies closed upon the sun of Sunday afternoon as the thin, swift clop-clop-clop of the matched team passed: “Poor Emily.” (Para. 32) behind their hands: People were whispering, talking in private with their hands over their mouths. rustling: making an irregular succession of soft sounds, as of leaves being moved by a gentle breeze silk and satin: the silk and satin dresses worn by the ladies “Poor Emily”: Note the absence of the word ―Miss‖. This reveals the change of attitude of the townspeople toward Miss Emily after her dating Homer Barron. Instead of respect, they now felt pity for her. 礼拜天的下午，当拉车的马踏着轻快的步子哒哒驶过时，女人们站在遮阳的百叶窗后窥视， 她们的绸缎长裙沙沙作响，人们交头接耳:“可怜的埃米莉。 54. …with cold, haughty 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. (Para. 34) A lighthouse keeper lives an extremely lonely life, and that terrible loneliness and solitude would show on his face. Here, Miss Emily is compared to a lonely lighthouse keeper. 55. “I want some poison,” she said. (Para. 34) The narrator does not tell us why she wanted some poison at this point. From paragraph 43 we know that the townspeople thought she would kill herself. But will she kill herself? Why or why not? 56. Miss Emily 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 arsenic and wrapped it up. (Para. 42) 埃米莉就那样瞪着他，她的头向后仰，以便能与他对视，一直看得他回避了她的犀利的目光， 走进去取了砒霜并将其包好。 57. …and we said it would be the best thing. (Para. 43) Why did the townspeople think it would be the best thing for her to kill herself? The answer can be found in the next paragraph. 58. “She will persuade him yet…” (Para. 43) This remark means he was not willing to marry her, and the reason is given in the following ―because‖ clause. 59. Then some of the ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people. (Para. 44) These ladies represented the traditional code of the American South. When Miss Emily was first seen with Homer Barron, the townspeople could hardly believe that a member of the Grierson family would think seriously of marrying a Northerner, a day laborer. Then when Miss Emily continued her relationship with Barron without seeming to be in a hurry to get married, they began to accuse her of being a disgrace and a bad example. We can see here how Miss Emily‘s father had ruined her life, and how the whole town also played a role by interfering with her private life. 60. ...but at last the ladies forced the Baptist minister—Miss Emily’s people were Episcopal—to call upon her. He would never divulge what happened during that interview, but he refused to go back again. (Para. 44) Episcopal: a member of the Episcopal Church(圣公会),which is governed by bishops. In the town where Emily lived, people with prestige belonged to the Episcopal Church. the Baptist: The Baptists(浸礼会教派) are associated with more enthusiastic, less cultivated modes of Christian worship. The town‘s middle-class ladies belonged to the Baptist Church, and forced their minister to call upon Miss Emily on behalf of the town. He would never divulge what happened during that interview: He would never disclose what happened during his talk with Miss Emily. But readers can infer that Miss Emily must have treated him with disdain when he came to express the community‘s disapproval of her public relationship with Homer Barron. That is why he refused to have another talk with Miss Emily. 61. We learned that Miss Emily had been to the jeweler’s and ordered a man’s toilet set in silver… (Para. 45) a man’s toilet set in silver: a set of toilet articles made of silver, used for grooming 62. We were glad because the two female cousins were even more Grierson than Miss Emily had ever been. (Para. 45) The townspeople were glad because they had been annoyed by the arrogant attitude of Miss Emily and saw now that the two cousins were even more stubborn and self-important than Miss Emily. They believed that the cousins would succeed in persuading Miss Emily and Homer Barron to get married quickly so that their relationship would come to an appropriate conclusion. 63. We were a little disappointed that there was not a public blowing-off… (Para. 46) blowing-off: a loud quarrel that would signal the end of the relationship The people in the town guessed that the relationship had turned sour, causing Homer Barron to leave; they expected to see a quarrel between them. When nothing of the kind happened, they were a little disappointed. Then they began to think that perhaps he had gone to prepare for the wedding. 