There are several elements of Gothic fiction that are both similar, and different between “The Fall of the House of Usher”, and “A Rose for Emily”. “The Fall of the House of Usher” has incest, burials of live people, and some elements of decay. Likewise, “A Rose for Emily” also has many elements of Gothic fiction. There is decay, mystery, the protagonist is isolated, there are several deaths that occur, and there are people going crazy. The stories have similar actions that occur, but the settings are different, along with the plot.
“A Rose for Emily”, being a Gothic fiction story has many elements of the genre. The beginning of the story starts out with Miss. Emily’s death. It doesn’t have much to do with the story until the story was about to end. After announcing Miss Emily’s death, William Faulkner goes on to describe the house that Miss Emily and her manservant lived in, “…An eyesore among eyesores” (557). It had begun to decay and wear down from the years to time that passed by.
Likewise, the story continues to tell of all other items surrounding Miss Emily’s house were also decayed and no longer followed the trends of the town. One element of Gothic fiction is death, and decay. In the first few paragraphs of this short story, Faulkner gives at least four different examples of the decaying element (557). Once the description of Miss Emily’s death, and the home that the Grierson family lived in was done, Faulkner goes on to tell about the younger years of Miss Emily. There is an explanation of how Miss Emily’s father was a very controlling man, but when he died Miss Emily became isolated with only the manservant Tobe there to be a companion.
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Along with the element of the protagonist being isolated, Miss Emily becomes a damsel in distress, which is also an element of Gothic fiction. In this case, Miss Emily meets a nice young man that could become a possible suitor for Miss Emily. Homer is everything that Miss Emily could possibly want. Well, everything except for Homer being gay that is. “…Homer himself had remarked- he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elk’s club” (Faulkner 561). Even though one of the characters being gay is not an element of Gothic fiction, the death of Homer Barron is.
No one in the story, save for Miss Emily and Tobe knew what really happened to Homer Barron. Everyone in the town thought that Homer had left. This brings about the element of mystery in the story. The town had thought that Homer had left town, but no one knows for sure. Therefore, the element of mystery is present in “A Rose for Emily”. All these elements that are found in “A Rose for Emily” can also likewise be found in other Gothic fiction short stories like “The Fall of the House of Usher”.
“The Fall of the House of Usher” is a story full of elements that pertain to the Gothic fiction genre. Like “A Rose for Emily” the beginning of the story starts out with a description of the house and surrounding terrain. According Edgar Allan Poe “…upon the bleak walls- upon the vacant eye-like windows- upon a few rank sedges- and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees…” (676). Decay is a prominent theme in many of the Gothic fiction stories, it can appear in anything, such as a house or sometimes a person.
“The pallor of his countenance had assumed, if possible, a more ghastly hue- but the luminousness of his eye had utterly gone out” (Poe, 686). Roderick Usher was slowly, but surely decaying, along with the house. Usher’s face had lost some color, his eyes had lost their shine. Along with Usher’s body, the Usher house was also decaying. By the end of the story, when Usher and Usher’s sister died, the house fell with them. So, there was a double meaning in the title “The Fall of the House of Usher”. With the double meaning, there are also the elements of mystery, and death.
