Analysis of Southern Gothic Literature Essay

S issuehern mediaeval literary productions, which is a sub-genre of the medieval writing style, is unique to the American South. Southern knightly literature has hu human race racey of the same aspects as Gothic literature it focuses on topics such(prenominal) as death, madness, and the super natural as well has having many mystical, bizarre, violent, and wonderful aspects. These tools are used to explore social issues and reveal the cultural guinea pig of the American South (Wikipedia). The causes of Southern Gothic writing use change characters to enhance their stories, and to army deeper highlights of unpleasant southmostern characteristics.These characters are usu exclusivelyy clique apart from their societies due to their mental, physical, and or social disabilities. However non all the aspects of the characters are bad it is more often the case that a categorization of upright and bad is demonstrate in most of the characters (McFLY) The authors of these storie s do grant the main character some swell qualities this is so the reader entrust fill sympathy and understanding for the character. Two authors who exhibit the Southern Gothic writing style are William Faulkner, who wrote A Rose for Emily, and Flannery OConner, the author of right Country People and A just Man is inviolable to Find.William Faulkners A Rose for Emily is an example of Southern Gothic literature. It contains many aspects of Southern Gothic writing, such as an superannuated off mansion, death, mystery, bizarre dismantlets, and the crazy Miss. Emily. The humbug takes place in a subtle towns people in Jefferson Mississippi. The narrator tells us the story of Miss. Emily Grierson, from the towns point of view. ? A Rose for Emily is the remarkable story of Emily Grierson, an aging cayenne jasmine in Jefferson, whose death and funeral drew the attention of the wide-cut town (Faulkner n. p. ). The start sign that this story is going to be Southern Gothic is when Faulkner describes her funeral. gibe to the narrator, when Miss. Emily died, every bingle attended her funeral the men with a sort of respectful attachment for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the within of her shack (Perrines 281). The narrator whence goes on to tell the story of Miss. Emily. Miss. Emily lived in a once beautiful, white, seventies style home, plainly as the old age went by her home became an eyesore among eyesores (Perrines 281).This may be a reflection of how the town saw Miss. Emily herself, once beautiful and now an eyesore to the entire community. afterwardswards Miss. Emilys stick had died, Colonel Sartoris told her that she would not have to pay taxes on her domiciliate, due to the fact that her develop had loaned money to the town, which the town, . . . , preferred this direction of repaying (Perrines 282). So for many years, Miss. Emily went on with out paying taxes. When the coterminous extension came into offi ce, a tax notification was direct to Miss. Emily, who sent it hold up to them with no other comments.The Board of Aldermen was sent to her house they knocked at the door through which no visitor had passed (Perrines 282) through for eight to ten years. When they were permit in, by the old Negro, they house smelled of dust and disuse (Perrines 282). When Miss. Emily entered the dimly light living room she looked bloated, like a organic structure capacious submerged in motionless water (Perrines 282-283). The spokesman asked w presentfore Miss. Emily had not paid her taxes, to which she replied I have no taxes in Jefferson. ? key out Colonel Sartoris (Perrines 283). What Miss.Emily did not know was that Colonel Sartoris had been dead for almost ten years now. On one occasion, a neighborhood woman went to the mayor to opine of a smell coming from Miss. Emilys house. The mayor thought zilch of it until both more complaints were received the adjoining solar day. Finally t he Board of Aldermen sent four men out to her house the next night, by and by midnight, and sprinkled calcined lime all around Miss. Emilys house and outbuildings After a calendar week or two the smell went away (Perrines 284). After that incident, the batch began to feel sorry for her.They guessd that the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they genuinely were (Perrines 284). No man was trusty enough for her by her father and by the time she was thirty she was politic unwed. After her father died, the peck finally had a reason to fell bad for her. She was alone in the world with however her house left this left her humanized. The day after her fathers death, the women of the town went to give their condolences to Miss. Emily. To their surprise, Miss. Emily was dressed as vulgar and had no trace of grief on her face (Perrines 285). Emily told the women that her father was not dead. Finally after three days of trying to appreciation on to her father, sh e broke trim down, and they buried her father quickly (Perrines 285). The towns people tired to mediocreify Miss. Emilys actions, by motto that she had nothing left, and was clinging to the one thing that had robbed her for so long they convinced themselves that she was not crazy. The summer after her father died, the