Southern Gothic Symbolism In A Rose For Emily

Almost without hearing the protagonist throughout the story, the author draws the reader into a personality of mythology of solitude and mystery. In a “Rose for Emily”, Emily (sorry: Miss Emily) has become for many in more than a corpses lover or an unburied spectra girlfriend making this story to fit into the Southern gothic literature. “A Rose for Emily” is representative of southern Gothic literature in the sense that recreates a mysterious atmosphere to tell the story of Miss Emily, locked in her old Southern mansion with that pink room that nobody has access, offering difficulties of interpretation. Faulkner fictionalized ideas derived from experience through details and impressions of the senses corroborating through words, which happens
Most of the story, the reader and the inhabitants of that town, can only see the house of Miss Emily from the outside. The fact that the house was built by 1870, the reader can conclude that the father of Miss Emilia did pretty well after the Civil War. Speculations that the house is a symbol of money, probably gained largely through the work of slaves and emancipated slaves linking it racism. The final part of this trial, has to do with the fact that the house was allowed to decay and disintegrate. Lime and arsenic are the most lurid tale symbols giving a sense of suspense to the story not knowing what will Miss Emily is willing to do with it. Lime is a white powder used to cover the decomposed bodies. Ironically, it seems that lime was sprinkled in vain. The smell of the decomposing body of Homer Barron disappeared on their own. Or maybe people just got used to the smell. Lime and arsenic is a symbol of attempted without success to hide something embarrassing and scary. The lime and arsenic where mention together because both are symbols of getting rid of something, and in the case of “A Rose for Emily”, is exactly the same. As remember what the druggist wrote on the package bought by Miss