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house was noble style, which "had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the Seventies."(William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily). As the time passed, however, the house still kept its outdated style and "lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay."(William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily).We could feel an incompatible atmosphere with the age. And the description of the house also revealed Emily’s character that she rejected the modernized or changed world stubbornly.

 

Several years later, the deputation had a chance to go into Emily's house for the first time. They went into “a dim hall from which a stairway mounted into still more shadow." (William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily). Moreover, there was "a dust and disuse--a close, dank smell"(William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily). in the air. The parlor was "furnished in heavy, leather--covered furniture." (William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily). Faulkner described a dim and mysterious picture for us. And this mysterious picture made readers curious about her life in the house.

 

It was really shocking that the town people saw in Emily's base room. “A thin, acrid pall as of the tomb seemed to lie everywhere upon this room decked and furnished as a bridal." (William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily). Homer's skeleton "had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace." (William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily) . The second pillow which was in the same bed was the indentation of a head. It is clearly that it was Emily's "long strand of iron--gray hair." Homer had been missed for forty years, and Emily had been slept with his skeleton for forty years. Sepulchral atmosphere spread the air. It is shocking and absolutely terrible. But it is not Faulkner who originally adds the terror element in fiction; it is the traditional style of “gothic characteristics." Faulkner not only uses these characteristics in A Rose for Emily, but exaggerates several details such as murder, violence, etc. So the description of Emily’s house created the mysterious and horrible atmosphere successfully and connected the mystery with gothic characteristics naturally.

 

3.2 The gothic characteristics in the theme of A Rose for Emily

Mostly, the characteristics of the theme in gothic literature are that the author reveals the evil of human being and attacks the dark side of the society, such as the unfairness and crime through death, murder, violence and revenge.

 

Gross, Louis.S(1979) pointed out: “the difference between American gothic literature and European gothic literature is that the European gothic literature is mostly regarded as escapism and rejected by people, while American gothic literature speaks out people’s voice, especially people who are special such as females, homosexual, colored races and so on, although American gothic literature is still fictitious.” Due to people are not allowed to express their depressed feeling caused by the insecure society or the dark side of society, they can only express the feeling indirectly by gothic discourse or using gothic characteristics in literature.

 

At Emily’s times, women were controlled by men strongly. Before marriage, women were controlled by fathers, so th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。