town hired contractors to pave the sidewalks. The foreman, homing pigeon Barron, and Miss. Emily became quite fond of one another.On Sunday afternoons they could bee seen driving in his buggy to chokeher. Soon the people began to whisper just close Emily and bulls eye. Emily held her head high she would not be seen as anything other than respectful. The towns people believed that Miss. Emily should have kinfolk come to stay with her for a while. era Emilys two cousins were visiting her, she went and bought rat poison. When she got to the drug store, she would not tell the pill roller why she treasured arsenic, save when she got home, under the skull and bon es on the recession the druggist had written For rats. Everyone believed that she was going to kill herself. But then, Miss. Emily was seen in buying a silver toilet set for men, with H. B. on each piece, and then she bought a complete mens equipage. Everyone verbalize They are married, referring to Miss. Emily and mark Barron. When the streets were done, Homer left. Three days after Emilys cousins had left, Homer was back in town he was seen going in to Miss. Emilys house through the Kitchen door at dusk. No one narrate Homer or Emily for some time. When she was next seen, she had grown fat, and her hair was turning gray. framing after year, the people watched as the Negro man grew older and older. The only sign of Miss Emily was when she was seen through one of her downstairs windows. Then one day Miss. Emily died. The women and men came to pay respects, and to see what Miss. Emily had kept hidden for so many years. After she was buried, the towns people went back to Emilys house to look at the room which had not been used in over forty years. What they shew would explain many things that had happened over the years. After the door was forced open, and the dust settled, they looked about the room.On the dresser an outfit and tie were laid out, along with a pair of shoes. In the bed, they found Mr. Homer Barron. Finally, person noticed that on the pillow next to Mr. Barrons, someone had been sleeping on it. A head indention was in the pillow, along with a single strand of Miss. Emilys gray hair. Miss. Emily killed Homer largely to patch up society, although that, in her deranged mind, also secured him as her lover forever (Dilworth n. p. ). Flannery OConner is another author who writes in the Southern Gothic style. His story Good Country People takes place in south.He uses attributes such as lies, faithless ness, and deception to concord his story Southern Gothic. The main character, Hulga, finds many things to be ravish with the world she lives i n she also finds many things wrong with develop. Hulga is a large girl with a crippled leg. She does not believe in God, and she uses her studies as an excuse to escape the world. Mrs. Hopewell tries to convince herself that Joy, who changed her name to Hulga, is still a child, even thought Hulga is thirty- two years old. Nothing is stainless and that is life where two of Mrs.Hopewells favorite sayings (Good Country People n. p. ). Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman, the landlord, talked about many things together. One thing that they both agreed on was at that place arent enough good county people (OConnor n. p. ). While Mrs. Hopewell was making dinner party one night, a young man, by the name of Pointer, came to the Hopewells house to sell bibles. Hulga, who was atheist, was not to fond of the young man, but once Mrs. Hopewell found out that he was from good country people she couldnt get enough of him. She even invited him in for dinner.During dinner Pointer talked to Hulga abou t his family and where he was from and why he sold Bibles. After dinner, Hulga walked the young man out. The next day, Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Hopewell were talking about the Bible salesman. Mrs. Freeman said she had seen Hulga talking to him at the fence, and wandered what she had said to the son. Hulga over heard all this, and tried to make a scene by getting up and stumping with about twice the noise that was necessary, into her room (OConnor n. p. ). When Hulga got to her room, she went over the conversation that she had with Pointer the day before.Hulga and Pointer had make plans to go on a picnic the next day. Hulga tried to act as if she did not sincerely want to go, but she had other plans of her own. While she was in bed that night, she went over all the contrary ways that she could seduce Pointer. Hulga imagined that the two of them walked ? until they came to the storage barn ? and that she very easy seduced him (OConnor n. p. ). When she got up the next morning to m et Pointer at the gate, he wasnt there, she thought she had been stood up, and then she saw him he had been behind a bush.He was there in the same dirty old clothes as yesterday, only this time he had on a hat. Hulga asked, Why did you look at your Bibles? They just keep on walking though, until they got to the barn. Once inside the barn, they climbed up into the hay loft. Once they were both in the loft, Pointer started kissing Hulga When here glasses got in the way, he took them off of her and slipped them into his pocket (OConnor n. p. ). Once Hulga returned his