64. By that time it was a cabal, and we were all Miss Emily’s allies to help circumvent the cousins. (Para. 46) By that time, the cousins had completed their mission and it was time for them to leave Jefferson. Now the townspeople were taking Miss Emily‘s side and making secret plans to help her deal with her cousins. 65. A neighbor saw the Negro man admit him at the kitchen door at dusk one evening. (Para. 46) We can feel that the author is hinting at something here. Did Homer Barron agree to marry Miss Emily? Did he go away to prepare for Miss Emily‘s coming as the townspeople had supposed? Why did the Negro man admit him at the kitchen door instead of the front door? Why did he come at dusk? Let‘s keep these questions in mind and try to answer them as we read on. 66. And that was the last we saw of Homer Barron. (Para. 47) What did the townspeople think when Homer Barron disappeared? They supposed he had deserted her (―after her sweetheart—the one we believed would marry her—had deserted her‖ in Para.15). We should be alert to the possibility that the author knows something that the narrator is not aware of yet. 67. Now and then we would see her at a window for a moment, as the men did that night when they sprinkled the lime (Para. 47) The author wants us to think of the possible connections between the disappearance of Homer Barron and the smell that the townspeople complained about. 68. Then we knew that this was to be expected too; as if that quality of her father which had thwarted her woman’s life so many times had been too virulent and too furious to die. (Para. 47) thwarted her woman’s life so many times: We knew that she could be expected to behave this way, as if that quality of her father, who had repeatedly prevented her from living a normal woman‘s life, was so strong, negative and furious that it would not disappear completely. Note: Why did the townspeople expect this? They believed that Homer Barron‘s disappearance meant that he had deserted Miss Emily. This was a heavy blow to poor Emily, whose woman‘s life had been already thwarted by her father so many times. So they were not surprised when she did not appear on the streets for six months. They had expected her to behave this way. 我们明白这也是意料之中的事，似乎她父亲那使她作为女性的生活屡遭挫折的性格太恶毒、 太厉害了，很难消失。 69. Up to the day of her death at seventy-four it was still that vigorous iron-gray, like the hair of an active man. (Para. 48) The vigorous and iron-gray hair symbolizes her strong and stubborn personality, like that of an active man - such as her father and Homer Barron. 70. …where the daughters and granddaughters of Colonel Sartoris’ contemporaries were sent to her with the same regularity and in the same spirit that they were sent to church on Sundays with a twenty-five-cent piece for the collection plate. (Para. 49) …where the daughters and granddaughters of the older generation who lived in Colonel Sartoris‘ time were sent to Emily to learn china-painting regularly and piously just as they were sent to church on Sundays with a small sum of money as a donation. the collection plate: a plate passed around during a church service for collecting offerings of money 71. When the town got free postal delivery, Miss Emily alone refused to let them fasten the metal numbers above her door and attach a mailbox to it. (Para. 50) This sentence says a lot about Miss Emily‘s negative attitude toward change and the progress of time. Refusing to have numbers fastened to her door can be seen as a refusal to acknowledge the passing of time. 72. Each December we sent her a tax notice, which would be returned by the post office a week later, unclaimed. (Para. 51) This shows that Miss Emily simply ignored the tax notice. unclaimed: 未被领取的 73. Now and then we would see her in one of the downstairs windows—she had evidently shut up the top floor of the house—like the carven torso of an idol in a niche, looking or not looking at us, we could never tell which. (Para. 51) torso: the main part of the body, not including the head and limbs Note: Now Miss Emily no longer went out. From time to time the townspeople would see her in one of the downstairs windows. She had evidently shut the top floor of the house. The word ―evidently‖ shows that the townspeople were supposing that she had shut the top floor, since they could not go into the house. In the final section of the story we shall learn that the corpse of Homer Barron was lying on her bed in the upstairs bedroom. Sitting in the window, Miss Emily looked like the carved torso of an idol for worship placed in a niche. Whether she was looking or not looking at us we could not tell, and it was not important because she had ceased to be a real human being, and had become a sort of monument, a symbol of a tradition and a hereditary obligation. (Para. 3) 不时地，我们在楼下的一个窗口能见到她的身影，显然她已封闭了顶楼。