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.