英语论文网

the Civil War and the consequent dismantling of the slavery-based society that had preceded it. Because of the loss in the Civil War, people in the south led a poor life. Especially the white people, their life suddenly become poor because most of the slaves went to the north to work for the northern industry，so the white people couldn’t get accustomed to the life change in a short time, but they still pretended to be noble and kept their family’s dignity (Howard Clin cotton, American history, 30).
The story described a white woman, Emily’s tragic life under the South’s loss in the Civil War. Emily’s life was strongly dominated by her father, and she had no right to date with males and choose her lover. After her father’s death, she could only date with a northern worker. But to her disappointment, the worker refused to marry her, and the refusal drove her to kill him by using poison, and she let his body company her. After Emily’s death, the town people discovered a skeleton in the house, and found out that the poor Emily was a murder, and people were shocked by the discovery.
Thematically, this short story is not as simple as it seems. The conflicts in the story can be interpreted on different levels. On the superficial level, it was a murder story with gothic characteristics. It described an eccentric woman who lived in her old decaying mysterious house that other people had not visited for decades, and, of course, a dead body in the house finally was discovered after so many years. On another level, the story can be read as a conflict between the South and the North with Emily representing the declining South and Homer Barron representing the North. On a deeper level, the story explores the inner world of a human being, or the inner struggle in the human heart.

 

1.2 Introduction of the Gothic Characteristics in Literature
The word “Goth” came from the name of a Germanic tribe. The gothic people were famous for their brutal and uncivilized features. They ever lived in north Europe, then invaded in Rome Empire from the third AD century to the fifth AD century, and set many kingdoms in Italy, Spain, south part of France and North Africa. A thousand years later, after the Rome Empire died out, Italian Vasari (1511--1574) used the "Goth" for the first time to refer to an architectural style in middle age, which was "tall sharp pointed, vaulted roof or tower ,narrow windows, colorful glass, darkness houses, gloomy ladders."(Xiao Minghan, Criticism of Foreign Literature, 9) The gothic architecture was originated in France in 11th century, and it was popular in Europe from 13th century to 15th century. This kind of architecture style mostly is seen in the church, and also in common architecture. The gothic architecture has a high status in the history of architecture because of its excellent skill and its achievement in the field of art. The gothic characteristics not only appear in architecture, but also appear in many fields such as literature, movie, music and clothing.
The so-called “Gothic Revival" appeared in aspects of architecture and literature during eighteenth century to nineteenth century, which was the gloomy and depressed tone in middle age. Meanwhile, some literary works enjoyed the same tone with "Gothic fiction" in the time. Take Horace Walpole for example, his "The Castle of Otranto" set an example for early classic gothic fiction. The birth of "Gothic fiction” was not only related with the "Go本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。