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1、2Study on the Gothic Characteristics in Faulkners A Rose for EmilyAbstract1Chapter One Introduction2Chapter Two Faulkner And Gothic Novels3Chapter Three The Gothic Characteristics in A Rose for Emily4 3.1 The Gothic Characteristic in the Description of Emilys House5 3.2 The Gothic Characteristic in
2、the Theme of A Rose for Emily5 3.3 The Gothic Characteristic in the Narrative of A Rose for Emily6 3.4 The Gothic Characteristic in the Character of Emily7Chapter Four Conclusion9Acknowledgements10Bibliography11 Abstract: Gothic novel enjoys a long history. The southern social background and traditi
3、on in America, especially the Plantation Institution, the Puritanism, and the Slavery, account for the development of the Gothic novel in America. As a representative of American southern writer, William Faulkner writes many well-known novels, which contain striking features of Gothic style. His fam
4、ous short story, A Rose for Emily, is no exception. It tells a grisly murder happening in the southern society in America, disclosing the persecution imposed by the old southern tradition. The Gothic elements, used in this novel on one hand enhance its appeal and on the other hand deepen the theme.
5、The Gothic elements find pervasive embodiments in this short story in the following four aspects-Emilys house, the theme, the narrative way and the character, based on the previous research and the traditional gothic features in literature. This paper intends to interpret these features to get a ful
6、ler understanding of Faulkners works and gothic novels.Key words: Goth novel; theme ; character ; narrative88Study on the Gothic Characteristics in Faulkners A Rose for EmilyChapter One Introduction As a great short story which published in 1930, A Rose for Emily was one of the best known and the mo
7、st widely read novels among William Faulkners short stories. A Rose for Emily has been studied by many scholars, and there are a lot of study achievements from different ways. Some scholars have studied its writing skills, such as narrative skills, and the using of symbolism; and some have studied t
8、he background or setting of the story.The story took place in a mythical town that William Faulkner called Jefferson, Mississippi. The story happened in the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when the town was learning to live with Souths loss in Civil War and the consequent
9、 dismantling of the slavery-based society that had preceded it. Because of the loss in the Civil War, people in the south led a less comfortable life, especially the white people. Their life suddenly was badly influenced because the slaves went to the north to work for the northern industry，so the w
10、hite people couldnt get accustomed to the changed life in a short time, but they still pretended to be noble and kept their familys dignity.The story described a white woman, Emilys tragic life under the Souths loss in the Civil War. Emilys life was strongly dominated by her father, and she had no r
11、ight to date with males or choose her lover. After her fathers death, she could only date with a northern worker. But to her disappointment, the worker refused to marry her. Then she killed him by using poison, and she let his body accompany her for decades. After Emilys death, the town people disco
12、vered a skeleton in the house, and found out that the poor Emily was a murderer, and people were shocked by the discovery. This short story is not as simple as it seems. The conflicts in the story can be interpreted on different levels. On the superficial level, it was a murder story with gothic cha
13、racteristics. It described an eccentric woman who lived in her old decaying mysterious house that other people had not visited for decades. A dead body in the house finally was discovered after so many years. On another level, the story can be read as a conflict between the South and the North with
14、Emily representing the declining South and Homer Barron representing the North.This paper discusses the Gothic characteristics of A Rose for Emily in four perspectives, and it is divided into four parts. The first part, introduces William Faulkner and his A Rose for Emily briefly and points out the
15、aim and the significance of the study. The second part introduces the gothic characteristics in literature. The third part which is the most important one points out that the author uses gothic writing technique from four aspects of the description of Emilys house, the theme, the narrative way, and
16、the character. The last part, concludes that the author combines gothic characteristics with the realistic content successfully and expresses his complicated feeling precisely due to the use of gothic characteristics. The aim of this study is to interpret the Gothic Features of the story and deepen
