...Miss Emily “The past is never dead, it’s not even past.” In his story “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner personifies this quote. William Faulkner is one of the most influential writers in southern literature, if not U.S. history. He spent most of his time in his home state of Mississippi in the northern counties of Lafayette, Holly Springs, and Marshall County which play a major role in his literature. Almost every book or short story he writes is set in Yoknapatawpha County, which some believe is based on his home county of Lafayette, which is where he spent most of his life. Because of this most of his books have a southern aspect of them and represent to some extent southern culture and hospitality. One of his stories with the most success is “A Rose For Emily.” "A Rose for Emily" is a gothic tale set in the American south. To first understand William Faulkner and his stories, one must understand what the term “Gothic” means. Gothic isn't just a term used in literature but in architecture, and even in art. Generally something is labeled “Gothic” when it is something that inspires dread in you, or a lesser sense or being. In its literal sense in literature it means a story that uses themes like gloom, the grotesque, and the supernatural. It is also usually based in a dark or dreary scene. In the story “A Rose for Emily” it encompasses all three of these themes and settings. First lets look at the setting in how it relates to the Gothic characteristics...
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...the Gothic elements of “A Rose for Emily” Gothic can be defined as “literature dealing with the strange, mysterious, and supernatural designed to invoke suspense and terror in the reader.” (Pickering, 2004, p. 1425) Gothic literature generally presents the same themes and motifs: love lost, hidden secrets, love and death hand in hand, beauty, youth, grotesque characters, macabre eroticism, etc. Gothic literature also explores taboo subjects such as murder, suicide and incest. “A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner, is representative of the Southern Gothic stories since the themes of love lost, death, and murder are present in it. There are many elements that hint at the Gothic nature of the story: Emily’s description, her house, the poison she bought, and finally the ending. Emily, the protagonist, used to be the perfect young and rich lady living with her father, but now she is an old woman living alone in her crumbling house. However, the inhabitants of the city she where she lives respect her. Throughout the story, the author describes her as being weird and lonely. “She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, looked like two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough.” She is described as a living death. This description creates suspense for the readers. Then, later on in the story, Emily denies her father’s death and refuses to let people come in her house...
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...Gothic Elements Gothic can be defined as literature written to conduct “frightening, feral scenarios in which mysterious secrets, extreme isolation, grotesque images, and characters’ duress combine to create a dark and horrid image for its bold readers” (Renaldo 2). Generally presenting the same themes and tropes, Gothic literature discusses madness, isolation, disease, nightmares, and death. Although in some stories, it also explores unmentionable topics such as murder, suicide, and incest. William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a story of a spinster woman who has killed her lover and lain for years beside his decaying body. The story deals with a murder caused by possessive love, and it elucidates the face of death which results in repulsion and compassion. “A Rose for Emily” represents Southern Gothic literature through descriptions of Emily, her house, necrophilia, and the theme of death. To begin with, the narrator portrays Emily Grierson as a once prominent member of the community. However, after the death of her father, she is pitied and often irritating, demanding to live life on her own terms. In the beginning of the story, the author describes her as looking “bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, [look] like two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough” (Faulkner 53). Being isolated from the outside world since her father died and Homer Barron, her lover, went...
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...Bad Meets Evil In the gothic literature short stories “Prey”, “The Devil and Tom Walker”, “The Black Cat”, and “A Rose for Emily” composed by Richard Matheson, Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, and William Faulkner exercise their knowledge of gothic themes of entrapment and ambiguity to create a persuasive sense of exasperation and apprehension for the reader. Authors such as Richard Matheson, Washington Irving, and William Faulkner predominantly use the gothic theme entrapment in their writing. In fact, in “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner the central character Emily “no longer went out at all” (Faulkner 1066). This caused her to become extremely lonely in the later years of her life. This is due to the loss of her husband Colonel Sartoris. Faulkner states “A deputation waited upon her, knocked at the door through which no visitor had passed since she ceased giving china-painting lessons eight or ten years earlier.” (Faulkner 1068) in light of demonstrating the entrapment she created for herself as a means of dealing with her husband's death by...
