A Comparative Study Of The Female Images In "A Rose For Emily" And "Regret For The Past"

Female images occupy an important place in the works of William Faulkner and Lu Xun.In Faulkner’s novels,many vivid images of southern women were created.Lu Xun also created various female images in the feudal society in his works.Since the 1960 s,with the rise of feminist criticism,the female images in Faulkner’s and Lu Xun’s novels have been the focus of literary criticism.In the contemporary society,the issue of gender equality is still worth discussing about both in the literary world and in real life.This study selects Emily from “A Rose for Emily” and Zijun from “Regret for the past” as the objects for a comparative study form the perspectives of feminist theory.“A Rose for Emily” is one of the classic stories of Faulkner and “Regret for the past”is Lu Xun’s only story which describes the love of young people.Although the two writers live and grow up in different countries with different cultural backgrounds,they have similar concerns for women,which makes their works flash with common feminist concern for the weaker sex.Moreover,the two novels are written in the same period of time and the female image Emily under Faulkner’s pen is surprisingly similar to Zijun in Lu Xun’s literary world.They are both victims of the patriarchal system.In the process of pursuing love,they dare to break the shackles of tradition,and fight hard to pursue true love.Their female consciousness as independent human beings is awakened to a certain extent though not completely.The two women’s awakening to their self-consciousness is inseparable from the social environment in which they live.The different cultural backgrounds of China and the United States create differences in their attitudes towards love and gender behaviors,and therefore,Emily and Zijun awaken to their self-hood in quite different ways.They both suffer the oppression imposed on them by the patriarchy of their world,and their attitudes towards love and marriage are basically similar though slightly different,while they both end in tragedy.From the perspective of feminism,this thesis,by means of the comparison of the social environment where Emily and Zijun grow up and the comparison of the Emily’s and Zijun’s love,presents the plight of women and reflects on the oppression imposed on women by the patriarchy.It points out that women must realize the independence in economy,get a good education and free themselves from the housework if they want to acquire equal family and social status like men.Emily kills her boyfriend for possession and lives with his corpse;Zijun commits suicide because of hopelessness.The tragedies of them arise from the fact that they do not insist on their self-pursuit of independent women,and influenced by traditional environments,they become vassals of the patriarchal society they rebel against,so their awakening is incomplete.