June 5, 2012
1002文學作品導讀 Final Paper示範版
以下範例，6/6上課時有點出各自的耍笨盲點，本屆請勿再犯，以免老師急怒攻心 :
- 黃小雯
The Heroine and her Antagonist: Necrophilia and Body in William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily"
Outline
I. Introduction: Why do I choose this topic? Why is it so important that we need to discuss it?
II. Describe Miss Emily's life: a. life when her father was alive b. life after her father passed away c. life after she met Barren Homer
III. What does Barren Homer mean to Miss Emily? a. Why is Homer so important to her? b. What kinds of love they possess?
IV. Why did Miss Emily keep his body company after Homer died? a. Miss Emily's loneliness
V. Conclusion
Necrophilia and Body: Miss Emily's loneliness in William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily"
Loneliness is the world's most silent and horrible thing that it comes secretly under your notice and once it attaches to you, you cannot get rid of it easily. In this story, although Miss Emily is the heroine, she merely said a word. All the things we know about her depend on the discussions of her neighbors. They said she was arrogant, but I view her arrogant as loneliness. It is such an agony to be totally alone when there is nothing we can give our heart to. How miserable is it to find yourself living in a world that you can't agree with and the world also not identify with you? The death of Emily's father made her helpless, however, in this situation, Homer Barron showed up, giving Miss Emily hope that she could be loved again. Homer Barron seemed the last thing that Miss Emily could rely on. After her father left her, she couldn't stand for another separation. Possessing his body seemed the only thing that she could do to ensure not being alone again. At least, there is finally a thing that she can depend on forever. It sounds sad, even a little bit creepy, but if it were not for Miss Emily's nearly insane behavior, we can't feel her vivid loneliness and know how much she love Homer.
Miss Emily lived from generation to generation, when a new generation came, she couldn't fit in well. She was still living in her father's generation in which she was noble, and people respected and praised her. So when she noticed that she wasn't as noble as she used to thought about herself, and people stop seeing her so special, she remained elegant, more inaccessible, avoiding people seeing her weakness. In addition, as her father used to tell her that she deserved a better man, she lost her first lover. Maybe he is the one of her destiny, the one who she would probably spend the rest of life with. When Miss Emily lost him, she probably convinced herself that she would found a better man as her father said, and she was waiting and waiting for someone who was "good enough" for her. It turns out that there was no such a guy. Her dream eventually failed. Moreover, the last man of her life was not the right man that she had expected. Maybe she knew that from the beginning, she just couldn't face her failure especially when people all focused on them. The public stress was too strong that she couldn't help but ignoring all the facts that she and Homer were not matched, even though there was rumor that Homer loved men. How can Miss Emily admit that a noble woman like her would fall in love with a man who is homosexual? Not for her and not for anyone in that time would accept that. So when Emily fails her own expectation as well as the anticipation of her father's generation, she cannot do anything but hiding the living proof of her failure, the corpse of Homer Barron.
When Miss Emily's father was alive, she was limited to be who her father wanted her to be; therefore, she couldn't be herself, and she even couldn't be with the one she loved. Although life under her father's awesome, she was not free, according to her father's honor, everyone respected Miss Emily. At that time, her father was everything to her, she seemed to live for her father, being her father's good girl and giving up everything because of him. After her father passed away, the one that always made her proud was no longer there to protect and lead her, she was alone with no lover, no families, and no friends around her. Emily was totally lost in her life. No one really knew Miss Emily: one of the reasons may be Emily's isolation of not wanting to have close relationship with her neighbor because of her status. Another is the attitude of her neighbors. We can see the neighbors talking things about her, showing their concern to her, but are all these care out of only concern? I doubt that. To some of these neighbors, Emily was so arrogant and mysterious that they probably wanted to see what would happen to this arrogant girl. Out of concern and a little bit more of curiosity, they gossiped about her and viewed her life as a living drama, wanting to know what would happen next. I believe that Miss Emily can feel the differences between true care and curiosity, and she absolutely knew how they thought about her. That's why she would do her best to keep her pride of being a Grierson and showing people that she would not be knock out, and would rather endure her loneliness than to seek for dependency of her neighbors. Finally, a man from other place, a totally new man for Emily who knew nothing happened before in the town, Homer Barron, would be her last hope.
