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“A ROSE FOR EMILY” (WILLIAM FAULKNER) ,. “Usher, Poquelin, and Miss Emily: the Progress of Southern Gothic” by Edward Stone, in Georgia Review (1960) Introduction In this study of Faulkner’s short story, Edward Stone deals with the elements that make Faulkner’s story distinctly taboo: “not only does this obsessed spinster continue for some years to share a marriage bed with the body of the man she has poisoned—she evidently derives either erotic gratifi cation or spiritual sustenance (both?) from these ghastly nuptials. She becomes, in short, a necrophile or a veritable saprophytic organism.” By tracing conventions employed by Edgar Allen Poe, Stone articulates what makes the short story emblematic of Faulkner’s gothic style, one in which the taboo is wedded with grotesque. f Some years ago Professors Brooks and Warren offered the suggestion in Understanding Fiction that we consider William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” as akin to Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” Stone, Edward. “Usher, Poquelin, and Miss Emily: the Progress of Southern Gothic.” Georgia Review 14.4 (Winter 1960): 433–43. 165
166 William Faulkner on the grounds that in both “we have a decaying mansion in which the protagonist, shut away from the world, grows into something monstrous. . . .” But to do so, as these critics more or less admit, is to point up as many differences as similarities. Granted that each is “a story of horror”: the gloomy corridors of Gothicism are too numerous for such a suggestion to prove more than initially instructive. Without losing sight of the possibilities it may offer, let us extend it and consider Faulkner’s spirit-chilling little classic along the additional lines proposed more recently by Professor Randall Stewart—those of Faulkner’s relationship to earlier characteristically Southern writers. In particular, let us compare “A Rose for Emily” with George Washington Cable’s “Jean-ah Poquelin,” to which it is more closely akin, not only in horror, but in that far more important quality defined by Professor Stewart as “a common view of the human condition.” Although the situations of these two stories are curiously similar, they are productive of dissimilar results. In comparing them, along with Poe’s, accordingly, we can arrive at some conclusion about the direction that Gothic fiction has taken during the past century in its concept of the human personality. Our first finding is that, unlike “Usher,” Cable’s and Faulkner’s are stories not only of horror, but everywhere of time and place. Cable sets this down in his first sentence and Faulkner devotes his entire long second paragraph to it. Our imaginations are thus fixed at once in both stories on an exact setting. Professor Stewart has pointed out that “a rampant industrialism was transforming the traditional social structure” of the South in the 1920’s; similarly, in the years immediately following 1803, the somnolent French province of Louisiana was asked to adapt itself to the American ways of progress. “In the first decade of the present century,” Cable begins, with seeming casualness; yet upon reflection this detail becomes a most precise one: merely a decade or two later, during the flood of American immigration into New Orleans, Poquelin’s interview with the Governor would have been pathetic, rather than dramatic; and even a decade earlier, there would have been no need for it (the purchase of Louisiana in 1803 being ultimately responsible for Poquelin’s desperate situation). Similarly, the coming of garages and gasoline pumps mentioned in the beginning of Faulkner’s story places us squarely in the Jefferson of the first decades of the 1900’s—a seemingly casual fact that becomes indispensable: it was this change wrought on American life by technology
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Bloom's Literary Themes f Alienatio
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Bloom’s Literary Themes THE TABOO
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, Contents . Series Introduction by
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Contents ix The Satanic Verses (Sal
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xii Series Introduction by Harold B
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, Volume Introduction by Harold Blo
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Confessions of an English Opium Eat
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24 Bram Stoker published perceive D
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26 Bram Stoker Arthur placed the po
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28 Bram Stoker Van Helsing to Lucy
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30 Bram Stoker how spontaneous and
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32 Bram Stoker they are avoiding se
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34 Bram Stoker of castration to all
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36 Bram Stoker 15. Richardson, p. 4
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38 Allen Ginsberg exuberant tone, l
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40 Allen Ginsberg Most people who c
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42 Allen Ginsberg “negro streets
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44 Allen Ginsberg Loafe with me on
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46 Allen Ginsberg Following the cha
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48 Allen Ginsberg in music and lite
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JULIUS CAESAR (WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE)
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Julius Caesar 53 suggest how his ex
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Julius Caesar 55 not, Cassius; yet
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Julius Caesar 57 Caesar: Thou, too,
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Julius Caesar 59 attach crucial imp
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Julius Caesar 61 called up in our m
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Julius Caesar 63 III Peter Gay note
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Julius Caesar 65 labour” (96). On
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Julius Caesar 67 effect suggestive
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Julius Caesar 69 “the phenomenon
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Julius Caesar 71 NOTES 1. In Moses
