Southern Gothic Romanticism

Southern Gothic Romanticism is a sub-genre of Gothic writing. It includes unusual, supernatural, or ironic events that add to the plot. It is "southern" because the plot focuses on the American South. In "The Life You Save May Be Your Own"the first line of the story states, "The old woman and her daughter were sitting on their porch when Mr. Shiftlet came up their road for the first time. The old woman slid to the edge of her chair and leaned forward, shading her eyes from the piercing sunset with her hand."(O'Connor). This shows the traits of Southern Gothic Romanticism because it talks about them sitting in rocking chairs on the front porch, which is most commonly associated with the south. In "A Rose For Emily" the author says, "And now Miss Emily had gone to join the representatives of those august names where they lay in the cedar-bemused cemetery among the ranked and anonymous graves of Union and Confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson." (Faulkner 1). This shows Southern Gothic Romanticism because The Battle of Jefferson that it talks about took place in Columbia, Missouri during the Civil War. It is Gothic because it says that she was going to be buried in this cemetery when she died. Both of these stories compare to Romanticism because they each use a lot of emotion in their stories. In "A Rose For Emily" the author expresses how the town felt sorrowful for Miss Emily by saying," At last they could pity Miss Emily." (Faulkner 4). This shows that the whole town wanted to pity her before but now that her father had died they could actually show their emotion on the outside. These stories show Gothic Romanticism because in both stories there is something dark of awful that happens. In "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" it says, "'Give it to her when she wakes up," Mr. Shiftlet said. "I'll pay for it now.'...'Hitch‑hiker," Mr. Shiftlet explained. "I can't wait. I got to make Tuscaloosa.'"(O'Connor). Mr. Shftlet just leaves Lucynell in the diner, he doesn't care about how she is doing to feel when she wakes up, he just wants to get rid of her. But then, after he leaves he starts to feel guilty for what he did and he asks God to "'Break forth and wash the slime from this earth!'"(O'Connor). 

In "A Rose For Emily", Emily's crime goes undetected until she dies because everyone in the town feels sorrow for her. When Emily's house starts to smell the the officer says, "'I'd be the last one in the world to bother Miss Emily, but we've got to do something.'"(Faulkner 3). The officer did not want to bother Miss Emily because he knew that he could upset her and he didn't want to do that because she had already been through enough in her life. Another reason why the town felt sorrow for her was because of how she reacted when her father died. "We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that."(Faulkner 4). Miss Emily resorted to denial after her father died. She kept saying that her father wasn't dead. But when the town was about to get the law involved Miss Emily finally let them take her father. But even though the town wanted to say that she was crazy they came up with excuses just because they felt sorry for her. "Later we said "Poor Emily" behind the jalousies as they passed on Sunday afternoon in the glittering buggy,"(Faulkner 5). The town always resulted to saying "Poor Emily" when they felt sorry for her, which was quite often. This is just one more example of the town feeling sorry for Miss Emily, which is why her crime went undetected until after her death.

In "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" the hitchhiker ties together the whole story because it begins to show how Mr. Shiftlet really feels about his life. He says, "'Break forth and wash the slime from this earth!'"(O'Connor). He shows that he feels sorry for what he has done and wants God to wash him from this earth. Mr. Shiftlet believes that he is the slime of the earth because of what he has done to Lucynell, her mother, and the hitchhiker. His sorrow is also represented through the colors shown in the story. The gray storm clouds and the gray hat of the hitchhiker, representing sorrow and depression.