【正文】 nes .................................................................................. 6 The Tragic Fates of Women Figures ................................................................. 7 Chapter Three DIFFERENCES OF WOMEN IMAGES IN SHORT STORIES OF FAULKNER AND O’CONNOR............................................................................. 9 The Characteristics of Women Images—Traditional Ones Verses New ones .. 9 The Religious Element and the Application of Gothicism .............................. 11 Reasons That Make Females Tragic ................................................................ 12 A Rose for Emily—faith in tradition ........................................................ 12 A Good Man Is Hard to Find—faith in moral ......................................... 12 Good Country People —faith in knowledge ........................................... 12 Chapter Four POSSIBLE REASONS ON FAULKNER AND O’CONNOR’S DIFFERENT DECIPTION ON WOMEN IMAGES ................................................ 15 Difference of Personal Experiences of Faulkner and O?Connor ..................... 15 Difference of the Background on Stories......................................................... 15 Different Angles of A Male Writer And A Female One ................................. 16 Chapter Five THE BRIEF CONCLUSION ............................................................ 18 WORKS CITED............................................................................................................ 19 1 Chapter One INTRODUCTION Brief Introduction of William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor Both William Faulkner and Flannery O?Connor, major figures of contemporary American literature, were representative of Southern Renaissance in the United States. Faulkner wrote 19 long novels and more than 100 short stories, of which A Rose for Emily earned him a wide reputation. He is considered one of the most important Southern writers along with Mark Twain, Robert Penn Warren, Flannery O39。Connor, Truman Capote, Eudora Welty, and Tennessee Williams. His works often reveal the whole change of southern towns and cities, conflicts in changes of southern traditions and ethics in particular. “Sharp, perating humor, bizarre and often grotesque characters, situations and actions typify O?Connor?s stories” (Magill 76), which makes her one of the major short story writers in the 20th century. O39。Connor wrote two novels and 32 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and mentaries. She was a Southern writer who often wrote in a Southern Gothic style and relied heavily on regional settings and grotesque characters. O39。Connor39。s writing also reflected her own Roman Catholic faith, and frequently involves morality and ethics as the motif. Brief introduction of protagonists in Faulkner’s works A Rose for Emily is one of Faulkner39。s most anthologized stories. “Drawing on the tradition of Gothic Literature in America, particularly Southern Gothic, the story uses grotesque imagery and firstpersonplural narration to explore a culture unable to cope with its own death and decay” (Schoenberg). Miss Emily Grierson, an alienated spinster living in the South in the late nieenth or early twentieth century, is the representation of the old southern traditions and values, and yet felt conflicted when she 2 fell in love with Homer Barron, the very man who has brought to the town the northern innovation. Finally, after she was abandoned by Homer, she got him killed and slept just beside his skeleton for more than thirty years, which was only revealed to the public after Emily?s death. To the town?s people, Emily is a monument of the old values, living under the influence of her father for eternity. Brief Introduction of Protagonists in O’Connor’s Works A Good Man Is Hard to Find is one of the most famous examples of Southern Gothic Literature. The grandmother is introduced trying to change a planned family trip to Florida with her son, Bailey and his family. It is the night before the trip, and grandmother is“seizing at every chance to change Bailey?s mind” (537). The grandmother is the central character of the story, and the family is rather a bland, generic family. At last, she was killed by Misfit. The family is a typical nuclear family of the fifties, whose members appear to be disconnected not only to each other, but also to any form of family values. One of Flannery O?Connor?s most successful and frequently anthologized stories, Good Country People was published in her first collection of short stories, A Good Man Is Hard to Find, in 1955. Similar as many of her works, Good Country People addresses motifs of good versus evil, redemption achieved through an encounter with violence, and the foolishness of intellectual pretensions. The protagonist, Joy, has changed her name to Hulga only because it is the ugliest name in her mind. As a child in a hunting accident, Hulga has a wooden leg—her most valuable possession because it is a mark of her difference. She embraced this because she considers herself more intellectual than all of the “good country people” around her—especially her mother, their neighbors, and finally Manley Pointer, a Bible salesman. Manley steals her leg after seducing her, although it is Joy who intends to seduce Manley. Importance of Women Images Novels and stories are posed of characters and settings. The images of figures carry out the great significance of themes and intentions of authors. Due to such reasons, 3 in literary works, the studies on protagonists have been a usual way to trace the even slightest evidence, probe into the intentions of the authors, either due to their own favors, or under the influence of age and great events. Women, the special group of characters in literature,