Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 17109201 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 2012. 1. 5 Life, self-direction, and the Pursuit of delight A Probe into the Character of Emily A Rose for Emily is a scant(p) story written by American author William Faulkner first publish in the April 30, 1930 issue of Forum.It describes the tragedy of a typical Confederate lady, take to the woods Emily, who is deeply victimized in her compositors case and mind by the effected system of the S prohibitedh and patriarchate thus even though she wants to fight, she legato fails to con campaign and deal with the changes caused by the shock of northerly industrialization tot eachy by herself and eventually leads to destruction and self-destruction on the way of pursue gaiety.This essay concentrates on exploring the character of Emily with the efforts she has do for her life and especially the reasons for her blow in fighting from the three aspects as Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, (the head-kn sustain dialect applied from the United States Declaration of Independence). 1. The Backup of Early Life As a descendent of the southern stodgy noble family, Emily was born in the environ handst full of the thought of feudalism and hierarchy which makes her acquire non only the attitude of arrogance and indifference to common people, and, most importantly, the robes of obedience to her gravel.Before her vex dies, he is the only one Emily could rely on in her family. Therefore, there should be no blame to her that she depended on her incur when she was still young, simply as most of us would depend on our p arents during our childhood and youth. However, the fact the she gets to be thirty and is still single reveals the unregularity of the dependence. Actually, it is no longer pure dependence on her generate. Instead, the dependence has substantial into over obedience which then is taken advantage of by her father to confine her completely under(a) the constrai nt of the old southern customs.The control is dear described by William Faulkner as the tableau, Miss Emily a subtle 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 patriarchate, clutching a horsewhip, acts as a tyrant. Its him who holds the Griersons always a little too high for what they in truth 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 luxuriant for her.In fact, in his opinion, none of the young men are quite good enough not for his daughter, simply for the old southern tradition and its dignity. He never regards Emily as an independent individual. On the contrary, he regards her as the tool to maintain their dignity in the customary system. However, Emily has been regarding her father as the self-colored backup of her life since she was born. Whats more, she has been in this province for more than thirty years. She has long been used to this dependence and even allows this assortment of dependence to entrance her strong desire for free life and heat. 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 end has also deprived all the hope 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 beginning of Emilys fighting for her own life, liberty and happiness. 2. Liberty Getting rid of her fathers control is just homogeneous releasing from a prison.After a long time of being sick, she is seen again wi th hair cut short and looks like a girl, which declares the beginning of her liberty. However, Faulkner describes her as resembling to those angels in colored church windowssort of tragical and serene. The word of tragic seems to have indicated the sad ending of Emilys life even though she has the chance to gain liberty. And the reason lies on Emilys wrong indication of liberty. From the description by Faulkner, by and by her fathers death, the character of Emily coming into court before the readers is still such an arrogant and indifferent person typically symbolizing the old tradition.It is clearly known by the readers that actually Emily never frees herself from the fetter of the conventional system even though she has gotten rid of her fathers control. However, Emily sees her liberty from a different angle. To her, liberty means to continue 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 generations demanding her taxes and rejects the newer generations attaching a mailbox.She still carries her head high enougheven when others all believe that she is fallen, because the way of sustenance she has been used to is just to maintain dignity as a good deal 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 feels relatively free. In contrast, the new world with all those changes caused by the shock of northern industrialization is where she will feel unsafe, offensive 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 outside after they get their battle cry from decades of imprisonment. Brooks even commits suicide and Red can never pea unles s asking for permission. And Emily has also been imprisoned for more than thirty years which has do 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 growing of the new world both in aterial and spiritual aspects. And her false 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 approximatelything that everyone is born with including Emily. That is the desire for happiness. Emily lives in her own old world but all alone. She earns liberty but lacks happiness. Therefore, when kor Barron shows up, she believes that he is the source of her happiness and makes up her mind to prehension the slight of hope.However, the chance of gaining happiness is ruined again by the battle between her old world and the shock of northern industrialization. Whats worse, in the long run she leads to the road of destruction and self-destruction by her extreme desire resulting from patriarchy and the old traditions severe oppression Homer 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 hat cocked and a cigar in his teeth, reins and whip in a yellow glove parkway in the glittering buggy on S unday afternoons. She even decides to link him by buying a complete outfit of mens clothing regardless of all the objects and conflicts.During this period, she has gradually become deeply confine 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 unsurmountable 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 morals of northern industrialization and the old southern convention. on a lower floor 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 drastic measures as killing Homer and let the body stay with her forever 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 obtain in the pursuit 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 northern industrialization.All of these negative factors lead to the final tragic destruction. Re ferences Olga W. Vickery. The Novels of William Faulkner A Critical idea 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 Xiao Minghan . . ,1997?