preview

Comparison and Contrast: A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner and The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe

Good Essays

The short story, as with other literary forms, is not defined by its actual parameters. Subject and theme may be as varied as those within full-length novels, just as the author's individual style plays an inevitable role in shaping the work. That said, there is a common element uniting short stories; they usually create impact due to the brevity itself, which authors typically rely on to make a more direct impression. Condensed, the form offers more overt power, and this is evident in how William Faulkner and Edgar Allan Poe employ it to achieve distinctly Gothic effects. “A Rose for Emily” and “The Cask of Amontillado” are very different stories set in very different worlds, and the tone of the narration in each is equally …show more content…

This renders the tone more one of reminiscence and, if Faulkner's narrator is not as grandiloquent as Poe's, he nonetheless paints vivid pictures, as in his description of Emily later in life: “She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in water, and of that pallid hue” (Faulkner 3). What may be most interesting in the differences of narrator tone, however, is how each underscores the thrust of the story. Poe's extreme voice works to build up to a disturbing conclusion of murder; the exaggeration of Montresor's tone conforms to the trajectory of the story. With Faulkner, understatement is the key. His story ends as dramatically, if not more so, than Poe's, and the effect of the revealed necrophilia is amplified by how moderately the narrator conveys the tale. If symbolism is an element in both stories, it must be noted that – and ironically – it is far more evident in Faulkner. The irony lies in an expectation of symbolism in Poe because his style is so extreme, whereas it is less expected in Faulkner's understatement. Poe does employ the symbolic, certainly; strikingly, Montresor's revenge is planned for a night of the carnival, and his victim is dressed in bright colors and with bells on his cap, like a fool. There is as well the blatant symbolism of the Montresor vaults as the scene of the murder. Here, all the pride

Get Access