Southern Gothic Research Paper

Southern gothic is a genre in literature that made its first appearance in the south during the early nineteenth century. Stories written in this genre tend to have characteristics one may refer to as grotesque or dark. Through southern gothic writing, the author has the ability to reveal the problems of society through the development of complex characters. Southern gothic stories usually are set in the old south and the main character typically exhibits odd or strange behaviors that takes further explanation to uncover why the main character is the way he/she is. The technique of southern gothic writing can be easily seen in the short story entitled A Rose for Emily written by well-known southern gothic author William Faulkner. A Rose for

The townspeople in A Rose for Emily represent change which is why the story is told from their perspective. Although Emily is the main character, we never get inside of her head, but we seem to know almost everything about her based purely on observations. A characteristic of the gothic theme mentioned in the story is slavery represented by Emily’s servant Toby. After Emily’s death, Toby lets the townspeople into her house and afterwards is never seen again. This can be seen as a symbol of the old south tradition of slavery finally dying. Another dark and controversial theme presented would be that of the fate of Homer Barron. It is never clearly stated what happened to him, but it can be inferred that Emily poisoned him and even preceded to sleep with his corps. Through these grim situation, we are able to see that everything is the result of an underlying problem. After Emily lost the only man in her life, she was not ready to lose anyone else causing her to kill Homer so he would never be able to leave her. She was able to do this because of the sympathy all of the townspeople had for the troubled old lady. Although everyone has their opinions on her she is rarely confronted about them specifically when her house begins to reek and the townspeople are too scared to offend the lady by telling her she