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...Southern Gothic Literature Southern gothic literature became famous by Edgar Allen Poe in the 1900’s. Then in the 1920’s and 1930’s William Faulkner made it popular again. Southern gothic literature is the writing about the American south such as, the plantations, dusty downtowns, and aging southern belles. Three southern gothic literature authors that have changed and twisted it to make it their own are William Faulkner, Harper Lee, and Eudora Welty. William Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily”, Eudora Welty’s story “A Worn Path”, and Harper Lee's book To Kill A Mockingbird are three southern gothic books that show southern gothic writing. In “A Worn Path”, “A Rose for Emily”, and To Kill A Mockingbird the authors use the element of horror to scare and surprise the reader. Without a doubt there are many ways to make someone think of what you want them to think of just by using words. Eudora Welty makes you think that someone is going to get killed and that the story will end sad. In “A Worn Path” the main character Phoenix goes on this journey to get her grandson’s medication. Phoenix is an old negro woman, she has hallucinations on her journey and isn’t afraid of anything. This story shows horror being used because on her journey she runs into a young white hunter and his dog. When she is walking, she hears a dog and turns around. The dog then jumps up and pushes her into a ditch. The dog’s owner comes along and helps her up. However,when...
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...Natalie Reynolds English 1102 section 97 Mandi Sena January 22, 2014 Techniques Gothic Literature, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. The Gothic literature feel is achieved through manipulating literature elements to portray the story or poem how the writer/speaker wants. There are ten main elements that can be manipulated; the setting, the environment, atmosphere, protagonists, emotions, damsels in distress, foreboding, the supernatural, decay of characters, and finally, drama. When writing gothic literature one must use their personal techniques in manipulating the elements to achieve the gothic qualities desired; William Faulkner, Edgar Allan Poe, and Sylvia Plath all use different techniques in their writing and this is what gives each of their pieces of literature a different feel. For example in William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily he uses techniques unique to himself. Such as, writing the story in an alternating kind of way to help the readers to carry the action forward in their own minds by suggesting doubt in the story line, this allows us to be surprised at the end when we find out what really happens. This back and forth style of writing is prominent throughout the whole story, but the biggest example is that Emily starts out dead and then the writer proceeds to continue the rest of the story from back when she was alive. His story also has a creepy setting where anything can...
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...individuals have used literature, art, philosophy, and media to portray and justify a true view and accurate representation of the nature of death and all that it entails. This is no less true in southern gothic writing and in the writings of William Faulkner. Published on April 30, 1930 in a major magazine at the time, Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” showcases the life of Ms. Emily Grierson, a local townswoman, and is captured in a mysterious and eventually horrific context that allows the reader to understand the sadness and morbid side of death. The story is a set in a southern context that Faulkner knew all too well and contains implications of contrasts between northern and southern society. Faulkner uses many different elements in this work to portray death in its entire grotesque and horrifying splendor. Particularly, Faulkner uses two certain elements to accomplish this task. Faulkner successfully conveys the theme of the power of death in “A Rose for Emily” by incorporating the use of the literary elements of foreshadowing and narrative voice. Faulkner’s use of foreshadowing works to reveal the theme of death in this work rather well. The story is divided into five different passages, each detailing a progression towards death – the end of Emily Grierson’s life. Just by listening to Faulkner’s tone in the first sentence and throughout the rest of the work, the reader can easily determine there is a definite presence of foreshadowing: “When Miss Emily Grierson...
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...A Close Reading of William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” portrays itself as sort of a gothic sort of story. The elements of a gothic novel are meant to fashion a sense of trepidation, obscurity and unknown, which are vital in creating compelling stories. It has its fill of suspense and madness throughout its entirety, resulting in fastidious conventions in its type of writing structure, characterization, point of view, theme, and setting. Gothic novels are also known to contain an element of romance, which are often exaggerated to the extremes. I would say that the main point of view of this selected passage comes from an unknown narrator, told in the first person, who clearly is a resident of the town of Jefferson and knows the little-known life of the protagonist, Miss Emily. The “they” that is in the second sentence refers to the group of townsfolk who arrived at her house. The emotions of the crowd are a mixture of respectful condolences and curiosity. The men are present merely out of respect, giving off an air they only attend because it is an expected behavior and not because she was popular in the community. The women go out of curiosity to see the inside of the house. There certainly seems to be a general consensus among the group that she was living almost a secret life which was clearly meant to stay that way. The phrase “would have to be forced” makes it clear the group is anxious about finding out what has been kept from the...
