The Tell-Tale Heart and A Rose for Emily, gothic but with a twist - Essay Example

in the backdrop of 19th century England, but as we progress through the story, we find certain unmistakable Gothic elements that are present in every layer. It is not merely the dark, brooding, rather claustrophobic atmosphere of the backdrop itself, there is something of the Gothic darkness in the characters too. Like his successor Austen who so successfully interwove the setting with the mindset of the characters, Faulkner uses the house in which Mrs.

Emily Grierson lived to portray the working of her mind. On the other hand, “The Tale Tell Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe is the usual uncanny supernatural fare that Poe is known and loved for. Yet, what strikes as similar in those two vastly different stories is the treatment of the backdrops. In both the stories, we find that the setting in which they are portrayed does not exactly affect, but rather reflect the demeanor and lifestyle of the protagonists.

It is rather difficult to establish the Gothic-ness of the backdrop of Faulkners story. True, the house of Miss Emily Grierson is palatial and reminiscent of lost splendor, derelict and almost haunted by the lone resident, but the real darkness and epic grandeur that befits a truly Gothic tale is missing. The same can be said about Poe “The Tell-Tale Heart” too: it certainly lacks the grandeur that is expected in the setting of an epic tale, the story having unfolded in a common dwelling house in London.

However, what the stories lack in the way of a backdrop, they make up in the narrative and characterization. The characters are authentically Gothic, with all the madness and darkness and the rest of the Gothic paraphernalia. A perusal of both the stories give the impression that the settings are