摘要
应该用二元对立论解读《献给艾米莉的玫瑰》中的生与死:(1)艾米莉的父亲剥夺了她追求幸福的权利;镇上人无形中强迫她作为过时的贵族的代言人,使她与世隔绝:因为这两点,她肉体上生存着,但文化上早已死亡:虽生犹死;(2)她的父亲早已去世,但依旧主宰着她的思想:所谓虽死犹生;(3)为了爱情而谋杀情人,她生的是肉体,道德上已死;巴雷恩肉体早已腐烂,但他活在艾米莉的爱中——虽死犹生;(4)托比像影子一样活着,对艾米莉谋杀一事知情不报,作为自然人活着的他在道义上早已死亡;(5)税收情节暴露了艾米莉对现实与过去的困惑,她生在现时中、活在过去里。小说通过对生与死的二元渲染使主题越来越深化。
A Rose to Emily should be interpreted in dualism of life and death. Under the manipulation of her father (who is dead in flesh but alive in soul) and under the town people's unrealistic expectation of her to uphold the gone-forever noblesse oblige (the two causes result in her isolation from the society), Emily exists but as a natural man though such flesh existence means but social death. For her murder of Barron, life melts in death: Barron's physical death is the basis of Emily's love (life) while her existence (life) is a veil of her moral death. Her rejection of taxation further indicates that she chooses to stay in the darkness of last night (past, death) rather than in today's sunshine (present, life), thus in life there is death and in death there is life.