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Julius Caesar 73 17. I am suggestin
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Julius Caesar 75 Lacan, Jacques. É
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78 D.H. Lawrence In letters written
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80 D.H. Lawrence as the only means
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82 D.H. Lawrence what is left of th
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84 D.H. Lawrence Chapter XVI of Lad
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86 D.H. Lawrence the oppressive Sir
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88 D.H. Lawrence grew increasingly
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90 D.H. Lawrence Ford, Kermode, Cla
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92 Vladimir Nabokov upon subject ma
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94 Vladimir Nabokov and discrete wh
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96 Vladimir Nabokov imagination. Wh
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98 Vladimir Nabokov that the point
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100 William Golding show how an aut
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102 William Golding wavers between
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104 William Golding was the protect
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106 William Golding Already he has
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108 William Golding or intuition of
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110 William Golding Jack keeps his
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112 William Golding 3. Ibid. 4. Joh
Page 131 and 132: 114 Geoffrey Chaucer Chaucer himsel
Page 133 and 134: 116 Geoffrey Chaucer is indeed a
Page 135 and 136: 118 Geoffrey Chaucer [B&G 510]. The
Page 137 and 138: 120 Geoffrey Chaucer fashionable dr
Page 139 and 140: 122 Geoffrey Chaucer the three male
Page 141 and 142: 124 Gwendolyn Brooks baby tears and
Page 143 and 144: 126 Gwendolyn Brooks mother-eye”
Page 145 and 146: 128 Gwendolyn Brooks corner “tave
Page 147 and 148: 130 Gwendolyn Brooks of the aborted
Page 149 and 150: 132 Gwendolyn Brooks Johnson, Barba
Page 151 and 152: 134 Eugene O’Neill Sophocles’ O
Page 153 and 154: 136 Eugene O’Neill are themselves
Page 155 and 156: 138 Eugene O’Neill even extending
Page 157 and 158: 140 Eugene O’Neill to provoke cha
Page 159 and 160: 142 Eugene O’Neill to defeat the
Page 161 and 162: 144 Sophocles the dialogue is a cop
Page 163 and 164: 146 Sophocles in himself. “The sh
Page 165 and 166: 148 Oscar Wilde breaking out it sho
Page 167 and 168: 150 Oscar Wilde Dorian is described
Page 169 and 170: 152 Oscar Wilde death: “So I have
Page 171 and 172: 154 Oscar Wilde disillusionment, an
Page 173 and 174: 156 Oscar Wilde WORKS CITED Behrend
Page 175 and 176: 158 The Poetry and Prose of Sylvia
Page 181: 164 The Poetry and Prose of Sylvia
Page 185 and 186: 168 William Faulkner imprecation an
Page 187 and 188: 170 William Faulkner life-long remi
Page 189 and 190: 172 William Faulkner degree of accu
Page 191 and 192: 174 William Faulkner an equally pha
Page 193 and 194: 176 William Faulkner [It] abounded
Page 195 and 196: 178 Philip Roth and possible death
Page 197 and 198: 180 Philip Roth of one conversation
Page 199 and 200: 182 Philip Roth physically. At one
Page 201 and 202: 184 Philip Roth for many years, see
Page 203 and 204: 186 Philip Roth many ways, the irri
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Page 208 and 209: The Satanic Verses 191 himself desc
Page 210 and 211: The Satanic Verses 193 a meditation
Page 212 and 213: The Satanic Verses 195 It is easy t
Page 214: The Satanic Verses 197 WORKS CITED
Page 217 and 218: 200 The Poetry of Anne Sexton himse
Page 219 and 220: 202 The Poetry of Anne Sexton proph
Page 221 and 222: 204 The Poetry of Anne Sexton ANNE
Page 223 and 224: 206 The Poetry of Anne Sexton home.
Page 225 and 226: 208 The Poetry of Anne Sexton to be
Page 227 and 228: 210 The Poetry of Anne Sexton The s
Page 229 and 230: 212 The Poetry of Anne Sexton “ad
Page 231 and 232: 214 The Poetry of Anne Sexton comin
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THE PROSE WORKS OF JONATHAN SWIFT ,
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The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift 2
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228 Thomas Hardy ‘Woman is truly
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230 Thomas Hardy Appearing in 1895,
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232 Thomas Hardy all, ‘quite a Ma
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234 Thomas Hardy * * * Tess, then,
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236 Thomas Hardy Tess Durbeyfield g
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238 Thomas Hardy the ground, the mo
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240 Thomas Hardy not only intensity
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242 Thomas Hardy which the matrons
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244 Thomas Hardy the marriage consu
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246 Thomas Hardy translation of two
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248 Thomas Hardy true lovers of thi
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250 Thomas Hardy 24. Viola Klein, T
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252 James Joyce adores the Most Ble
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254 James Joyce character. However,
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256 James Joyce The idea that Irish
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258 James Joyce Gibbons, Luke. “
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260 Acknowledgments Wagner, Geoffre
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262 Index Beauvoir, Simone de, 227
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264 Index Evans, Robert C. on “Th
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266 Index Huizinga, Johan Homo Lude
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268 Index in “A Rose for Emily,
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270 Index patricide and Freud, xvi,
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272 Index Norman Cowan in, 179-180,
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274 Index Angel Clare in, 228-231,
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