她的身影就像供奉 在壁龛里的一尊神明的躯体，也许她在看着我们，也许没有，我们也不清楚。 74. Thus she passed from generation to generation—dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse. (Para. 51) The author uses five adjectives to describe how the townspeople felt about Miss Emily. The words are precise, but these are adjectives that do not fit comfortably together. They reflect the townspeople‘s ambivalent attitude toward Emily. She was ―dear‖ because she represented the Southern heritage to a certain extent. She was ―inescapable‖ because she was ―a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town‖. She was ―impervious‖ in that she would not be affected by changes taking place in the town, and she demonstrated her imperviousness by ignoring the tax notice and refusing to pay taxes. She was ―tranquil‖. Though she was tragic, she remained calm and undisturbed. Her tranquility, as well as her rigidity, are signified by her motionless silhouette in the window. She was certainly ―perverse‖, always behaving in an unreasonable way and doing the opposite of what people expected her to do. 75. …and the very old men—some in their brushed Confederate uniforms—on the porch and the lawn, talking of Miss Emily as if she had been a contemporary of theirs, believing that they had danced with her and courted her perhaps, confusing time with its mathematical progression, as the old do, to whom all the past is not a diminishing road but, instead, a huge meadow which no winter ever quite touches, divided from them now by the narrow bottleneck of the most recent decade of years. (Para. 55) The very old men, who were even older than Miss Emily, came to the funeral. Some of them were veterans of the Civil War, and they had put on their old Confederate uniforms to pay their last respects to this Southern lady from an aristocratic family. Standing on the porch and on the lawn, they talked of Miss Emily, mistakenly thinking of her as someone their own age, born around 1840 or so whereas, actually, born around 1855, she was considerably younger than they were. They imagined they had danced with her, possibly even courted her. As old people do, they mixed up the dates and years of past happenings. One might think that in people‘s memories, the past is like a road that becomes less defined as it reaches further back. But instead, the recent past – the last ten years or so - is a bottleneck. Beyond that narrow passage, the remote past is a huge meadow where things are pleasantly and fondly confused. To these old Southerners, like green grass never touched by winter, their memories of the remote past remained blurred, sweet, romanticized, and unchanged. Note: This is a good example of using long sentences, which is a typical characteristic of Faulkner‘s writing. some in their brushed Confederate uniforms: Some of them had fought in the Confederate Army in the Civil War. They had put away their army uniforms and now brushed off the dust and put them on for this special occasion. mathematical progression: sequence or succession of happenings in time, marked by numbers diminishing: making sth., or making sth. seem, smaller in size meadow: an area of grassland; a field of low, level land grown with wild grass and flowers bottleneck: any place, as on a narrow road, where traffic is slowed or halted; any point at which movement or progress is slowed 而那些耋耄老人——有的身穿掸去灰尘的南军制服——站在房廊里和草坪上，谈论着埃米莉 小姐，似乎她是他们的同龄人，他们觉得仿佛和她跳过舞，或许曾向她求过爱。他们混淆了 往事发生的年月，这是老年人的通病。对于他们来说，过去不是一条逐渐变窄的道路，而是 一片辽阔的、没有冬季的芳草地。只是最近十年才像狭窄瓶颈般，把他们与遥远的过去分割 开来。 76. Already we knew that there was one room in that region above stairs which no one had seen in forty years... (Para. 56) The narrator tells us that there was a mysterious room upstairs which no one had seen in forty years. The author is hinting that something must have happened forty years ago that made Miss Emily shut the room. 77. What is paragraph 57 about? This paragraph describes vividly the details of the mysterious room upstairs. Earlier in the text, we have already encountered some elements of Gothic fiction. From paragraph 57 to the end of the story we see how perfectly Faulkner is able to create an atmosphere often found in Gothic novels. The Gothic novel is a type of novel characterized by horror, violence, supernatural effects, and a taste for the medieval, usually set against a background of Gothic architecture, especially a gloomy and isolated castle. ―A Rose for Emily‖ contains some elements of Gothic fiction. The author‘s purpose is to create an atmosphere best suited for portraying the perverse character of Miss Emily and telling her story. 