HONORS SOPHOMORE ENGLISH

SOUTHERN GOTHIC ROMANTICISM: THE LIFE YOU SAVE MAY BE YOUR OWN &A ROSE FOR EMILY

        Southern gothic romanticism is a type of writing that is placed in American South, it typically involves a unusual or supernatural ironic event that is the underlying plot of the story. It will take classic prime examples of Gothic characters such as a knight in shining armor and will in turn change to exemplify a common southern character while leaving the same nature or personality to the attribute. An example of this would be changing a knight in shining armor to a spiteful, wise talking lawyer. Another quality a story must have to be labeled a Southern Gothic Romanticism is that it must include one particular building, either a farm or a house, that is falling apart and often frightening to the characters. There must be at least one character that is grotesque and can be used as a negative influence on the southern culture. This persona will have a disgusting appearance and will usually turn everyone else away due to its nasty image. There will also be one individual that will stand apart from the rest of the cast by exhibiting a disability in a gross manor. There are four main  themes to a Southern Gothic Romanticism -FREAKISHNESS -IMPRISONMENT-VIOLENCE-SENSE OF PLACE each of these key aspects are the things that fully contribute to making a truly magnificent story.

    In A Life You Save May Be Your Own   Flannery O'Connor exhibits a great understanding of what Southern Gothic writing really is. The story is placed in Southern America and Mr. Shiftlet is the "Grotesque" factor to the story because he is missing one of his forearms. While Lucynell, the old woman he comes across, could be seen as a king taking in a servant because she will allow him to stay there so he can preform task of high labor levels, such as fixing a roof or fixing up pipes in her yard. The building in which the setting is taking place is Lucynell's house which can give off an eary appeal on an outside perspective due to it's many faults. One of which is stated as a pipe that is left out straggly to the corner of the house, there are also the messed up roofs on the garden house and on her house. This story can compare to Dark Romanticism because Shiftlet and Lucynell are both characters that can be relates to a gothic characters such as Lucynell being a king in a castle hiring a servant because she takes Shiftlet in only for the mere purpose of him doing strained household chores such as fixing roofs on her house and the garden house. Shiftlet could be compared to a medieval servant working for a place to stay. In the end of the story the hitchhiker Shiftlet picks up makes the story work because it shows that Shiftlet still has regrets about leaving his home and he is trying to help any man he sees fix the mistake they are about to make. When the hitchhiker tells Shiftlet,"To go to the Devil" which naturally surprises Shiftlet which in turn makes Shiftlet ask God to cleanse the world of the evil sinners expressing his disappointment with humanity, that point makes Shiftlet look like a hypocrite because he left Lucynell Jr. at a diner when she is deaf and had fallen asleep. This whole scene shows that with one right there are always going to be a wrong that will follow. Lucynell takes in a hitchhiker who is supposed to help her, he then as a backlash marries her daughter. Which, in this never ending cycle, makes him want to take her out, after that he leaves his deaf wife at a diner, comes across a hitchhiker and preaches to him the same things he was doing.

       In A Rose for Emily  Emily's crime goes undetected because the townspeople felt sorry for her and excuses were always made as to why things were different in her house. One of the contributing factors to this statement is when all her neighbors starting complaining about the smell protruding from her house. After many complaints the town's workers came and simply squirted lime juice about the building and everyone felt sorry for her for having accusations against her and her household. Another reason her crime may have gone undetected id the fact that no one has seen the inside of her house for many years and the last time anyone was ever inside was when Miss Emily was giving lessons in China painting. The last reason was that her upstairs in her home was extremely secluded and she may have even closed it off. The fact that she had passed away was the only reason the people of the town were able to bust through the door on her upstairs area and only then were they able to find the body of Mr. Homer Barren. William Faulkner does a remarkable job at illustrating the traits for a Southern Gothic style writing. He uses the fact the storyline takes place in a very rural area in Southern America. He also describes that Miss Emily's appearance starts to change. It changes in the way that she starts to look heavier, her hair starts to turn a bright silver, lastly he describes her appearance as starting to look sick. The last way he shows his ability to write in Southern Gothic form is by how he made the ending dark and at the same time it has a romantic feeling, in the way that Miss Emily's hair was found next to Homer's bod. This feature gives off the sense that she may have killed herself next to her dead husband so they can live together eternally, another theory that comes to mind is that maybe she poisoned him and herself so that they could die together. In that aspect she seems to be a person full of passion and love but with the wrong idea of how to show it. All of these events show that he is fantastic at writing. This writing compares to Romanticism and Dark Romanticism the same way that the other story compared to those styles of writing.