Southern Gothic Literature In Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

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Faulkner is one of the most celebrated writers in American literature usually and southern literature specifically. His first published Story “A rose for Emily”, is one of the most famous that an American has written. Faulkner captured Southern Gothic in this short story by giving the story a moody and forbidding atmosphere. “A Rose for Emily” depicts southern gothic literature through the characters, the setting, and the mysteries and secrets. The First thing that makes this story southern gothic literature is the characters. Miss Emily was one of the main character is this short story she is southern gothic just by having a servant who was African American named Tobe because only in the old southern times had slaves. Another thing that …show more content…

Starting with Miss Emily’s decaying house "It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies", "lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps" (451) The house is also southern gothic because it was passed down to Miss Emily by a long line of family members who had died and left it to her. It was an old white large house looked almost like a plantation type house. Another thing about the setting that helps make this story southern gothic is the time period. You can tell it southern gothic because Miss Emily is the last of her long line of family who’s lived in that town, now she is all alone without her father. The tax collector is also southern gothic because you don’t see those today they had people who were tax collectors that would go door to door back then that’s what makes the tax collector southern gothic. Another thing that is southern gothic is the scenes, Faulkner sets the scenes in a way that helped the story become more southern gothic by giving it an eerie mysterious atmosphere. He went into detail about how things looked and at how he described things in the