17、the understanding about Williams Faulkner and his novel.Chapter Two Faulkner And Gothic NovelsWilliam Faulkner is one of the most distinguished writers in American literature. He was born and lived in the South, which influenced him greatly. Most of his works described the people and their lives in
18、the South. With the appearance of Faulkner, the South has witnessed the literary glories of “the South Renaissance”, which once was called “the literary desert”(Yu,2004:460). His novel not only has a clear region character, but also fills the air mightiness of history consciousness.Faulkner lived in
19、 the South for a life long, and the field of south fertilized him and shaped his character. “Therefore, his habit, thinking way and life attitude closely related with this unfortunate field”(Jay,1989:2031) As the representative of the American traditional thinking, the most important and unconscious
20、 content have deeply precipitated in the depth of his heart. That is why he has showed his love to his hometown in such an unusual way, exposing the faults and gloomy aspects of the South. Maybe gothic characteristic in A Rose for Emily is one way to express his emotionFaulkner has invented a town n
21、amed Yokonapatawpha in his imagination, and he writes about the society in the South by inventing families which represent different social forces: the old, decaying upper class, the rising, ambitious, unscrupulous class of “poor whites”, and the Negroes who labored for both of them. His major works
22、 included Sartoris, The Unvanquished, The Sound and the Fury, Light in August, As I Lay Dying, The Town and A Rose for Emily.The word “Goth” came from the name of a Germanic tribe. The gothic people were famous for their brutal and uncivilized features. They ever lived in north Europe, then invaded
23、Rome Empire from the third A.D. century to the fifth A. D. century, and set many kingdoms in Italy, Spain, France and Africa. The gothic architecture has a high status in the history of architecture because of its excellent skills and its achievement in the field of art. The gothic characteristics a
24、ppeared nothing in architecture, but also in many other fields such as literature, movie, music and clothing.The so-called “Gothic Revival” appeared in aspects of architecture and literature during the eighteenth century to the nineteenth century. The tone of gothic literature was gloomy and depress
25、ed in middle age. Meanwhile, some literary works enjoyed the same tone with Gothic fiction. Take Horace Walpole for example, his The Castle of Otranto set an example for early classic gothic fiction. The birth of Gothic fiction was not only related with the Gothic feeling of the cemetery poetry of E
26、ngland, but also with the Gothic characteristics，the aesthetic standard of Edmund Burke .The gothic characteristics in literature are that the story mostly takes place in a distant ages and desolate places; the characters are locked or imprisoned in narrow spaces or in a mysterious gothic building a
27、nd suspense often mingles with love. There are some usual ways of suspense, such as mysterious inheritance, secret antecedents, lost will, the secret of family; ancestral curse and so on. And at the end of the story, the mystery or the suspense is solved, the evildoer is discovered and the impedimen
28、t of the love between the hero and the heroine is brushed aside. Compared with romantic fiction, the gothic fiction mostly describes adventurous stories and the impediment of love is mostly caused by the evildoer, while the romantic fiction describes the familys triviality, and the impedimence of th
29、e love in the romantic fiction between characters is caused by them. The theme of the gothic story mostly reveals through death, murder, violence and horrible scene. In short, the novels with the gothic characteristics reveal a mysterious, horrible, depressed and gloomy atmosphere. Since 18th centur
30、y, the gothic characteristics have been used in the literary works popularly, and there are many famous novels with the gothic characteristics, such as Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights，Notre Dame de Paris, A Rose for Emily and so on. A Rose for Emily is especially the representative work of gothic ficti
31、on. Chapter Three The Gothic Characteristics in A Rose for EmilySavoy Eric argued, “its very contradictory that a kind of literature, which is twined by the immortal history and attracted by queer grief, came into being in the country which believes in freedom and pursues the happiness of individual
32、” (Eric,1970:126). Savoy remarked ironically on the existence of gothic characteristics in American literature. Although the society advocated pursuing happiness and freedom, the unfairness and ugliness still existed and then the gothic literature appeared. Faulkner, the author of this novel lived i
33、n a special environment which was full of depressing and gloomy atmosphere due to the Souths loss in Civil War. He had complicated feeling for his hometowns loss in the Civil War. On one hand, he complained about the poor or miserable life caused by the war, and had a little hatred for the North. On
