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

Miss Emily Grierson of Faulkner’s tale belonged to a once rich family, but her mansion is now old and decayed through time and neglect (perhaps because she is too poor to spend money on it?). Maybe once there were people who came to visit, but now with Miss Grierson, or Miss Emily as she is referred to in the tale, turning into a recluse, there is nobody who goes inside the house, except for her Negro servant Tobe. We see in the beginning of the story how curious everyone is to see what is inside her house when they enter it at her funeral.

Poe adds more mystery to his story by telling it through the crazed person, thereby ensuring that we never find out where exactly he lives, though we do get a feel of the house, and since most of the story happens after night has fallen, we are left with a sense of dark and mysterious surroundings. The violent and macabre occurrences in the stories are accompanied by a sense of a similar kind not only through the personalities of the protagonists, but via the ambiance or settings as well. That is to say not only did the stories hold a sense of mystery because of the complex central characters, but the dark and desolate environment of the houses where they took place also added to the Gothic effect that the writers were trying to create.

It will not be remiss to say that the settings mirrored the lead characters of the tales. Miss Emily’s house, like her, was an unchanging symbol in changed times. It had been constructed when the family was rich, so it had an allusion to grandeur, albeit there were no riches to keep it in its pristine condition. So with changing times the neighborhood did not remain noble or “august” anymore and the area was taken over by garages and cotton gins, however, Miss Emily refused to give her house up; it remained, as Faulkner puts it, “an eyesore among eyesores.

” Murky, dusty and decayed, just like