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Southern Gothic Literature In A Rose For Emily By William Faulkner

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Not all of the literature is similar to each other; there’s one type of genre in which it brings a totally different impact on readers: The Southern Gothic Literature. One of the most famous pieces of Southern Gothic Literature is called ‘A Rose For Emily’. It was written by William Faulkner in 1870. The story itself was a fiction of roots in the Southern States after the end of American Civil War. The story told about Emily’s sheltered life including the tragedy between her and her manservant, Homer Barron. ‘A Rose For Emily’ confirmed to the conventions of Southern Gothic literature to disclose the deep-rooted values of South following the end of slavery. William Faulkner’s writing fits to this style of the genre. He is trying to show how the story takes place that disclosed an ambivalent condition of reinventing the southern society after the civil war.

Throughout the story, William Faulkner followed the convention of using decayed scenes/images to reveal the falling apart of Southern Society. The most symbolic image of this short story would be the house that Emily lived in. At the beginning of part 1, it introduces Emily’s house by ‘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.’ This quote makes a contact between Emily’s house to the context (beginning) of the story where almost 10 years that the town-people haven’t get inside to the house. It

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