Homer Barron's appearance seemed to be a turning point of Emily's life, As people commented about their relationship, "Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer. " Based on Emily's status, no one would believe that she would accept a man like Homer whose status is far inferior to her. As everyone, including Miss Emily's father and herself, anticipate that she should marry someone well matched, it was a quite shock to them at first that Emily took their relationship so serious; after all, the reason why Emily's first lover was away would probably have a little bit relation to the status problem. People kept saying" poor Emily. " Yes, Emily was poor, she gave up her opportunity to meet good man when she was young and confident because of her father. Now she had to suffer endless loneliness and the only one she could blame on was gone. The fear of being alone can change one person's value. Of course Emily knew that Homer's status was not as good as hers, but maybe she just realized that she got no choice but to grasp the opportunity to escape from her loneliness. Or after all the misery she had been through, she was too despair and tired to believe in eternal love, and she was just looking for someone who could spend the rest of her life with. Or that was because of Homer that she realized that true love is beyond all the superficial things, it just depends on our heart. At least she would probably think that way at first. There are many possible reasons why Homer died, maybe he got very ill and died, or maybe Miss Emily killed him. No matter what the real reason is, the fact that Miss Emily kept his body company made all the reasons less important. Every important person in Emily's life was gone one by one and left poor Emily alone to suffer for the pain. She couldn't let her first lover stay with her, and she failed to keep her father's body from being buried. This time, she wouldn't let anyone take away her lover from her again. She needed Homer, for every reason, through any way; she just needed him to be along with her. Keeping his corpse was the ultimate way to make sure that she was not going to be alone again, at least there was a part of him would always be there with her. From the irony-gray hair and a pillow with head-shaped indentation, we can tell that Miss Emily was sleeping beside him, and from the embrace pose of the body, we can feel the love that Miss Emily possessed was beyond life and dead. She embraced him to show her love for him would not be destroyed even though there was just a body that he left for her, and she was embraced by him to be consoled her loneliness and agony. In the end, Miss Emily was not alone anymore, she finally found someone to spend the rest of her life with.
We have all seen how tragic Miss Emily's life was, a woman who wanted nothing just a simple love, a true love. However, once beautiful and perfect Emily was derived of her right to love by her father. From then on, Emily's definition of love of was changed. What's more, the sad and startling news of the death of Miss Emily's father put Emily into great despair. She became weird and more isolated from then on. Actually, Miss Emily was just a normal woman looking for her love, but eventually, she gain nothing but a cold body. What caused Miss Emily's tragic was the whole generation. People expected Emily to married a perfect man, but what is the definition of perfect? The quest of perfection keeps Miss Emily waiting and waiting until she realized that she couldn't find one anymore. With everyone's anticipation, her pressure was expectable. Even when she fell in love with someone just because he is not as perfect as they expected, people call her "pool Emily." I believe that Emily appreciated him as much as she loved him. If it were not for Homer, she would have no one to let her know that she could be loved again. She kept his body for the representation of her eternal love to him, and claimed that she would not be alone anymore. People would comment that she is crazy and poor, but by doing this, Miss Emily's heart would be filled with satisfaction and love, I do feel happy for her. Even though people all view her as an insane, she found her happiness eventually. Maybe that's the way people do not agree with, but we cannot deny from the entire clue in the room, Miss Emily was happy and that's the most important thing we should care about.
WORKS CITED
Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily" in These Thirteen: Stories by William Faulkner.
New York: Cape, 1931, 167-82.
