Importance Of Southern Gothic Traditions In A Rose For Emily By William Faulkner

Accepting death and tribulations can be intimidating to the person who is dealing with it, but not letting go of a corpse seems rather creepy and ridiculous. However, that was what one particular character had done twice in the story “A Rose for Emily.” In the story a woman named Emily was living a tragic life in Jefferson, Alabama with her father, Colonel Sartoris, who was rather very strict and old cultured. However, after his death, Emily was left alone and wasn’t able to handle the grief of her lost loved one. In result, she kept her father’s dead body for three days until the town took his body from her. She not only did this with her dad’s body but also kept her future lover’s, Homer Barron, body for years, right after Emily possibly

He’s a writer that loves to explain and give the background from beginning to end and centralizes the main character by introducing all the characters that have affected the main character one way or another. However, Faulkner despised the Southern Gothic Traditions and usually criticized them in many of his stories. For example, in “ A Rose for Emily” when the author wrote “Only a man of Colonel Sartoris ' generation and thought could have invented it” Faulkner in a way was presenting the old culture as if it was something to despise and to forget (Thibodeau). From a psychoanalytical point of view, the readers can realize many of Faulkner’s point of view and opinions that were presented throughout Emily, the settings, and the plots/problems presented in “A Rose for Emily.” Psychoanalysis goes deeper into the characters thoughts and subconscious so that the readers can empathize with the character at a closer level and may even correlate many of the characters concepts to the author and vice

Through psychoanalysis, the readers can see Emily as a victim to the expectations that had to be followed by everyone. Her actions led her to do what she did, which was ultimately not her fault. She went through death and isolation which led her to harvest the body of her loved ones. The rumors and gossip about her led her to isolate herself from the town, which made her an introvert. Truly the circumstances that fell in her way and the unsupportive neighbors that she had is the most logical explanation for her downfall, which shows how Emily was never at fault for her