英语专业本科毕业优秀论文.doc

中国药科大学本 科 毕 业 论 文论文题目威廉福克纳与弗兰纳里奥康纳短篇小说 女性角色分析 英文题目An Analysis of Protagonists in Short Stories of William Faulkner and Flannery OConnor 专 业 英语专业 院 部 外语系 学 号 0647403 姓 名 杨瞿晶 指导教师 赵光慧 课题完成场所 中国药科大学 论文工作时间： 2010 年 3 月 至 2010 年 6 月An Analysis of Protagonists in Short Stories Of William Faulkner and Flannery OConnorbyYang QujingUnder the Supervision ofProf. Zhao GuanghuiSubmitted in Partial Fulfillment of the RequirementsFor the Degree of Bachelor of ArtsForeign Languages Department China Pharmaceutical UniversityJune 2010I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person or material which has to a substantial extent been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at any university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment has been made in the text. Signature: _Name: Yang Qujing Date: June 2010 兹呈交的学位论文，是本人在导师指导下独立完成的研究成果，在论文写作过程中参考的其他个人或集体的研究成果均在文中以明确方式标明，本人依法享有和承担由此论文而产生的权利和责任。声明人（签名）： 年 月 日AcknowledgementsUpon the completion of the present paper, I feel deeply indebted to those who helped me during my study of William Faulkner and Flannery OConnors short stories.First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Zhao Guanghui, my supervisor, for her constant encouragement and her invaluable advice during my study and the writing of this paper. Her generosity and readiness to help, and her profound literary and critical knowledge have always been a valuable source of any advancement I have made during the past four years. Besides, her literary wisdom and critical insight will enlighten my way of life, and her personal charm as a scholar always stimulates me to pursue further goals in the future.Equal gratitude is extended to other professors and teachers for their encouragement and illuminating suggestions, from whose brilliant lectures and great personalities I have benefited greatly. My gratitude also goes to my peers and friends for their kindness to spend time and energy in appraising and editing my thesis.Grateful acknowledgements are also extended to all those whose works and essays I referred to or quoted in this thesis.Finally I thank all the people mentioned above again. Without them, it would have been impossible for me to accomplish this task.Yang Q.J.iiABSTRACTAn Analysis of Protagonists in Short Stories of William Faulkner and Flannery OConnorYang QujingThis paper intends to analyze the similarities and differences between women images of Southern Literature in short stories of William Faulkner and Flannery OConnor, taking the three of them as examples, A rose for Emily, A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Good Country People. Women images of the three stories may serve for various intentions of the two authors, which is mainly discussed and studied, and may also be influenced by times. The continuous studies on protagonists have been a tradition in the world of literature, which often carry the great importance of motifs. The similarities lie in the indirect depiction, depiction on changes in south, religious influence, Southern Gothic heroines and the tragic fates. The differences may be due to characteristics, the religious element and the application of Gothicism and the roots of tragedies of the protagonists. Through the interpretation and comparison of protagonists fate, we may be able to understand the underlying and indispensable reasons, which are possibly the personal experiences, the background of the stories, and the angles of the two writers. Keywords：William Faulkner; Flannery OConnor; Protagonist; A rose for Emily; A Good Man Is Hard to Find; Good Country People【摘要】本文以威廉福克纳和弗兰纳里奥康纳的三部短篇小说为例，主要研究同为南方作家代表的福克纳和奥康纳截然不同的对作品中女性角色不同的理解角度以及性格、命运的安排。女性角色历来在不同作品中有着不同的意义及命运，传达着作者不同的主旨，同时又受作品时代背景而影响。通过分析，得出三个女性角色的相同点在于间接描写、南方变迁、宗教影响、南方哥特特点以及女主角的悲剧命运。而其不同之处在于：角色性格特征、宗教性与歌特手法的运用及造成其悲剧性格的原因。本文旨在通过对三个女性角色的不同命运的理解和分析，得出如下结论，即福克纳和奥康纳这两位作家由于自身经历、作品背景以及身为男女两性而具有不同的视角等原因凸显他们对女性角色的刻画不同之处。【关键词】 福克纳；奥康纳；女性角色；献给艾米莉的玫瑰；好人难寻；善良的乡下人Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsiiChapter One INTRODUCTION11.1 Brief Introduction of William Faulkner and Flannery OConnor11.2 Brief Introduction of Protagonists in Faulkners Works11.3 Brief Introduction of Protagonists in OConnors Works21.4 Importance of Women Images2Chapter Two SIMILARITIES OF WOMEN IMAGES IN SHORT STORIES OF FAULKNER AND OCONNOR42.1 Frequent Usage of Indirect Depiction42.2 Description of Historical, Cultural and Value Changes62.3 Existence of Religious Influence62.4 Southern Gothic Heroines62.5 The Tragic Fates of Women Figures7Chapter Three DIFFERENCES OF WOMEN IMAGES IN SHORT STORIES OF FAULKNER AND OCONNOR83.1 The Characteristics of Women ImagesTraditional Ones Verses New ones83.2 The Religious Element and the Application of Gothicism103.3 Reasons That Make Females Tragic113.3.1 A Rose for Emilyfaith in tradition113.3.2 A Good Man Is Hard to Findfaith in moral113.3.3 Good Country People faith in knowledge11Chapter Four POSSIBLE REASONS ON FAULKNER AND OCONNORS DIFFERENT DECIPTION ON WOMEN IMAGES144.1 Difference of Personal Experiences of Faulkner and OConnor144.2 Difference of the Background on Stories144.3 Different Angles of A Male Writer And A Female One15Chapter Five THE BRIEF CONCLUSION17WORKS CITED18iiiChapter OneINTRODUCTION1.1 Brief Introduction of William Faulkner and Flannery OConnorBoth William Faulkner and Flannery OConnor, major figures of contemporary American literature, were representative of Southern Renaissance in the United States. Faulkner wrote 19 long novels and more than 100 short stories, of which A Rose for Emily earned him a wide reputation. He is considered one of the most important Southern writers along with Mark Twain, Robert Penn Warren, Flannery OConnor, Truman Capote, Eudora Welty, and Tennessee Williams. His works often reveal the whole change of southern towns and cities, conflicts in changes of southern traditions and ethics in particular.