Gothic Elements In Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

1136 Words3 Pages

Gothic can be defined as “noting or pertaining to a style of literature characterized by a gloomy setting, grotesque, mysterious, or violent events, and an atmosphere of degeneration and decay.” (Dictionary.com). In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” the author uses many gothic elements to contribute to the overall theme of this incongruous short story. More specifically, Faulkner uses Southern Gothic as the key literary device with themes such as love, death and murder. Southern Gothic is a subgenre of Gothic fiction in American literature that takes place solely in the American South. Faulkner’s work uses these dramatic elements to highlight the foremost individual’s struggle against a domineering society that is undergoing rapid change. …show more content…

Jefferson is at a crossroads, embracing a contemporary, more profitable future while still suspended on the edge of the past, from the worn magnificence of the Grierson home to the town cemetery where nameless Civil War soldiers have been laid to rest. Emily herself is a tradition, persistently staying the same over the years in spite of many deviations in her town. She is in many ways a diverse blessing. As a living memorial to the past, she embodies the customs that people wish to admire and honor; however, she is also a “a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” and utterly cut off from the outside world, harboring unconventionalities that others cannot understand (Faulkner, 3). Emily lives in an eternal emptiness and world of her own making. Refusing to “let them fasten the metal numbers above her door and attach a mailbox to it” when the town receives modern mail service, she is out of touch with the reality that constantly threatens to break through her carefully sealed perimeters (Faulkner, 51). “Garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated’ the historical homes (Faulkner, 2). The aldermen try to break with the unsanctioned arrangement about taxes once forgotten between Colonel Sartoris and Emily. This new and younger group of leaders brings in Homer’s business to pave the sidewalks. Although Jefferson still respects old-style notions of integrity and status, the narrator is perilous of the old men in their Confederate uniforms who gather for Emily’s interment. For them time is comparative. The past is not a weak spark but an ever-present, flawless empire. Emily’s morbid bridal chamber is an attempt to stop time and avoid change, although doing so comes at the expense of human

Open Document