Gothic romance is concerned with various desolate settings, grotesque and mysterious events, and themes of death, solitude, and alienation. In Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily,” the author builds upon the use of such elements as terror and suspense to a culmination in which it is revealed that the main character, Emily, poisoned her loved one and has been sleeping and cuddling with his corpse for more than forty years. The desire of the protagonist to physically remain with the man is referred to as necrophilia, which is an erotic attraction to dead bodies. Necrophilia, therefore, is a component of the gothic genre, which implies combining two seemingly different literary aspects, such as horror and romance.
The necrophilic relationship between Emily Grierson and the long-deceased Homer Barron that the author implies offers more than a sensational ending to a disturbing story written in the gothic genre. It allows readers to go deeper into the understanding of sexuality and the ways in which it can warp under the conditions that seem unfavorable to an individual. As stated by Freud, there is a sharp distinction and opposition between the sexual and ego-related instincts, with the latter impelling toward death and the former striving for life.
The conflict between the two forces is crucial for artistic creation and human existence in general, while necrophilia is a state of confusion between the forces on the part of its practitioner. In the story, the reader can share the experience of necrophilia and explore the components of decay by observing Emily who plays a dual part as both the subject and the object of necrophilia.
The gothic genre can be traced to the main idea of the story, that death cannot be stopped. Customs and traditions deteriorate and get forgotten while people pass away. Emily, however, agrees to the state of affairs under her own terms and breaks the barrier between life and death, clinging to the warped fabric of consciousness. Even the protagonist’s appearance is described as similar to that of a corpse, with her face likened to a strained flag and her body as a corpse “long submerged in motionless water” (Faulkner 9).
Despite being old, Miss Emily denies the death of her social order by denying the power of death itself. In her forceful attempts to cling on to someone who has been gone for many years, her neurotic necrophilia of Emily represents both the romantic and the tragic sides of the gothic genre. Therefore, by making death something that belongs to her, by twisting it as she pleases and embedding it into her personal life, Emily lives her own reality that she perceives as acceptable. The tomb smells that shroud her house is evidence of the story’s not only psychological horror but also physical and romantic.
“A Rose for Emily” is a hallmark of gothic fiction as exemplified in its title that offers antiquated courtesy to an antiquated woman, a gift of a rose given in both pity and praise. Besides the mental terrors and bleak settings inherent to the gothic fiction tradition, the style in which the story is written adds its own peculiar grotesqueness that cannot be confused for anything else. Faulkner presents horror for the purpose of exploring the forgotten characteristics of humanity that can be both great and morbid.
Work Cited
Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. Random House, 2012.