Gothic Elements In 'A Rose For Emily And The Tell-Tale Heart'

Gothic Elements in Writing
Any short story with a gloomy, evil feeling uses Gothic elements throughout the piece. Gothic elements create a thrilling mystery for the reader to take part in. Examples include: flickering lights, strange noises, isolated setting, reliance on the supernatural, and dark villains. The genre of Gothic is associated with the mystery of the unknown and dark side of things. Gothic elements can also be mystery, darkness, haunted houses, death, and a powerful love/romance. The three short stories: “A Rose for Emily,” “The Minister’s Black Veil,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” use Gothic elements.

The first story that uses Gothic elements is “A Rose for Emily.” At the very beginning of the short story, the narrator tells about a funeral he or she attended. “When Miss Emily Grierson died, the whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see inside of her house…” (Paragraph 1). This is an example of death being used as a Gothic element. William Faulkner chose the setting of a small, isolated town in Mississippi. The reader has an image of a

The townspeople gossip and whisper as to why their reverend wears the black veil. An old woman of the church says, “He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face” (Hawthorne). As the reverend gave a sermon, the tone of the congregation was solemn due to the black veil. Mystery surrounds the reverend everywhere he goes. Hooper’s lover, Elizabeth, abandons him due to the veil. On his deathbed, Reverend Hooper remains strong in his will to wear the veil. Hooper wore the black veil as an outward sign of his inward secret sins. Hawthorne uses Gothic elements to show the contrast of good and evil, and that sin can be a powerful