Plot Summary for “A Rose for Emily ”.doc
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1、Plot Summary for “A Rose for Emily ”This semester we learned A Rose for Emily on the class of English novel reading.It is a short story by American author William Faulkner first published in the April 30, 1930 issue of Forum.The story, told in five sections, opens in section one with an unnamed narr
2、ator describing the funeral of Miss Emily Grierson. (The narrator always refers to himself in collective pronouns; he is perceived as being the voice of the average citizen of the town of Jefferson.) He notes that while the men attend the funeral out of obligation, the women go primarily because no
3、one has been inside Emilys house for years. The narrator describes what was once a grand house “set on what had once been our most select street.” Emilys origins are aristocratic, but both her house and the neighborhood it is in have deteriorated. The narrator notes that, prior to her death, Emily h
4、ad been “a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town.” This is because Colonel Sartoris, the former mayor of the town, remitted Emilys taxes dating from the death of her father “on into perpetuity.” Apparently, Emilys father left her with nothing when he died. Colonel Sartoris invented a story exp
5、laining the remittance of Emilys taxes (it is the towns method of paying back a loan to her father) to save her from the embarrassment of accepting charity.The narrator uses this opportunity to segue into the first of several flashbacks in the story. The first incident he describes takes place appro
6、ximately a decade before Emilys death. A new generation of politicians takes over Jeffersons government. They are unmoved by Colonel Sartoriss grand gesture on Emilys behalf and they attempt to collect taxes from her. She ignores their notices and letters. Finally, the Board of Aldermen sends a depu
7、tation to discuss the situation with her. The men are led into a decrepit parlor by Emilys black manservant, Tobe. The first physical description of Emily is unflattering: she is “. . . a small, fat woman in black” who looks “bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that palli
8、d hue.” After the spokesman awkwardly explains the reason for their visit, Emily repeatedly insists that she has no taxes in Jefferson and tells the men to see Colonel Sartoris. The narrator notes that Colonel Sartoris has been dead at that point for almost ten years. She sends the men away from her
9、 house with nothing.Section two begins as the narrator segues into another flashback that takes place thirty years before the unsuccessful tax collection. In this episode, Emilys neighbors complain of an awful smell emanating from her home. The narrator reveals that Emily had a sweetheart who desert
10、ed her shortly before people began complaining about the smell. The ladies of the town attribute the stench to the poor housekeeping of Emilys manservant, Tobe. However, despite several complaints, Judge Stevens, the towns mayor during this era, is reluctant to do anything about it for fear of offen
11、ding Emily (“Dammit, sir. . . will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?”). This forces a small contingent of men to take action. Four of them sneak around Emilys house after midnight, sprinkling lime around her house and in her cellar. When they are done, they see that “. . . a window that
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