Dark Romanticism In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

This paper intends to show that William Faulkner in "A Rose for Emily" freely incorporates elements of dark romanticism, naturalism, and realism into his “own air of reality,” that effectively piques the interest and curiosity of the reader throughout the story. By maximizing this privilege of execution, it manages to meet the standards of Henry James in “The Art of Fiction,” in return of being able to reveal the most deep-seated temperaments of man in the broadest sense of reality. “A Rose for Emily” highly exhibits elements of dark romanticism, with its use of repetitive images and symbols throughout (e.g. the expression of decay and disuse to parallel the setting with the psyche of Emily). Along with it, Emily Grierson also evidently spends her life in detachment from others, thus, she is often misinterpreted by the townspeople, who only regarded her as the woman who lead such tragic and pitiful life, whereas she is actually quite drawn to death in her own conscious will, given that she had associated on how death itself could capture the essence of her departed father. Afraid to lose the subject of her dependency again, Emily slowly alters herself in the form of death – mainly signified by living in decay and disuse, in hopes that, like as death could consume one’s spirit in the end, she will also be able to preserve the essence of someone that is dear to her. It is being emphasized further in the ending, as it is being depicted how Emily’s attachment for her lover can