2. 陳莎拉
Characterization of Gurov in Anton Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Dog”
Outline
I. Introduction
a. Briefly paraphrase the plot of the fiction
b. Hypothesis: Gurov as the protagonist could influence the story greatly so it’s important to take a close look on his characterization
c. The motives of writing this subject
II. Analysis of the outward part of Gurov
a. physical appearance and surroundings, including growing background and family members
b. significant actions
c. personal traits could be concluded from information mentioned above
III. Gurov’s thoughts and aspects of Anna and his wife toward him
a. Gurov’s thought
b. Anna Sergeyevna’s comment and aspect to him
c. his wife’s aspect to him
IV. How he himself influences his relationship with Anna
a. when they are both in Yalta
b. after they are separated and be together again
V. Conclusion
Characterization of Gurov in Anton Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Dog”
As one of Russian writer, Anton Chekhov’s, most famous short stories, “The Lady with the Dog” is a fiction of two lovers, Dmitri Dmitritch Gurov and Anna Sergeyevan, who carry on an love affair while both are married to other people. Gurov, as the protagonist of this fiction, any of his actions, motivations, thoughts as well as others’ comments on him could easily influence the development of the whole story. As a result, I consider it essential to take a deeper insight in him. As to my motives to discuss this topic, as mentioned above, his is the protagonist of this story; therefore, he tends to earn more attention from me. Secondly, I am quite interested in the reason why he treats Anna so differently compared to other ladies he meets before and eager to analyze it from the aspect of Gurov’s characteristics. Last, since this story mainly focuses on the relationship between Gurov and Anna, it is necessary to take a close look on Gurov. The three reasons mentioned above are my motives to choose this topic for discussion.
To take a full inspection on Gurov, first of all, we should have a close look on his physical appearance and surroundings, including his family members, his growing background and so forth. Gurov is a Moscow born man who is under forty but already has one daughter and two sons, all are at the age of school. He got married to a woman whom is much elder than him while he was a sophomore student. Therefore, he is afraid of her and did not like to be at home. Under such situation, Gurov has begun being unfaithful to his wife for a long time. As to his growing background, he has taken a degree in Arts and trained to be an opera-singer which he gives up and become a banker.
The following dimension worth discussing on Gurov is his actions. Living in Yalta for a fortnight, he starts to feel boring and gains interests in new arrivals; therefore, he sits in the pavilion to take a look on the notable things arriving at the dock. By this action, he get the first glance at “the lady with the dog”, Anna Sergeyevan. After confirming that Anna comes to Yalta all along, Gurvo makes acquaintance to Anna actively through the Pomeranian while dining in gardens. Such action let him have a chance to know deeper about Anna, not just like others to view her only as a new arrivals as other and soon forget her existence. Last but not least, the most significant action of Gurvo is that he decides to leave Moscow to fetch Anna in S-. This action is the turning point and climax of this story since such action change the life of Gurov and Anna forever because the two might never meet again and preserve each other as a precious memory in mind if Gurov doesn’t take this action on impulse. This action alters and changes intensively both of their life.
Due to the personal facts mentioned above, we can figure out some of Gurov’s personal traits. From the beginning, he is a young man owns a stable life and tend not to like to be bounded by those he has already owned, for instance his family and Moscow, the place he lives, and even the training he has received to become a opera-singer. As a result, he is unfaithful to his wife for a long time and always doesn’t want to be restricted by anything. In short, we can conclude that he is a person need total freedom and generally is not responsible for anything. In addition, as we know that Gurov leaves to S- to fetch Anna and usually positively to learn more of new arrivals such as Anna, we can draw a conclusion that he is positively to know novel things and as soon as he reaches it, he will do his best to preserve it as long as he still owns affections to her.