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...Mike-Irabor English 1302: Composition 2 David Glen Smith, Instructor November 29, 2012 Research Paper Miss Emily Grierson and Eveline The family and society’s expectation of a woman has led to some women becoming tragic heroes and anti-heroes who battled consistently with their true identity. Literary works of William Faulkner in the short story, "A Rose for Emily", and James Joyce’s "Eveline", reflects the negative impact of these expectations. Based on information, culled from Dr David Smith’s notes, tragic heroes are driven and obsessed with past deeds or by fate, they are neither entirely good nor entirely bad and are fated to cause grief to individuals or to the community, they are often leaders in the community or head of family (2). Faulkner shows these common traits of tragic hero in Miss Emily Grierson; a protagonist in self-exile from the modern world, locked away in her decaying mansion (3). In James Joyce’s Eveline, a protagonist is revealed as tragic hero who endures a dramatic and tragic life full of conflicts, but Smith thinks otherwise, he refers to her as an anti-hero and is of the opinion that antihero should not be confused with tragic hero because, “existentialist believed modern life does not allow the existence of a true hero. Modern life dehumanizes everyone”(3), short of this, Eveline is a classic example of a tragic hero. William Faulkner’s Miss Emily and James Joyce’s Eveline are women who in the quest of fulfilling the roles assigned to them by their...
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...ENG 102 06 May 2013 Southern Aspects of Gothic Literature Southern gothic writing is a sub genre of the gothic writhing that was originated and most popular during the 1800s in Europe. Southern gothic is unique to American literature in the way that it relies on supernatural, ironic, or unusual events that guide the plot (wisegeek.org.) Unlike gothic style it uses the tools not for the purpose of suspense, but to explore the social issues, and reveal the cultural character of the American south (people.duke.edu.) It is considered to be “Grotesque” which displays a character whose negative qualities allow the author to highlight unpleasant aspects in southern culture. Its defining feature is that it symbolizes problems created by the established pattern and then questions the established pattern’s morality and ethical justification (wisegeek.org.) Some of the other specific features that this style of literature has, is its freakishness; being an outsider; imprisonment; violence; and even the sense of setting in which it takes place(wisegeek.org.) There is usually an important character that is set apart from the world by some kind of negative way, or disability (wisegeek.org.) Some characters may not follow the established cultural pattern but in the end they are considered heroes. Some kind of difference allows them to see a new way of doing things that help bring people to the dark side. When speaking of imprisonment, it is both literal and figurative (wisegeek...
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...Writing about Literature COM1102 10 October 2015 "A ROSE FOR EMILY" Visual vs. Reading William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is a short gothic horror story that has also been adapted into a short film. Both story and film have been largely debated, with a plethora of opinions. Faulkner’s lack of normal chronology and situation-triggered memories generates a story that has many interpretations among its readers, but surprises everyone at the end. When asked about the title of his story, Faulkner said," [The title] was an allegorical title; the meaning was, here was a woman who had had a tragedy, an irrevocable tragedy and nothing could be done about it, and I pitied her and this was a salute . . . to a woman you would hand a rose." (Faulkner, William 1966 ;) He gave a humble explanation, for such a complex story. The film portrays the story straight forward, and leaves nothing left to the imagination. Death and transformation are the main theme in Faulkner’s short story, being a sign of the crumbling of the Old South after their military defeat by the North, as Emily’s suggested necrophilia echoes the desire to hang on to the past and its traditions. Through flashbacks and foreshadowing, Faulkner addresses the struggle of traditional versus progress in the city of Jefferson. The south being a region bound by history and tradition, class and social influence, Emily represents, to generations before and after her, old...
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...could not be denied that the early Philippine short stories in English were influenced by the Anglo-Saxon. The Philippine short stories had evolved from the earlier literature of fables and folk tales and adapted the elements of the short stories of the Anglo-Saxon. The Philippine and Anglo-Saxon short stories were alike in many ways. I found “Dead Stars”, the first Philippine short story in English as equally interesting as “The Storm” although the pace of the story differed in each. Both stories were able to present thematic ideas with the use of the setting “storm” and the symbolism “dead stars”. While the storm seemed to be the driving machinery of the events that followed in “The Storm”, the dead stars on the other hand seemed to be the closure of the events in “Dead Stars”. Both left an equal effect of wonder. That effect of wonder had always been present whether it was Anglo-Saxon or Philippine short story. The authors of these short stories were able to use profoundly the elements of a short story. Anglo-Saxon and Philippine Short Stories also had similarities in terms of character development and world views. The conflict in each of the characters of the short stories supported the flow of events that happened eventually. Emily in “A Rose for Emily”, pressed by the image of her coming from the elite family, led her to kill the man she loved who could not possibly love her back. Badoy and Agueda’s disillusionment from love in “May Day Eve” proved that their love...
