How Does Faulkner Use Gothic Elements In A Rose For Emily

William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” is overflowed with terror, horror, suspense, mystery, ambiguity, and deceitfulness. The layout of Faulkner’s story is absolutely breathtaking because he allows the reader to be a part of the story. With Faulkner’s gifted mind, I was left wondering throughout the whole story why he decided to pick Emily Grierson as the protagonist. “A Rose for Emily” allowed me to experience romance, misfortune, gothic horror, and dismay of the antebellum south in that time period. This story was very different from any other story by William Faulkner because it had many elements of Gothicism. Since the short story is filled with gothic elements, it made the story even more interesting to read. In “A Rose for Emily” there are several prominent themes throughout the story. Out of all the themes that Faulkner incorporated into his story, my three favorite themes were change, isolation, and death. All of these themes allowed me to have a better understanding of the story. Incorporating these themes allowed me to visualize the representation that people associated southern belles, Yankees, and the antebellum south as. Thus, Faulkner’s various use of these themes add great detail to the story. One theme that I quickly caught on to in the story was change. Every time I read a passage
Moreover, death was very fluent and prominent throughout the story. The old south and Emily quickly became dead to society because of their unwillingness to change. I think that Emily murdered Homer so that she could spend eternity with him and his corpse could provide her comfort. Emily became the last remnant of the old south after the death of her father. Thus, I believe that Emily did not want the old south to die also because mentally she would have died. The theme of death adds horror and terror to “A Rose for Emily” by allowing the reader to see how Emily Grierson handled