Southern Gothic Romanticism

What is Southern Gothic Romanticism?

Southern Gothic Romanticism is a subgenre of Gothic Romanticism, which is a subgenre of Romanticism. Yeah. The difference between regular Gothic Romanticism and Southern Gothic Romanticism is that Southern Gothic is specifically centered around America's South. Without "A Rose for Emily" and "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" taking place in the South, it would not be classified as Southern Gothic Romanticism, but simply Gothic Romanticism. 

Both stories display have a hint of romanticism in it, like in "A Rose for Emily", she ended up killing the man she had a love interest with, and in "The Life You Save May Be Your Own", Mr. Shiftlet was married to Lucynell, but abandoned her at a restaurant and then ended up killing himself by driving into a tornado. Those two things, also, have the Gothic aspect as well, because of the plot twists involving the murder and suicide. 

"A Rose for Emily"

• Why does Miss Emily's act of murder go without punishment or anyone having any knowledge of it until after her death?

1. She was a very reclusive woman. People rarely saw her, and even more rarely entered her house. "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" (introduction). 
2. People didn't really question her judgement, due to how they pitied her. When she asked for arsenic, the man asked her what she would use it for, and that a response was required by law, and she just stared at him until he went and got it, no response given. "'Why, of course,' the druggist said. 'If that's what you want. But the law requires you to tell what you are going to use it for.'  Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went and got the arsenic and wrapped it up" (page five).
3. The townspeople smelt the horrific smell coming from her house, but just suspected something, like an animal, had died in the yard. Well, something had died, but it wasn't an animal in the yard. The judge was afraid of coming off as disrespectful by telling her something smelled, because they were afraid she would take that in a way they meant that she smelt bad. "'Damn it, sir,' Judge Stevens said, 'will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?'" (page three). 

"The Life You Save May Be Your Own"

• How does the hitchhiker "make the story"? 

1. The hitchhiker, in a way, represents Mr. Shiftlet himself. Like the boy, Mr. Shiftlet abandoned his mother. Knowing the boy came from a similar situation, he expressed all the feelings of guilt that he had been repressing. He had hoped that maybe, in turn, the boy would realize that he was making a mistake. When the boy lashed out at him, it sort of sent him over the edge. Mr. Shiftlet's final actions were already premeditated, the hitchhiker's role was just what would give him the final push. He realized the world was filled with filth, like that boy and the cruel things he said about his mother and Mr. Shiftlet's. When Mr. Shiftlet continually referred to his own mother and how much he loved her and regretted leaving her, he gave the boy a chance to not make the same mistake he had made; to have a purpose. Mr. Shiftlet, himself, could have had a purpose, had he stayed with Lucynell and lived happily, but he also chose not to.