Essay About Mysterious Miss Emily And Short Story

The Mysterious Miss Emiliy
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The Mysterious Miss Emily
Gothic literature combines the elements of horror and romance. The short story “A Rose
for Emily” by the American writer William Faulkner, is a good example of gothic literature.
Faulkner is one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century because of his variety
of techniques and subject matter. “Faulkner broke conventional linear narrative and filtered his
stories through the individual consciousnesses of his characters”(Hathcock). The setting of the
story is in a small southern town called Jefferson and the characters like the nosy neighbors all
add to the gothic literature. The character Miss Emily is a very mysterious woman because she
almost never comes out of her house, she does not like change in her life, and because death
follows her throughout the story.
In paragraph 15 the narrator says, “After her fathers death she went out very little; after
her sweetheart went away people hardly saw her at all”. The narrator is referring to Miss Emily
who stays inside of her house. First after her father dies, then after her husband, Homer dies. No
one in the story knows why she stays in her house, except the character Tobe, Miss Emilys care
taker, that is part of what makes Miss Emily so mysterious and adds to the gothic literature
theme. In the story the neighbors all gossip about Miss Emily and try to understand why they do
not see her very often or what exactly she does while she is in her house. In paragraph 28 the
narrator says, “we did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that”. The narrator
is referring to what the neighbors are thinking when they go to Miss Emilys house, but she does
not invite them in. After Miss Emilys father died she kept his body inside her house. She did
this because she loved her father too much and could not let him go. This is why she did not leave the
house. She wanted to stay with her father in the house. When her husband Homer died, she also
kept his body in the house for the same reason. The people in the small town do not know this
until the end of the story when they attend Miss Emilys funeral and go to her house. They find
the body of Homer in a locked room, laying there decomposing. They then realize that Miss
Emily is a strange and bizarre woman, but they are not surprised because throughout the whole
story, while the narrator is describing Miss Emily and what she does, Miss Emily does a lot of
strange things that the neighbors notice. The character Miss Emily feels alone and is afraid of
change, that is why she stays in her house and keeps the body in the house with her.
Adding to her mysterious ways, Miss Emily is one who lives in the past. She is afraid of
change. In paragraph 12 Miss Emily says to the sheriff, “see Colonel Sartoris. I have no taxes in
Jefferson.” Miss Emily calls the sheriff Colonel Sartoris because she believes that is who he
really is. Even though