78. A thin, acrid pall as of the tomb seemed to lie everywhere upon this room decked and furnished as for a bridal: upon the valance curtains of faded rose color, upon the rose-shaded lights, upon the dressing table, upon the delicate array of crystal and the man’s toilet things backed with tarnished silver, silver so tarnished that monogram was obscured. (Para. 57) acrid: sharp, bitter, stinging, or irritating as to the taste or smell pall: an overspreading covering, as of dark clouds or black smoke, that cloaks or obscures in a gloomy, depressing way; also an overspreading, pervasive atmosphere or spirit of gloom and depression bridal: archaic a wedding decked: covered or clothed with finery or ornaments; adorned valance curtain: a short drapery or curtain hanging from the edge of bed, shelf, table, etc. often to the floor Note: Pay attention to the color and the curtains and lights. The word ―rose‖ naturally reminds us of the title of the story. Does the author choose the word merely because it is a common color for a bridal room? Or does he choose it deliberately, expecting the readers to make a connection between the rose color of the room and the title? 一股淡淡的、难闻的、犹如墓穴般的气味笼罩着这个为婚礼布置的房间的各个角落:罩在褪 了色的玫瑰色窗帘上，罩在玫瑰色灯罩和梳妆台上，罩在一排精致的水晶制品和镶银的男人 盥洗用具上。而那银器的光泽早已失去，刻在上面的姓名字母图案也已经辨认不清了。 79. Among them lay a collar and tie, as if they had just been removed, which, lifted, left upon the surface a pale crescent in the dust. (Para. 57) collar: a cloth band or folded-over piece attached to the neck of a garment 物件中有一个衬衫的硬领和一条领带，仿佛刚从身上摘下来似的。当有人把它们拿起来时， 可以看到在尘埃覆盖的表面上留下了一个浅浅的月牙痕。 80. Why is paragraph 58 so short, containing only one single sentence? We can imagine that after giving a detailed description of the mysterious bridal room, the story-teller makes a pause here, takes a breath and then comes to the final secret, saying, ―The man himself lay in the bed.‖ This one-sentence paragraph is a very effective way of holding the reader in suspense for the climax of a murder story. 81. The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him. (Para. 59) Just before the man breathed his last, he was lying in the position of an embrace. But death that always lasts longer than love and conquers even the pain and suffering of love had turned him into a man whose wife had proved unfaithful. in the attitude of embrace: 呈拥抱的姿势. Attitude means the position or posture assumed by the body in connection with an action, feeling, mood, etc. e.g.: The old woman knelt in an attitude of prayer. the long sleep: death cuckold: A cuckold is a man whose wife has proved unfaithful. To cuckold is to make a man a cuckold. 82. What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust. (Para. 59) inextricable: that cannot be disentangled or untied coating: a layer over a surface biding: old use waiting and staying somewhere for a long time 他的遗体在残留的睡衣下面已经腐烂，跟他躺着的床粘在一起，难以剥离。他的身上和旁边 的枕头上均匀地覆盖着一层长年积累的灰尘。 83. Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. (Para. 60) Then we noticed that in the empty pillow there was a slight hollow made by a head, indicating that somebody had lain next to the dead body of the man. indentation: a dent or a slight hollow 84. 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. (Para. 60) The long strand of iron-gray hair was Miss Emily‘s and this was the proof that Miss Emily had lain beside the dead body of Homer Barron. Recall how the author earlier paved the way for the final disclosure of the secret by describing Miss Emily‘s iron-gray hair. 85. Why did Miss Emily kill Homer Barron? There is no doubt that it was Miss Emily who killed Homer Barron. When she went to the drug store to buy arsenic, people thought she wanted to kill herself because Homer Barron had deserted her. Actually the poison was for Homer Barron. But the question is why did she kill him? If he had agreed to marry her, why would she have murdered him? If he never agreed to marry her, why did Miss Emily go to the jewelry store to order things for the wedding? Did she murder Homer Barron because he refused to marry her? Or did she fear that he would not remain faithful to her after their marriage? Did Miss Emily commit the murder because she was insane? What drove her to murder the man? And why did Miss Emily sometimes lie beside the corpse? What changed Miss Emily from a daughter of a respected family to a murderer? The author does not provide ready answers to these questions. It‘s up to us as readers to figure out our own answers. 