Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

? ? ? ? ?????????? ???? ? ? ????? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 17109201 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 2012. 1. 5 emotional state, Liberty, and the seeking of Happiness A Probe into the Character of Emily A Rose for Emily is a short story written by Ameri apprize author William Faulkner head start published in the April 30, 1930 issue of Forum.It describes the tragedy of a typical gray lady, recede Emily, who is late victimized in her reputation and manpowertality by the established governing body of the South and patriarchate thus in time though she wants to fight, she still fails to confront and deal with the changes cause by the lash of northerly industrialization all by herself and finally leads to destruction and self-destruction on the representation of pursuing happiness.This essay concentrates on exploring the component of Emily with the efforts she has made for her heart and in particular the reasons for her failure in fighting from the three aspects as Life, Liberty, a nd the Pursuit of Happiness, (the well-known(a) phrase applied from the United States Declaration of In numerateence). 1. The Backup of Early Life As a descendent of the Confederate conventional noble family, Emily was born(p) in the environ manpowert full of the thought of feudalism and hierarchy which makes her succeed not only the attitude of arrogance and indifference to common people, but, near importantly, the habit of obedience to her arrive.Before her arrest dies, he is the only star Emily could cuss on in her family. Therefore, there should be no blame to her t get into she depended on her father when she was still three-year- nonagenarian, ripe as most of us would depend on our parents during our childhood and youth. However, the fact the she make waters to be thirty and is still adept reveals the abnormality of the addiction. Actually, it is no longer pure dependence on her father. Instead, the dependence has developed into over obedience which therefore i s bringn advantage of by her father to control her completely under the bashfulness of the experienced southern tradition.The control is just described by William Faulkner 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. The father, a typical symbol of patriarchy, clutching a horsewhip, acts as a tyrant. Its him who holds the Griersons al focusings a little too mettlesome for what they really are and uses his horsewhip, which exactly symbolizes patriarchy, to beat off all of the young men who come to make proposals to his daughter, Miss Emily, believing that no one is quite good decent for her.In fact, in his opinion, none of the young men are quite good enough not for his daughter, but for the old southern tradition and its dignity. He neer regards Emily as an independent individual. On the contrary, he reg ards her as the tool to maintain their dignity in the conventional system. However, Emily has been regarding her father as the whole backup of her vivification since she was born. Whats more, she has been in this state for more than thirty eld. She has long been used to this dependence and tied(p) allows this kind of dependence to conquer her strong liking for free purport and recognize. To her, this dependence is just her whole life.Therefore, when her father dies, she cannot accept the fact because her father is her whole dependence and the dependence is just her whole life. Her fathers death has also deprived all the fancy of her life. Her father and the old tradition her father represents are the root of Emilys tragedy thus, her fathers death should be regarded as the chance for Emily to free herself from the constraint of the conventional system. Its the begin of Emilys fighting for her own life, indecorum and happiness. 2. Liberty Getting resign of her fathers control is just like releasing from a prison.After a long time of universe sick, she is seen again with hair cut short and looks like a girl, which declares the beginning of her shore leave. However, Faulkner describes her as resembling to those angels in colored church windowssort of tragic and serene. The vocalize of tragic seems to prolong indicated the sad ending of Emilys life stock-still though she has the chance to gain freedom. And the reason lies on Emilys misuse interpretation of liberty. From the description by Faulkner, after her fathers death, the character of Emily appearing before the readers is still such(prenominal) an arrogant and indifferent person typically symbolizing the old tradition.It is clearly known by the readers that rattling Emily never frees herself from the fetter of the conventional system until now though she has gotten rid of her fathers control. However, Emily sees her liberty from a different angle. To her, liberty performer to live in a way she has long been used to at her own will. Since her father died, nobody and nothing can ever take her under control any more. Therefore, she ignores all the others denouncing the smell of her house, vanquishes the new multiplications demanding her taxes and rejects the newer generations attaching a mailbox.She still