Truly Crazy

When Mr. Coon presented the short story, “A Rose for Emily”, to our class on Monday, he briefly touched on a subject that piqued my interest--- the Southern Gothic Tradition. He told us, just as Ms. Driscoll did last year when we read this story, that “A Rose for Emily” had many of the qualities of a Southern Gothic story. We learned about Southern Gothic Literature last year, when we read the short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe. Ms. Driscoll taught us that the Southern Gothic Tradition builds off of the European Gothic traditions that originated in 18th century England. European Gothic Literature included supernatural elements, mentally disturbed characters, and an atmosphere of terror and dread. Southern Gothic Literature tends to focus on mental disease and disturbed characters and takes place in the south. If these are the qualities of Southern Gothic Literature, I was curious as to why “A Rose for Emily” is described as having some of the characteristics of but not a true classic example of a Southern Gothic story. I decided to explore to what extent “A Rose for Emily” is or is not an archetypal Southern Gothic story.

Perhaps the main reason, that “A Rose for Emily” is often overlooked as a Southern Gothic story, is that its gothic qualities do not become apparent until the end of the story when Homer Barron’s corpse is discovered in Emily Grierson’s attic bedroom. The narrative starts with Emily’s funeral and explores her strange life and disturbed personality which is a principal attribute of a gothic story. However, Faulkner wrote this story out of chronological order so the details and clues in the story do not naturally lead the reader to the rational conclusion. It is not until the reader realizes that Emily not only killed Homer Barron but also slept with his corpse that the clues throughout the story start to fall in place. Indeed, the Gothic elements become quite evident on a second, reading of the story. These elements include Emily’s great-aunt, Lady Wyatt, who was “completely crazy” (31); Emily’s strained and troubled relationship with her father; her refusal to accept her father’s death and release her father’s corpse for burial; her purchase of arsenic; Homer Barron’s disappearance; and the strange smell coming from her house after he disappeared. In the correct order, these events lead the reader to the obvious conclusion, that Emily had killed Homer Barron. It is a testament to Faulkner’s literary genius that he feeds his readers these disjointed clues little by little, so as to heighten the shock value of the ending. I do not think, “A Rose for Emily” should be disregarded as a Southern Gothic story, as it possesses all the basic elements: a disturbed and tragic main character; a stereotypical southern setting, and a bizarre and grotesque ending. The novel’s unique layout leaves the reader in a state of bewilderment throughout most of the narrative, however, this is not reason enough to prevent “A Rose for Emily” from taking its rightful place among the hallowed dark stories of the Southern Gothic Tradition. (521)