Southern Gothic is an American subgenre of the Gothic style, probably most familiar to you from the Brontë sisters of Victorian England. (No, we’re not talking about Hot Topic here). Like its European ancestor, Southern Gothic draws heavily on the supernatural, just with less “Oh, Heathcliffe!” and more “Oh no, racism!” (Unlike gothic novels, southern gothic novels are more interested in uncovering social crimes and injustices than being grim for grim sake.) Grotesque elements are also common to both genres, but can take the form of actual bodily blood or simply grossly flawed characters. that they are somehow tolerable enough to remain interesting. (See also: “Oh, Heathcliffe!”)
William Faulkner is known to have been especially good at southern gothic, and many American children read his disturbing and disgusting “A Rose for Emily” as early as high school. Beginning with a funeral and ending with the discovery of a decades-old corpse, this brief story retraces the life of Miss Emily Grierson, the recently deceased town spinster. It turned out that her father was a bit overbearing, and while we don’t know if there was any abuse involved, let’s just say she didn’t get to break her curfew until exactly 35 years old. When the old man finally meets his maker, Emily refuses to admit he’s dead or leave the house for three days, which wouldn’t be so creepy if his decomposing body wasn’t still in it.
The even creepier part, though, is that this isn’t the same corpse that shows up at Emily’s house at the end of the book; that one belonged to her short-term ex-boyfriend, who drank it, dined on it, and tried to rescue it a few years after her father’s death. Boy, did you pick the wrong woman. While Emily is clearly insane, her father’s mistreatment and resulting psychological damage make her a sympathetic character. So sympathetic, in fact, that the townspeople help cover up the murder by sprinkling lime around his house when it starts to smell bad. (YOU WILL NOT BE MY NEIGHBOR!) So let’s recap how “A Rose for Emily” compares to a southern gothic novel. Death? Check. Injustice? Check. The grotesque? Double check. A terrifying recluse with a mysterious past in a seemingly haunted house? Mate.
Now that we have an idea of what gender is, let’s do a little comparison. One of America’s most widely read and beloved Southern Gothic novels is To Kill a Mockingbird, which recounts Scout and Jem Finch’s timid childhood interactions with local social outcast Boo Radley. This book may not strike you as particularly gothic, especially if you grew up wanting to befriend Jem and Scout (and possibly even Boo), or have Atticus for a father, but technically speaking, it fits. Let’s take a look at those criteria again.
- the supernatural Granted, Mockingbird isn’t exactly supernatural, but told through the eyes of a terrified six-year-old, it might as well be. A scary guy locked in his house for decades because he probably stabilized his dad in the leg with scissors? It’s not natural, that’s for sure. The only thing stopping Boo from becoming a full-fledged Emily Grierson is the fact that she doesn’t hide any bodies that we know of.
- Injustice. Hello boy! Nearly every character in the novel is at least somewhat racist, including our lovable narrator from time to time. The plot centers on the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man who is wrongfully accused, and ultimately convicted, of raping a white woman, who made up the story to hide his crush on Tom from an abusive father. When Tom tries to escape from prison, he is shot no fewer than seventeen. You know, just in case.
- the grotesque. While To Kill a Mockingbird isn’t gory, some of its characters can be downright gross. Ms. Dubose is a great example of a grotesque character; she’s a humorless old fan with an unnecessarily possessive attitude towards her camellias, but since we later find out she’s trying to kick a nasty morphine addiction, we end up feeling a little bad for her. Sometimes a drug habit or overbearing parent is all it takes.
So while the two stories may seem very different at first glance, they share a particular combination of gothic elements that allows them to unglamorously explore the social and cultural issues of the South, whether it be racism and bigotry or simply the obsolescence of the “Beauty of the South”. “Dating Approach. You decide which one is scarier.