After analyzing the basic facts of Gurov, it is as significant to make inspections on his thoughts and others’, including his wife and Anna, aspects toward him. Gurov himself always considers women as a lower race compares to men but meanwhile feel more comfortable and free to get along with them since he is quite awkward in men’s society and would become cold and uncommunicative. In other words, he is excluded at some degree from men’s society. This phenomenon is the main factor why he would have such love affair with Anna since he could not get respect and admire which he thinks he deserves for the community of men. But on the other hand, though he is somehow isolated from the community of men, he still works hard to get involved into it. For instance, he read three newspapers a day but declares not even read one. Furthermore, he is longing to go to clubs and parties to play cards with those whom called as gentlemen, including lawyers, artists and professors. It indicates that he is quite contradicted in his opinion toward his relationship with men and women.
From the aspect of Anna, Gurov is a charming and passionate person since they together own a delightful and impressing vacation. She certainly falls deeply in love with Gurov and views him as her ideal lover since she married so young and doesn’t have opportunity to see the broad world. Additionally, she believes that Gurov is the person who can give her a renewed life and could live as she expected with her, which has long been her dream. On contrary, she also considers that Gurov would despise her for that she cannot live herself and being influenced intensively but involuntarily by her husband, whom is called flunkey by her. Due to this reason, she is often in insecurity, afraid that Gurov will despise and desert her soon.
Gurov’s wife, as the spouse of him, would probably own a definitely contrasting idea with Anna. According to their conversations and interactions, it is not difficult to discover that she really treats Gurov like a family member rather than a lover for that all the topics they concerned are related to family affairs. Also, she always pronounced Gurov’s name in a wrong way. From an aspect is that, as her husband considers, she is unintelligent and not able to read her husband’s name right. But when viewing on the other aspect, she may just view him as his beloved family and doesn’t pay much attention to what is so superficial with comparison to her love and respect to him.
In “The Lady with the Dog”, the love affair of Gurov and Anna is the main storyline; therefore, it is inevitable to focus on the relationship between them. As mentioned above, Gurov is a curious and active person who always interests in his surroundings. Such personality gives Gurov a shot to have a closer relationship with Anna. After knowing each other’s existence when dining in the garden, they soon fall in love passionately and go out everyday to enjoy each other’s companion. Though Gurov is sometime upset by Anna’s moaning and groaning, he is still attracted by her deeply because his interest in her does not yet vanish. But when Anna has to go back to S- due to her husband’s requirement, their relationship suddenly comes to an abrupt end and after seeing Anna off, Gurov decides to treat her like other women he met before, as a treasure in mind due to his personality of liking the new and loathing the old. This personal trait of him accelerates the close of their relationship.
After Anna leaves resort Yalta, both of them go back to the bound of marriage and normal life. But deep in mind, they really miss each other, especially Gurov, whom tries hard to erase Anna from his mind but in vain. Therefore, he decides to meet Anna again after living stably in Moscow for a couple of days. This decision of Gurov alters the end of the story because if Gurov does not take this action, they will only become strangers in the near future. With regard to how Gurov himself influences their relationship after they again becoming lovers, it is that when conquered by the difficulties they have to face, he is kind of tired of Anna’s cowardice. Such reaction from him brings Anna severe insecurity and therefore become more fragile when faced with those problems that would be necessarily met and have to be solved by an unfaithful lovers, just like them. Moreover, since Gurov only tries to modify himself as a gentleman who has ability to conquer any problems, he cannot actually provide a proper way to solve difficulties. Lack of ability to get rid of the inevitably obscures before them, it ids predicable that Gurov and Anna might not have a fairy tale like ending as their relationship come to an end.
After analyzing so many dimensions of Gurov, we can figure out that, as a protagonist, every facts, actions and thoughts of him could cause a big change to the plot of the story. Through those findings, we discover that Gurov is a man who is somewhat irresponsible and lack of ability but also curious and active to have contact with novel things. Only when he has all these personalities could make the fiction develops in such way and close with such ending. Beside, the aspects others own toward him are also a significant element of the development of the fiction for that if any of them change the aspect of Gurov slightly, the fiction maybe become a totally different version. To sum up, the characterization of Gurov could have a great influence on the content of “The Lady with the Dog.”
