A Rose for Emily

How “A Rose for Emily” Serves As an Example of Southern Gothic Literature
Encyclopedia Britannica defines Southern Gothic as “a style of writing practiced by many writers of the American South whose stories set in that region are characterized by grotesque, macabre, or fantastic incidents” (Southern Gothic | American Literature. Encyclopedia Britannica Online).   Wikipedia describes Southern Gothic as ”common themes in Southern Gothic literature which include deeply flawed, disturbing or eccentric characters who may or may not dabble in hoodoo, ambivalent gender roles and decayed or derelict settings, grotesque situations, and other sinister events relating to or coming from poverty, alienation, crime and violence” (Southern Gothic. Wikipedia).   There are many of these elements that hint at the Southern Gothic nature of “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, such as Emily’s description, the house that she lived in, the poison she bought, and finally the ending of the story.
The physical element of Southern Gothic literature is shown by the way Emily is described as a living death.   “Her skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that was why what would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her.   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” (Faulkner 53).   Later on in the story you see the psychological element of Southern Gothic in how Emily denies her father’s death and refuses to let anyone come into the house to get his body.   “She told them that her father was not dead.   She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body.   Just as they were about to resort to law and force, she broke down, and they buried her father quickly” (Faulkner 54).
Faulkner’s representation of Southern Gothic is also described...