Southern Gothic Romantisicm

Southern Gothic Romanticism is a type of Gothic Romanticism with the setting of the Southern Part of America. Many times this would include details of Old Houses, Southern, Bigger and older style, with porches and rocking chairs. The Southern Gothic Stories many times also include a Grotesque. Both stories illustrate each of these aspects of Southern Gothic Romanticism. For example in "A Rose for Emily" it states, "That was when people had begun to feel really sorry for her" (Faulkner 3). This demonstrates a Grotesque in the story, because people felt sorry for her as shown, but also hated her at the same time, thinking that she smelled, and didn't pay her taxes. There is also a Grotesque in "The Life you save may be your Own". The Grotesque in this story is Mr. Shiftlet. For example the older woman at the beginning the story first doesn't know if she likes or dislikes him. He is odd and is missing an arm. At one point in the story though the lady says to Mr. Shiftlet, "you and her and me can drive into town and get married" (O'Connor 1). This quote illustrates how the lady has come to like Mr. Shiftlet, even enough to marry her one and only daughter that she dearly loves. There are also parts of the setting that display Southern Gothic Romanticism. One quote that illustrates this is when O'Connor states, "In the evenings he sat on the steps and talked while the old woman and Lucynell rocked violently in their chairs on either side of him" (1). The quote describes how the old lady are sitting in rocking chairs on their front porch, which are very important aspects to Southern Gothic Romanticism. This type of literature has many different aspects to it compared to other types of literature like Gothic Romanticism and just Romanticism. This would be the aspects of the house, while both in Gothic and Southern Gothic, are old and worn down, Southern Gothic displays that image of Porches, and big Southern looking houses. There also isn't always a Grotesque in Gothic and Regular Romanticism, when is Southern Gothic there almost always is. There are parts that are alike, they still have the Gloomy aspect, and that a tale of Romance, or an ironic fate. Either way Southern Gothic Romanticism is a immensely important part of literature without it we would not have books like To Kill a Mocking Bird, or Beautiful Creatures!


In a "Rose for Emily", Ms. Emily's Crime goes undetected until she dies. One reason for this is the status of her family. For example Faulkner writes, "We were glad because the two female cousins were even more Grierson than Miss Emily had ever been" (6). This quote supports the fact that the Grierson name, was valued very highly, and people that were of this name were thought of to be respectable people. Another reason why people probably didn't suspect Miss Emily was that they felt sorry for her. When the narrator tells of when the townspeople saw her they would say, "Poor Emily" (Faulkner 4). This quote describes how the townspeople felt sorry for her. Another contributing fact of Miss Emily not being detected was that no person (other than her manservant) had gone into her house in many, many years. This is supported by the quote,"...the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old manservant--a combined gardener and cook--had seen in at least ten years" (Faulkner 1). No one would be able to find it or suspect Miss Emily because they never saw any suspicious signs (apparently they didn't think of the smells and the poison). These are three reasons why Ms. Emily was never suspected for a crime like this.

In the end of The Life you save may be your own, a Hitch Hiker is picked up on the side of the road by Mr. Shiftlet. This Hitch Hiker does tie the story together, but just in an unusual way. Shiftlet is speaking to the Hitch Hiker in a very odd way which would freak anyone out. Shiftlet says to the hitch hiker at one point, " He took her from heaven and giver to me and I left her" (O'Connor 1). This quote first of all shows how Mr. Shiftlet is immensely distraught. He is telling a random stranger about his "Mother" and what an "Angel of Gawd" she was. Personally I view Shiftlet talking about his mother, as basically relating and talking about  Lucynell, so she was an "Angel of Gawd" because of her innocence. The second reason why this hitchhiker is important is because he symbolizes an act of redemption for Mr. Shiftlet. He left Lucynell sleeping in a restaurant, where she had no communications or any one she would know when she would awake, and yet he is being a hipocrit, telling the hitchhiker what he should do and teach him a lesson. He says, " Son," he said, "I never rued a day in my life like the one I rued when I left that old mother of mine"(O'Connor 1). Mr. Shiftlet though, doesn't truly realize what he has said and done until the hitchhiker yells at him and jumps out of the car. The sting of all his guilt now comes back to bite him. He yells at one point,  "Oh Lord!" he prayed. "Break forth and wash the slime from this earth!" (O'Connor 1).  At this point the hitch hiker has given Shiftlet a moment of redemption (to do what's right/ try to fix what he has done), he can either choose to ignore or accept it. He could choose to go back and get Lucynell or to keep going without fixing his problems. The story ends with no true way to tell what he will chose in the end though. Either way, because of the hitchhiker Mr. Shiftlet fully understands what he has done, and with that moment of redemption, he now has to decide what he will do with it.