carries her head juicy enough correct when others all believe that she is fallen, because the way of living she has been used to is just to maintain dignity as much as she can in the environment of the old southern tradition. She refuses to free herself from the conventional system because its the very place she aromas relatively free. In contrast, the new world with all those changes caused by the shock of northern industrialization is where she will feel unsafe, uneasy and uncomfortable.Similarly in the film The Shawshank redemption, the two people, the old log, Brooks, and one of the protagonists, Red, have much difficulty in adjusting themselves to the life ou tside after they get their parole from decades of gyves. Brooks even commits suicide and Red can never pea unless asking for permission. And Emily has also been imprisoned for more than thirty years which has made her long ago assimilated by the old tradition. Emily has made efforts for her life and liberty after her fathers death. Unfortunately, she interprets her liberty in the way which is against the development of the new world both in aterial and spiritual aspects. And her morose interpretation is still due to the over thirty years imprisonment of patriarchy and the conventional system of the South. 3. The Pursuit of Happiness Even though the living style has been assimilated by the convention, there is still something that everyone is born with including Emily. That is the thirst for happiness. Emily lives in her own old world but all alone. She earns liberty but lacks happiness. Therefore, when bulls eye Barron shows up, she believes that he is the source of her happines s and makes up her mind to grasping the slight of hope.However, the chance of gaining happiness is ruined again by the conflict between her old world and the shock of northern industrialization. Whats worse, finally she leads to the road of destruction and self-destruction by her extreme desire resulting from patriarchy and the old traditions severe oppression mark Barron, a Yankee, comes from the north and symbolizes the northern industrialization, which is definitely against the old tradition and even some basic principles of Emilys own old world such as the feature of dignity. But on the other side, he seems to Emily the hope for her happiness.As a woman oppressed by spiritual loneliness for such a long time, the desire for love and happiness is strong enough to for Emily to conquer the continual restraint of conventional hierarchical thought. As a result, she goes out of the old house, which symbolizes the convention, with her head high and together with Homer Barron with his h at cocked and a cigar in his teeth, reins and whip in a yellow hand driving in the glittering buggy on Sunday afternoons. She even decides to marry him by buying a complete outfit of mens clothing regardless of all the objects and conflicts.During this period, she has gradually become deeply trapped in the love and happiness with Homer Barron. She has been oppressed by patriarchy and the southern convention for more than thirty years, and now the love she is experiencing is so unique and incomparable that it has become the whole happiness of her life and that it is impossible for her to let it go. If Homer Barron isnt going to leave her, then the love and happiness will certainly continue. However, as the symbol of northern industrialization, Homer Barron holds a completely opposite attitude towards the relationship with Miss Emily.He just regards it as a pure way of entertainment without any responsibility, which is a sharp conflict between not only Homer and Emily, but also the m orals of northern industrialization and the old southern convention. Under the pressure of the conflicts and the long-term victimization by patriarchy and the convention, Emilys character and mind has been completely deformed. In the end, to prevent the happiness from disappearing, Emily takes forceful bills as killing Homer and let the body stay with her eternally so that her love and happiness will also never leave.This measure finally destroys her whole life and leaves her a complete tragedy as well as Homer Barron. In this extraordinary short story, the character of Emily William Faulkner created has made some efforts to earn her own life and liberty and even persist in the credit line of happiness. However, her life is based on patriarchy and the conventional system of the South for more than 30 years the liberty she goes after is still trapped in the old tradition and her pursuit of happiness comes across the conflicts between the southern old tradition and the shock of nor thern industrialization.All of these negative factors lead to the final tragic destruction. References Olga W. Vickery. The Novels of William Faulkner A full of life Appraisal M. Baton Rouge Louisiana State University Press, 1964?? Fang Yigui ??? . ??????????????? J. ???????????? ,2007?? 1?? Liu Aiying ??? . ???????? J. ?????????? ,1998?? 2?? Liu Zhuo ?? & Peng Changliu ??? . ???? ??????? J. ???????? ,2004?? 5?? Wang Minqin ??? . ?<???????? >?????? J. ????? ,2002?? 2? ,? 66-69?? 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