“Sharp, penetrating humor, bizarre and often grotesque characters, situations and actions typify OConnors stories” (Magill 76), which makes her one of the major short story writers in the 20th century. OConnor wrote two novels and 32 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries. She was a Southern writer who often wrote in a Southern Gothic style and relied heavily on regional settings and grotesque characters. OConnors writing also reflected her own Roman Catholic faith, and frequently involves morality and ethics as the motif.1.2 Brief introduction of protagonists in Faulkners worksA Rose for Emily is one of Faulkners most anthologized stories. “Drawing on the tradition of Gothic Literature in America, particularly Southern Gothic, the story uses grotesque imagery and first-person-plural narration to explore a culture unable to cope with its own death and decay” (Schoenberg). Miss Emily Grierson, an alienated spinster living in the South in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, is the representation of the old southern traditions and values, and yet felt conflicted when she fell in love with Homer Barron, the very man who has brought to the town the northern innovation. Finally, after she was abandoned by Homer, she got him killed and slept just beside his skeleton for more than thirty years, which was only revealed to the public after Emilys death. To the towns people, Emily is a monument of the old values, living under the influence of her father for eternity.1.3 Brief Introduction of Protagonists in OConnors Works A Good Man Is Hard to Find is one of the most famous examples of Southern Gothic Literature. The grandmother is introduced trying to change a planned family trip to Florida with her son, Bailey and his family. It is the night before the trip, and grandmother is“seizing at every chance to change Baileys mind” (537). The grandmother is the central character of the story, and the family is rather a bland, generic family. At last, she was killed by Misfit. The family is a typical nuclear family of the fifties, whose members appear to be disconnected not only to each other, but also to any form of family values. One of Flannery OConnors most successful and frequently anthologized stories, Good Country People was published in her first collection of short stories, A Good Man Is Hard to Find, in 1955. Similar as many of her works, Good Country People addresses motifs of good versus evil, redemption achieved through an encounter with violence, and the foolishness of intellectual pretensions. The protagonist, Joy, has changed her name to Hulga only because it is the ugliest name in her mind. As a child in a hunting accident, Hulga has a wooden legher most valuable possession because it is a mark of her difference. She embraced this because she considers herself more intellectual than all of the “good country people” around herespecially her mother, their neighbors, and finally Manley Pointer, a Bible salesman. Manley steals her leg after seducing her, although it is Joy who intends to seduce Manley. 1.4 Importance of Women Images Novels and stories are composed of characters and settings. The images of figures carry out the great significance of themes and intentions of authors. Due to such reasons, in literary works, the studies on protagonists have been a usual way to trace the even slightest evidence, probe into the intentions of the authors, either due to their own favors, or under the influence of age and great events. Women, the special group of characters in literature, are sentimental, delicate, sometimes evil and hysteria, which can date back to the image of Eve in Biblethe image of a fool, and who needs redemption for the original sin. However, through centuries, the woman image has undergone an obvious change. Chapter TwoSIMILARITIES OF WOMEN IMAGES IN SHORT STORIES OF FAULKNER AND OCONNOR2.1 Frequent Usage of Indirect Depiction In Faulkners novels and stories, multiple perspectives and psychological analysis are the familiar methods, together with the time and temporal shifts. In A Rose for Emily, the subtle arrangement of time and space, the Gothic atmosphere and the psychological analysis are the very features that put the masterpiece subtle to understand. Faulkner doesnt set Emilys disposition through direct words. Instead, he uses her antagonists compromises in taxes, poison, mail service, her houses and appearance, and every detailan indirect wayto indicate Emilys disposition. Readers have to interpret the work through every slight sign and hint Faulkner has put in the novel, especially on Emily, such as the 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. Dialogues, conversations and monologues are rare in his work, while the description takes an overwhelming portion. (II: 278)OConnors work provides a bloody and violent situation. The usual pattern is the protagonists, often weak, twisted, having to face the sudden violence to be saved. Her work features bewilderment, unclearness and subtlety. At first glance, the grandmother seems to be “good”; Joy seems to have joy. Ironically, only through the analysis of the plot, their behaviors and their counterpartsMisfit and Manley, we may find the true color of them. 2.2 Description of Historical, Cultural and Value Changes William Faulkner and his world famous “Yoknapatawpha” system has revealed to the