One theme that is seen in all three works is female insanity. This is more obvious in "Yellow Wallpaper" and "A Rose for Emily": the narrator is seeing things in the yellow wallpaper and Emily kills Homer Baron and sleeps next to his dead body. In "A Good Man is Hard to Find" the grandmother convinces herself that they are near an old plantation house that she had visited before in Georgia, when in fact the plantation house was actually in Tennessee.
As for the Southern Gothic elements in "A Rose for Emily" and "A Good Man is Hard to Find" there are many present.
Grotesque- Emily is definitely the grotesque in her story. She is an old lady that the entire town(and the reader) feels sorry for after the death of her father and the disappearance of Homer Baron, but in the end you find out that the awful smell and disappearance of Homer Baron are due to her poisoning him. I would call "The Misfit" the grotesque in "A Good Man.." because is the bad guy but when the grandmother talks to him he comes off as polite and a misunderstood person. This is contradicted when he kills the entire family.
Revised Southern Belle- Miss Emily would be the revised Southern belle. She grew up in a highly respected family, but when she is dating Homer Baron she is seen riding in his buggy on Sundays which is not in line with lady like behavior. I would call the mother the revised Southern belle in "A Good Man.." although she is a stock character she is more modernized and acts much differently than the grandmother. This is shown blatantly in the way she raises her children(they misbehave and have little respect for elders).
Old Run Down House- All three stories have this. "Emily" Miss Emily's house(covered in dust, cracking furniture). "A Good Man.." the grandmother eludes to a house that the reader is led to believe would be the setting for the climax of the story. "Yellow Wallpaper" John rents an old run down mansion for them for 3 months.
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Wow you made some really good points about the Southern gothic elements in all three of these stories. For some reason, I didn't even catch the fact that Miss Emily poisoned Homer, but that makes sense now (haha). I thought it was really interesting how you thought of the Misfit as the grotesque character. I agree. The reader almost wanted to side with him, even though you knew he was killing the entire family one by one.
ReplyDeleteI think you made a good point about the old run down houses. I never really thought about the setting too much, especially in "A Good Man is Hard To Find" when they were on the road for most of the story.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you thought was grotesque but i wonder if you think that the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper is grotesque. I believe that she is in the end.
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