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...questions raised at a recent conference at the Institute of Historical Research at which History Today Editor, Paul Lay, hosted a discussion between Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall, and the Tudor historian David Loades. Historians often describe themselves as detectives, seeking out a kind of truth among the conflicting evidence of the past. There is, furthermore, a large and growing subgenre of historical crime fiction. From C.J. Sansom to Philip Pullman, from Orhan Pamuk to Walter Mosley, from Ellis Peters to Boris Akunin, novelists have been keen to use the past as a backdrop for their stories of detection and mystery. The most famous historical detective might be Brother William of Baskerville in Umberto Eco’s peerless The Name of the Rose (Il nome della rosa, 1980). Recently we have seen a flowering of historical crime fiction as the subgenre attains maturity and becomes increasingly popular and innovative. Jason Goodwin, Philip Kerr and Susan Hill were all shortlisted for the prestigious Crime Writers Association Dagger this year (recent historical winners include Arianna Franklin, Jake Arnott and Craig Russell). Clearly the combination of thriller, crime and historical detail is compelling. Anne Perry’s new Inspector Pitt novel, Betrayal at Lisson Grove (out in paperback from Headline this year) is a pacy, twisting thriller. It is 1895 and Pitt is up against a conspiracy in the Lisson Grove offices of Special Branch (in best le Carré tradition investigating the enemy within...
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...OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE • Palaeolithic nomads from mainland Europe; • New inhabitants came from western and possibly north-western Europe (New Stone Age); • in the 2nd millennium BC new inhabitants came from the Low Countries and the middle Rhine (Stonehenge); • Between 800 and 200 BC Celtic peoples moved into Britain from mainland Europe (Iron Age) • first experience of a literate civilisation in 55 B.C. • remoter areas in Scotland retained independence • Ireland, never conquered by Rome, Celtic tradition • The language of the pre-Roman settlers - British (Welsh, Breton); Cornish; Irish and Scottish Gaelic (Celtic dialect) • The Romans up to the fifth century • Britain - a province of the Roman Empire 400 years • the first half of the 5th century the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes (N Germany, Jutland) • The initial wave of migration - 449 A. D. • the Venerable Bede (c. 673-735) • the Britain of his time comprised four nations English, British (Welsh), Picts, and Scots. • invaders resembling those of the Germans as described by Tacitus in his Germania. • a warrior race • the chieftain, the companions or comitatus. • the Celtic languages were supplanted (e.g. ass, bannock, crag). * Christianity spread from two different directions: * In the 5th century St Patrick converted Ireland, in the 7th century the north of England was converted by Irish monks; * in the south at the end of the 6th century Aethelberht of Kent allowed the monk Augustine...
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...Narrative A narrative is a sequence of events that a narrator tells in story form. A narrator is a storyteller of any kind, whether the authorial voice in a novel or a friend telling you about last night’s party. Point of View The point of view is the perspective that a narrative takes toward the events it describes. First-person narration: A narrative in which the narrator tells the story from his/her own point of view and refers to him/herself as “I.” The narrator may be an active participant in the story or just an observer. When the point of view represented is specifically the author’s, and not a fictional narrator’s, the story is autobiographical and may be nonfictional (see Common Literary Forms and Genres below). Third-person narration: The narrator remains outside the story and describes the characters in the story using proper names and the third-person pronouns “he,” “she,” “it,” and “they.” • Omniscient narration: The narrator knows all of the actions, feelings, and motivations of all of the characters. For example, the narrator of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina seems to know everything about all the characters and events in the story. • Limited omniscient narration: The narrator knows the actions, feelings, and motivations of only one or a handful of characters. For example, the narrator of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has full knowledge of only Alice. • Free indirect discourse: The narrator conveys a character’s inner thoughts...
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