34、 the other hand, he praised the improvement of human beings caused by the war, because the war opened the door of eliminating slavery system. He could express his complicated feeling for the Souths loss precisely by using gothic characteristics in his literature. In A Rose for Emily, he used gothic
35、characteristic in many aspects such as the description of Emilys house, theme, narrative way and character. 3.1 The Gothic Characteristic in the Description of Emilys HouseThe gothic story usually takes place in isolated places where people do not visit, such as a hidden castle in the jungle, a farm
36、stead or an old house. The author has attached much importance to the description of the scene and played up the mysterious and horrible atmosphere. Baron Armond argued, “the word mystery connects with the gothic characteristics naturally”(Armond,1972:56).Faulkner described mysterious buildings to e
37、xaggerate this kind of atmosphere in the novel.Emilys house embodies gothic characteristics. It was a special building made of wood. When her father was alive, the house was noble, which “had once been white, decorated with spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the Seventie
38、s”(Faulkner, 2003:103). As the time passed, however, the house still kept its outdated style and lifted its stubborn and coquettish decay. It was easy to notice the incompatible atmosphere with the age. And the description of the house also revealed Emilys character that she rejected the modernized
39、or changed world stubbornly.Several years later, the deputation had a chance to go into Emilys house for the first time. They went into “a dim hall from which a stairway mounted into still more shadow” (Faulkner,2003:104). Moreover, there was “a dust and disuse-a close, dank smell in the air”(Faulkn
40、er, 2003:104).The parlor was “furnished in heavy, leather-covered furniture”(Faulkner, 2003:104). Faulkner described a dim and mysterious picture for readers. And this mysterious picture made readers curious about her life in the house.People were shocked by what they saw in the base room. “A thin,
41、acrid pall as of the tomb seemed to lie everywhere upon this room decked and furnished as a bridal” (Faulkner,2003:110). Homers skeleton “had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace”(Faulkner,110). The second pillow which was in the same bed had the indentation of a head. It was Emilys “l
42、ong strand of iron-gray hair”(Faulkner,2003:110). Homer was missed forty years ago, and Emily had been sleeeping with his skeleton for forty years. Sepulchral atmosphere spread in the air. It was shocking and absolutely terrible. But it was not Faulkner who originally added the terror element in fic
43、tion; it was the traditional style of gothic characteristics. Faulkner not only used these characteristics in A Rose for Emily, but exaggerated several details such as murder and violence. So the description of Emilys house created the mysterious and horrible atmosphere successfully and connected th
44、e mystery with gothic characteristics naturally. 3.2 The Gothic Characteristic in the Theme of A Rose for Emily Mostly, the characteristics of the theme in gothic literature are that the author reveals the evil of human beings and attacks the dark side of the society, such as the unfairness and crim
45、e through death, murder, violence and revenge. Louis S. Gross pointed out that:the difference between American gothic literature and European gothic literature is that the European gothic literature is mostly regarded as escapism and rejected by people, while American gothic literature speaks out pe
46、oples voice, especially people who are special such as females, homosexuals and colored races, although American gothic literature is still fictitious(Gross1989:110 ).Since people are not allowed to express their depressed feeling caused by the insecure society or the dark side of society, they can
47、express the feeling indirectly by gothic discourse or by gothic characteristics in literature.In Emilys time, women were controlled by men strongly. Before marriage, women were controlled by fathers, so they had no right to choose their lovers or partners. Emily couldnt go out to make friends as oft
48、en as she could, and her father thought theres no man whos good enough to match his daughter in their town. She was still single when she was thirty years old. When her father died, she depended on her father so much that she was not willing to bury her father. After his fathers death, she had no co
49、urage to face the outside world alone, so she seldom went outside, and her neighbors were curious about her life and guessed how her life was going. When The Northern worker Homer appeared , Emily was attracted by him. Lonely and empty, she was eager for his company. To her disappointment, he refused to marry her. She knew that she couldnt control his life when he wa