86. What kind of a woman is Miss Emily? What did the townspeople think of her? How is she portrayed in the story? Does the author sympathize with her? Born in an aristocratic Southern family, Miss Emily is proud, self-important and obstinate, like the other Griersons. As a lady from such a family, she enjoyed a high but obsolete social status. On the one hand, she was placed on a pedestal for people to admire, as if she were perfect. She was closely watched by the community and was always expected to bring honor to the town and set a good example for the young. She was viewed as a representative of the Southern tradition. Dominated by her father, she was robbed of all opportunities for a happy marriage and thus of a normal woman‘s life. Therefore, when her father died, she was still single at the age of 30. After she began to be courted by Homer Barron, a Northern laborer, she was accused of being a disgrace to the town and a bad example for the younger generation. This patriarchal and social pressure warped her character. She tried hard to cling to the past, which meant past privilege and glory. She cut herself off from the changing world and lived in complete, self-imposed isolation. Over the years, she was transformed from a compliant young woman controlled by a domineering father, to a middle-aged woman courting a laborer against the prejudices of the community, and then to a murderess who not only killed her lover but also kept the corpse in her house and even sometimes lay beside it. For such a woman, the townspeople have mixed feelings—she was ―dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse‖. For better or worse, she is the embodiment of the social conditions of that time. Through telling this story and exploring the character of Miss Emily, Faulkner reveals his ambivalent relationship to the South, of which he felt proud and ashamed at the same time. 87. Why does the author tell such a story? What is the story about? These questions are not as simple as they seem. The author intends to invite us as readers to join him in discovering the meaning of the story. Thematically, ―A Rose for Emily‖ is a rich and complicated text. We can see that the plot of the story centers around many conflicts—the conflict between Mr. Grierson and his daughter, the conflict between Miss Emily and Homer Barron, the conflict between Miss Emily and the people of the town, and the conflict between past and present. Readers‘ different weightings of these conflicts may lead them to different conclusions about the meaning of the story. In other words, there may be different interpretations. On one level, for example, the story may be read as a murder story in which the disappointed bride-to-be kills the bridegroom. But we know this could not be a great writer‘s sole purpose in writing this story. On a symbolic level, the conflict between Emily and Homer Barron may be viewed as a clash between the South and the North, represented by Miss Emily and Homer Barron respectively. However, with such an interpretation one runs the risk of oversimplifying the thematic richness of the work. On a psychological level, the story explores the inner world of a human being, the main character‘s conflict with established codes of conduct, and her conflict with her own heart. On still another level, the story demonstrates how the past and present clash and what a great impact the past has on the present. It describes what it was like to live in the American South from the 1860s to the 1930s, when the South had to digest the loss of the Civil War and cope with its legacy in a changing society. Key to Exercises I 1. choice, excellent, outstanding 2. of inspiring awe and reverence; imposing and magnificent 3. a thing that is unpleasant to look at 4. to be wounded or killed in battle 5. to bring into being; to found, originate, or invent 6. an official public proclamation or order issued by an authority; decree 7. to call on or visit (especially a superior) in order to pay one‘s respects, ask a favor, etc. 8. a covering that can be pulled down over a window; window shade, window shutters 9. color, a modification of a basic color 10. in written documents 11. old-fashioned (said of a woman) having had a sexual relationship with someone she is not married to; (in general) having lost status or moral reputation 12. giving vent to one‘s feelings, as by loud talking; a loud quarrel 13. a plate for collecting money (offerings, donations) during a church service V 1. (In former times, the street housed only the best families.) But then great changes took place: Garages and cotton gins were built and they erased the aristocratic atmosphere of the neighborhood. 