Blog #8, "A Rose for Emily"

In “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, Southern Gothic, modernity vs. tradition, and gender issues happen within this short story along with a small racial issues that are noticeable.  Instead of the Gothic literature as a whole, Southern Gothic occurs because of the location in the South and because of the grotesque element that also takes place that takes on a more realistic value than a supernatural one like vampires, etc.  Instead, it shows how an individual, Miss Emily, is dealing with a society that is changing right in front of her eyes and the suffering she is going through.  This also ties in with the modernity vs. tradition issue.  Miss Emily struggles to keep up with her society rapidly changing to a more modern society.  For example, the modern mail service the town begins to set up.  Miss Emily refuses the mail service to put numbers on her house as an address.  To me, it seems like she is afraid of change and refuses to have any part in it.  Faulkner also used the Southern Gothic style of writing by making Emily the “damsel in distress” because of this fear of change and her refusing to at any cost. Gender issues occur when, “So when she got to be thirty and still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn’t have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized” (2). This is a gender related issue because in the past when girls became what was considered women in their society, they were married off at a very young age.  However, when girls were not married by what middle age was, people would assume something was wrong with her.  Also, some of the ladies told the man that he would not be able to take care of the kitchen simply because he was a man.  So in this story both sides of gender related issues occurred. The small racial issues I witnessed throughout the story was the use of the “N” word.  Overall, William Faulkner wrote a short story to show that once a person has their mind set on something, nothing can change their minds and that sometimes their actions are controlled by what they truly believe in.

Blog #7: Gothic Literature

Gothic literature is typically known as involving horror; however, not everything in Gothic literature is directly involved with horror. In Gothic literature, tales revolve around mysterious castles/mansions, murder, treachery, curses, treachery, secrets, etc. It is believed that Gothic as a writing style was introduced by English writer/politician Horace Walpole with his story, The Castle of Otranto.  This story gained immense popularity and became a trendsetter for other authors to use the Gothic style in their stories.  Specifically, Southern gothic literature, part of the Gothic genre, includes topics such as mental disease, supernatural elements, and the grotesque; however, Southern gothic literature deals usually goes into characters with disturbed personalities, showing them as damaged or even delusional. 

The Petrified Man by Eudora Welty is focused on the weird, grotesque from the city of New Orleans, voodoo capital, to the freak show.  The petrified man is wanted for rape, which fits into the Gothic scene because of its cruel, violent intentions.  Greenleaf  by Flannery O’Connor also shows Southern Gothic characteristics.  For example, Mrs. Greenleaf’s faith healing and ritual give us a taste of a mystical, peculiar, and religious woman.  When Mrs. May is murdered by the Greenleaf’s bull, we also get a taste of the dark aspect of the gothic aspect in this short story, “One of his horns sank until it pierced her heart and the other curved to her side and held her in an unbreakable grip” (52).  This also represents the grotesque that surrounds murder in the Southern Gothic literature.  These short stories show their audience that the Gothic writing style does not have to involve things like vampires to be considered Gothic literature.

References:

Southern Gothic 

Gothic Literature

Lies For The Greater Good, Blog #6

Marlow tells Kurtz’s fiancée that his last words were her name, which of course is not true.  It seems Marlow tells Kurtz’s fiancée this to ensure that Kurtz really did love her, even though Kurtz was barely considered about her.  Also, Marlow saw how badly Kurtz’s fiancée was still mourning, as if he had died yesterday.  “But while we were still shaking hands, such a look of awful desolation came upon her face that I perceived she was one of those creatures that are not the playthings of Time.  For her he had died only yesterday” (332).  Just one look upon Kurtz’s fiancée made Marlow see how much Kurtz meant to her, which made him lie to her in the first place.  He did it to make her feel better and to prove to her that Kurtz really did care for her even in his last moments.  Although in reality, Kurtz seemed to be the type of man who just used women.

Ultimately, he was trying to portray Kurtz as the perfect person she fell in love with to help her during her grieving instead of the corrupt man he really was.  “But with every word spoken the room was growing darker, and only her forehead, smooth and white, remained illuminated by the inextinguishable light of belief and love” (332).  Marlow really did not want Kurtz’s fiancée to know what Kurtz had really done while he was away.  Marlow wanted her to still picture him as the great gentleman she fell in love with.  “Men looked up to him, -his goodness shone in every act”(334).  In reality, Kurtz was living a very corrupt life even in his last hours of life.

What Marlow tells Kurtz’s fiancée falls into the themes of women and isolation in Heart of Darkness we discussed in class.  During this time period, women were not considered important to men.  They were considered to be possessions more than anything. In the novel, Kurtz lacked compassion, which was considered a female trait. Without compassion, qualities such as greed take over. Also, Kurtz openly cheated on his fiancée regardless of his relationship with her which showed he did not feel any emotional compassion towards her.  The theme of isolation also seems to fit in with these lies because Kurtz had a lack of emotional attachment even though he had his fiancée.  Also, he was only interested in himself even though others, like his fiancée, cared about him.