内容摘要
did not ask them to sit. She just stood in the door and listened quietly until the spokesman came to a stumbling halt. Then they could hear the invisible watch ticking at the end of the gold chain‖, ―ticking‖ is an onomatopoeic word. When the officials come to visit Emily, her attitude towards them is absolute indifferent with extreme pride, which makes the visitors so nervous and upset that they can even hear the ticking sound of Emily‘s invisible watch. Here ―ticking‖ foregrounds the embarrassing atmosphere at that moment. Onomatopoeic words can also be found in the sentence ―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.‘‖. ―Clop‖ is the sound of horses‘ hoof while running. When Emily and Homer are seen by other citizens, the repetition of ―clop‖ not only describes the sound of the houses‘ hoof, but also expresses citizens‘ responses to this matter—their shock, nervousness and antipathy.
Faulkner also uses a lot of sensible words to make sure the readers can see, smell, feel and touch what he would like to describe. This can be seen clearly in the description of Emily‘s house, such as ―It smelled of dust and disuse——a close, dank smell‖ and ―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‖. Emily symbolizes the past and her house also conveys a feeling of downfall, which is vividly presented by the author. In these sentences, the description of sun-ray, dust, and smells makes the reader‘s feelings sensitive enough to experience the horrible and dead atmosphere of the house.
Besides, the author employs lexical repetition in order to produce some certain effects. The most evident one is the repetition of ―poor Emily‖, which appears six times in the story. ―Poor Emily‖ is the comment from the citizens, and also the words from the author‘s bottom of heart showing great sympathy for her tragedy. While describing Emily‘s house, the word ―dust‖ is used several times to show her unwillingness to clean the house which may reflect her insistence to the past. Maybe the ―dust‖ can retain her father, her lover and her noble priority. While the city authorities are trying