world with a success the whole generations of southern changes, ranging from custom and tradition to culture and system of values. In his several novels and short stories, there are dozens of figures living out of the limitation of one book. Faulkner took great care to develop a continuing cast of characters, families, landmarks, and folklore and to envelope all in a process of change over time. The Yoknapatawpha stories span more than a century and a half of history, from 18th century to the 1950s. After the Civil War, the north, representing the advanced and free economy, has impacted on the south, where plantation economy is dominant. The confederate quickly deteriorated without free labor to aid their farms and plantations. It is observable that Grierson family fell bit by bit: the declining fortune that can not allow Miss Emily to live decently, her gold chain with a tarnished gold head and the crack furniture where a faint dust rose sluggishly. We can even guess that her declining fortune was one of the reasons why she rejected to pay the taxes and give china lessons to children. A big family must have a growing population, while Emily is “the last Grierson” (III: 280). Also, her appearances and thoughts changed through time. changing Flannery OConnor is undoubtedly a main voice in Southern Literature. In actuality, scholars and critics, both home and abroad, believe that her writing style was under the great influence of William Faulkner. They have several points in common: about the similar setting of works, similar systems of values, similar ages and so on. On mentioning OConnor, death and redemption are always the first to come into readers mind. However, her position in Southern Literature, her local colors and her southern featuresmainly in the display of historical, cultural and value changescan never be neglected. The old grandmother always grumbles that “Children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else” (539), and “People are certainly not nice like they used to be” (542), which contains a change of spirit crisis. The grandmother and Joy are all different from the traditional ones, which displays the impact of feminism movement and time shift. Womens status has been improved. People do not see obedience as the most important feature in women. The settings are all small southern towns under the new concepts of the age, some reforms, changes, but still are the traditional ones where typical and similar citizens live.2.3 Existence of Religious InfluenceMany critics think that OConnor was not merely a writer, but a preacher of Roman Catholic. Violence and redemption all come from her religious faith on the original sin. She believes the salvation can only be received through the encounter with sudden violence physically. In her two short stories, her theme was that people are not good, for they lack proper faith. Grandmother is of no good due to her false moral superiority, and she needs redemption through the death. Joy is of no good due to her false intellectual superiority, and she got redemption through the realization of evil, which is represented by Manley. OConnors long-run sickness may cause her extreme faith, in which she believes one can only be saved through physical loss. Until then, the physical loss may turn out to be a sign of a white tulipforgiveness. In this religious concern, both the grandmother and Joy encounter a sudden violent action that makes them realize the true meaning of life, forgiven from the original sin. Compared with OConnor, Faulkners religion complex may seem to be subtle and unclear. However, in the southern states, especially in “Bible belt”, where religion has been deeply rooted, there lies no possibility that one can be of no religious belief. Faulkner is of no exception. So is the protagonistEmily. As the representation of post-war writers, his novels and stories are of multiple themes, which may never be understood fully. Some scholars may use religious concerns as a method to study his work and interpret themes.2.4 Southern Gothic HeroinesSouthern Gothicism is a literary tradition that came into life in the early twentieth century. It is rooted in the Gothic style, which had been popular in European literature for many centuries. “Gothic writers concocted wild, frightening scenarios in which mysterious secrets, supernatural occurrences, and characters extreme duress conspired to create a breathless reading experience” (SparkNotes Editors). Gothic style focused on the insane and grotesque, and the genre often featured certain set pieces and characters: drafty castles laced with cobwebs, secret passages, and frightened, wide-eyed heroines. OConnor sets the grandmother and Joy face bloody violence, inhumanity and humiliationall obvious features that a Southern Gothic heroine shares. The two stories can be in the genre, with insane and grotesque figures and violent plot.Faulkner, with his dense and multilayered prose, traditionally stands outside this group of practitioners. However, “A Rose for Emily” reveals the influence that Southern Gothicism had on his writing: “this particular story has a moody and forbidding atmosphere; a crumbling old mansion; and decay, putrefaction, and grotesquerie” (SparkNotes Editors). He has appropriated the image of the damsel in distress and transformed it into Emily, a psychologically damaged spinster. Her mental instability and necrophilia have made her an emblematic Southern Gothic heroine. 2.5 The Tragic Fates of Women FiguresBased on the works of William Faulkner, we can observe the tragic image of Faulkners female characters, taking Emily as an example, th