The gothic complex献给艾米丽的玫瑰中的哥特情结

The gothic complexIn “ A Rose for Emily”By 冯倩·

GOTHGermanic tribe: brutality and barbarism

Architecture style: tall, sharp pointed, vaulted roof or tower, narrow windows, colorful glass, darkness houses, gloomy ladders

Gothic fiction setting: a distant ages and desolate places Characters: locked or imprisoned in a narrow spaces or in a mysterious gothic building Suspense: often mingles with love Popular in 18th century

Gothic characteristics Environment Narrative way Character

Description of Emily’s house “It is big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated withthe cupolas and She rejected modernized spires and scrolled balconies in orthe changed world style stubbornly. heavily lightsome of seventies”*Para.2+ “lifing its stubborn and coquettish decay”*Para2+

---outside

Description of Emily’s house “a dim hall from which a stairway mounted into still more shadow.”*Para.5+ “It smelled of dust and disuse--- a close, dank smell.”*Para.5+ “It was furnished in heavy, leather-covered furniture.”*Para.5+

----inner side

Mysterious picture makes readers curious about Emily’s life in the house

Description of Emily’s house----locked room “A thin, acrid pall as of the tomb seemed to lie everywhere upon The description of Emily’s house created this room decked and furnished as for a bridal”*Para.57+

“a long strand of iron-gray hair.”*Para.60+

the mysterious and horrible atmosphere “The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an successfully and connected the mystery embrace.”*Para.59+ with gothic characteristics naturally.

Narrative way

Flashback Narrator

“our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house,”*Para.1+

Who was Emily? What kind of person she is?

Narrative way

Flashback NarratorBeautiful and slim Controlled by her father Refused by Homer Separated from the world

Narrative way

Flashback NarratorCruel and unscrupulous Murdered her lover Slept with his dead body

Narrative way

Flashback Narrator

“Just as if a man----any man ----could keep a kitchen properly”*Para.16+ “It’s probably just a snake or a rat that nigger of hers killed in the yard”*Para.20+ “They are married.”*Para.45+

characterEmily

Tobe

Eccentric and mysterious Isolated for 40 years Unrealistic stubborn women

characterEmily

Tobe

“dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead.”*Para.27+ “’I have no taxes in Jefferson.’”*Para.8+ “’See Colonel Sartoris.’(Colonel Sartoris had been dead almost ten years.)”*Para.14+

characterEmily

Tobe

“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 fra

med by the back-flung front door.”*Para.25+

characterEmily

Tobe

A servant be mentioned more than 10times Full of mystery: his history, his loyalty, his disappearance “He talked to no one, probably not even to her, for his voice had grown harsh and rusty, as if from disuse.”*Para.52+ “He walked right through the house and out the back and was not seen again.”*Para.54+

conclusio nGiven the above analysis, we can arrive at the point that “A Rose for Emily” reflects gothic characteristics in 3 aspect. “A Rose for Emily” shows us the perfect combination between gothic characteristics and realistic content.