2. It would not be true to say that Miss Emily would have accepted charity. 3. What the ladies said meant that they did not in the least believe a man, any man, could keep a kitchen properly. 4. The Griersons and the townsfolk belonged to two entirely different worlds. After her father‘s death, Miss Emily shut herself in the house, retreating to the world of her past. However, complaints about the smell linked the two worlds and compelled her to deal with the other world. 5. The next day the mayor received two more complaints. One of them was from a man who came and pleaded in a shy and timid way. 6. People in the town felt that the Grierson family regarded themselves as more important than they deserved to be. The fact that Miss Emily‘s great-aunt, old lady Wyatt, had gone crazy was believed to have to do with this blind, excessive self-importance. 7. Ordinary people often become excited or worried by having a penny more or a penny less. Being poor, now she, too, would learn to appreciate the value of money, like the other people in the town. 8. But there were still others, older people, who said that no matter how sad Miss Emily was (over her father‘s death), she should not forget that she had certain obligations as a member of the nobility, though a real lady would not describe her self-restraint using the expression ―noblesse oblige‖. 9. The townspeople were glad because they had been annoyed by the arrogant attitude of Miss Emily and saw now that the two cousins were even more stubborn and self-important than Miss Emily. (They believed that the cousins would succeed in persuading Miss Emily and Homer Barron to get married quickly so that their relationship would come to an appropriate conclusion.) 10. …where the daughters and granddaughters of the older generation who lived in Colonel Sartoris‘ time were sent to Emily to learn china-painting regularly and piously, just as they were sent to church on Sundays with a small sum of money as donation. VI. Phrases 1.丑中之丑 2.他制订了这则法令 3.房间里灰尘弥漫，散发着因长久不用而产生的气味 4. 一条细细的金表链一直垂到腰际，下端隐没在腰带之下 5. 一个身材高大、皮肤黝黑、精明能干的男人 6. 从马车店租来的配套的栗色马 7. 呈拥抱的姿势 Sentences 1. 男人们去是出于一种尊敬，因为一个纪念碑倒下了。女人们则是出于好奇，想看看埃米 莉小姐的房子里面到底是什么样子的，因为除了一个作花匠兼厨师的老男仆之外，起码有 10年没有别人踏进过她家的大门了。 2. 不过，现在埃米莉小姐也加入到那些名门望族代表的行列中了。他们在令人沉思的雪松 陪伴下长眠于公墓，他们的墓碑周围埋葬着一排排南北战争中在杰斐逊战场上阵亡的南军和 北军的无名战士。 3. 埃米莉小姐在世时，一直是传统的化身，履行责任和给予关照的对象，这是全镇人沿袭 下来的一种义务…… 4. 老男仆把他们引进光线黯淡的门厅，厅里的楼梯通向更加阴暗的楼上。 5. 他们落座时，一股细细的灰尘在大腿周围慢慢扬起，尘埃在房间里唯一的太阳光束中缓 缓地旋转着。 6. 因为她的骨架小，换了别人只是有点富态，而到她身上就显得肥胖了。 7. 于是，第二天午夜之后，四个男人穿过埃米莉家的草坪，像破门入室的盗贼一样偷偷摸 摸地绕着房子转悠，在房子的砖基部分以及地窖的通风处使劲地嗅着，其中一人从背在肩上 的袋子里不时掏出一些药粉，好像播种一样把它撒在地上。 8. 甚至举行葬礼时这家都没派人出席。 9. 埃米莉就那样瞪着他，她的头向后仰，以便能与他对视，一直看得他转移了目光，走进 去取了砒霜并将其包好。 10. 不时地，我们在楼下的一个窗口能见到她的身影，显然她已封闭了顶楼。她的身影就像 供奉在壁龛里的一尊神像的躯体，也许她在看着我们，也许没有，我们也不清楚。 VII. 1. Alliteration. The smell of the room was unpleasantly stuffy and damp because it was full of dust and no one had lived in it for a long time. 2. Simile. Emily looked as if she were a dead person who had been drowned and soaked in water and therefore her body was bigger than normal and unpleasantly pale. 3. Simile. Her face resembled a lump of dough and her eyes seemed very small on that fat face. 4. Synecdoche. That night, the Board of Aldermen held a meeting. On the Board, there were three old men and one younger man, a member of the generation that was becoming important. 5. Simile. By that time, the cousins had completed their mission and it was time for them to leave Jefferson. Now the townspeople were taking Miss Emily‘s side and making secret plans to help her deal with her cousins. 6. Metaphor. We knew that she could be expected to behave this way, as if that quality of her father, who had repeatedly prevented her from living a normal woman‘s life, was so strong, negative and furious that it would not disappear completely. 7. Simile. Sitting, motionless, in one of the downstairs windows, Miss Emily looked like the carved torso of an idol for worship placed in a niche. 8. Metaphor. These old Southerners might not recall what had happened in the past ten years or so, but they remembered what had happened several decades ago in the distant past, memories that remained sweet, romanticized and unchanged.