kisses he told her that he loved her, to this Hulga had no reply for many minutes.After she said she did love him, he wanted her to prove it, he told Hulga to show me where your wooden leg joins in (OConnor n. p. ). Hulga couldnt do this, not at prototypic anyways. Finally after she had taken off her wooden leg, but when she wanted it back on, Pointer refused to give it back, instead he placed it in his Bible suitcas e. Hulga cried and pleaded for her leg to be returned, but all Pointer could say was you neednt to think youll catch me because Pointer aint really my name (OConnor n. p. ) Flannery OConnor also wrote A Good Man is problematical to Find. The story takes place in Georgia. In this story a gran and her family were deciding on where to go for the family vacation. The grannie did not want to go to Florida, which is where the rest of the family wanted to go, she wanted to go to Tennessee. To try to convince the family not to go to Florida, she told them that she told them that she had just read on article about a prisoner, The Misfit, who had escaped form the Federal Penitentiary. She also tries to convince the family to go to Tennessee by saying that the children never have been to east Tennessee (OConnor 495). The family would not listen to her, and headstrong to go to Florida anyways. On the way down to Florida, the family stopped at a little diner to get lunch. While they were ther e the owner and his wife were talking about the Misfit as well. After leaving the dinner the grandmother remembered a house that she had once been to it was an old Southern Plantation. She nags and nags her son to just stop in and see the house she even implies that it would be good for the children by saying that it would be very educational for them. Finally after her grandchildren pleaded their father to stop, her son finally decided to take a brusk drive down the driveway of the house. Once they had turned down the long dirt road, which went to the plantation, the grandmother suddenly remembered that the house she had been thinking of was not even in Georgia, but in Tennessee. Rather than telling her son that she had made a mistake, she just sat back and keeps it to herself. As they were driving down the driveway, the grandmothers cat sprang form its resting spot and landed on her sons shoulder.The car went out of control, the children where thrown to the floor and their mothe r ? was thrown out of the car the old lady was thrown into the earlier seat (OConnor 502). The children were ecstatic about being in a wreck. While the parents and grandmother while trying to recuperate form what had just happened, a truck pulled up. The grandmother had a feeling that she knew the man who stepped out of the truck. The man said he had seen the accident happen, and told one of the boys in the truck with him to go check and see if the car would still run.Thatswhen the grandmother knew who the man was it was The Misfit. Youre the Misfit exclaimed the grandmother. Yesm ? but it it would have been better for all of you, lady, if you hadnt of reckernized me (OConnor 503). The Misfit had no other choose, he told Bobby Lee to take the father and the boy and go back into the woods. The whole time, the grandmother was trying to talk The Misfit out of hurting her. She told the Misfit, I just know youre a good man (505). To this he replies, Nome, I aint a good man (505). Then the sound of gunfire was heard coming form where Bobby Lee had taken her son and grandchild.Next the Misfit had the mother and the other two children taken back into the woods. The grandmother still tried to talk her way out of being hurt, but failed to ask that her family be saved as well. Three more rounds of shots could be heard from the woods, the grandmother only talked windy to try to save her own life. She told him that Jesus would forgive him of his sins if only he would ask for it. Finally when the grandmother looked at The Misfit she said Why youre one of my babies. Youre one of my own children to this The Misfit sprang back and shot the old land three times in the chest.All of the stories that are discussed in this paper have many signs of being Southern Gothic literature. They show sings of characters that are extremely flawed, stingy, and uncaring. The stories are mysterious, bizarre, and ironic in the end. Southern Gothic authors use these types of traits in the ir stories to catch the readers attention, and to show aspects of the south that are not perfect. Southern Gothic literature is suspenseful and awkward, but is a very well known writing style. Works Cited rendering of southern gothic as provided by Wikipedia .Dilworth, Thomas A romanticism to Kill For Homicidal Complicity in Faulkners A Rose for Emily Studies in Short Fiction (363) 1999 251-62 OConnor, Flannery. A Good Man Is austere to Find Perrines belles-lettres Structure, Sound, and Sense. 8th ed. Boston, MA Heinle & Heinle, 2001. 495- 509. OConnor, Flannery. Good Country People. n. p. 31 Jan. 2006. . Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily 2002 Perrines Literature Structure, Sound, and Sense. 8th ed. Boston, MA Heinle & Heinle, 2001. 281- 289. Faulkner, William William Faulkner on the web . Southern Gothic. McFLY. n. d. 5 Feb. 2006 .