Compare and Contrast Essay

There has to be some kind of copyright infringement here:

     The short story "A Rose for Emily" written by William Faulkner is a story about an old woman named Emily living in the town of Jefferson. The story uses a method called stream of consciousness which is common to Faulkner. This method is utilized "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind. Another phrase for it is 'interior monologue'."(Cuddon). In the story we see this method used to give an in depth description of the theme of decay; this decay occurs not only on Miss Emily, but the town and house also decay. Oddly enough, Edgar Allan Poe wrote a similar story based also on the theme of decay: “The Fall of The House of Usher”. This story, just as in Faulkner’s, has a house, an owner and its surroundings in decay. In the specific case of Poe’s story we see the Usher family and their house falling apart; hence the title “Fall of the House of Usher”. Poe’s story’s title refers to two aspects of a “falling house”; these are: the fall of the actual house and the fall of the family name (House referred also to family name in the time the story was written). Also, we should take into consideration that Poe’s story is narrated in a first person narrative point of view(POV).

     The similarities of both stories give headway to the possibility of comparing them. Both of the stories show the decay of something within the story. To be fair, we should also take into consideration the contrasting aspects of the stories. A clear example is the points of view; Faulkner uses stream of consciousness which allows us into the thoughts of the characters, whereas Poe only allows us to explore the narrators head. By pointing out some of these similarities and differences we can more effectively compare and contrast both short stories.

     I would like to begin by exploring the most interesting of matters, the theme of decay. In Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” we can see this clearly in the beginning of the story. In all honesty, there is a specific quote that caught my eye here: “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town . . .” (Faulkner); here we can see how from being a member of a prestigious family, Emily Grierson (the main character) even becomes a burden to the town in her decay. When we continue to read we learn a little about the Grierson family’s former glory and how after the death of Emily’s father it all began to crumble. Slowly we could see how the house itself began looking older due to lack of maintenance. The scarce times that the people from the town saw Emily, they describe her as decaying. In fact, they even mention the fact that the house, Emily, and with it the family name were decaying. Similarly, in Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher” we see a very damaged house and a decrepit owner. We don’t get much information on its former glory, but the Usher family was known to be a very rich and powerful family; this leads me to believe that the house much have been beautiful. The house still seemed extravagant; it just needed some maintenance work. In the same manner, Roderick Usher, the owner of the house, was very sick and decrepit. As the story unfolds, we see how the house and owner have both decayed. In fact, as the story ends we are told, and I quote “[Talking about a fissure on the side of the house]While I gazed, this fissure rapidly widened—there came a fierce breath of the whirlwind—the entire orb of the satellite burst at once upon my sight—my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder—there was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters—and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the “House of Usher”.”. With this quote, we can fully understand the extent of decay to which the Usher house was subject to; it was so damaged that the whole structure collapsed and the remains sank beneath the dark tarn that laid under the house.

     Having talked about the similarities, let’s talk about the differences. In the point of view aspect of the stories, we can see a clear difference. Whilst Faulkner uses Stream of Consciousness to allow the reader to access the thoughts and emotions of all the characters and narrators in the story, Poe uses first person narrative and allows the reader to only access the thoughts of the narrator. In my opinion, Faulkner’s method helps the reader understand the story better, but Poe’s first person POV allows for more suspense. The fact that Poe keeps the thoughts of others a secret allows for suspense and in turn opens the possibility of surprise. Surprise is very important for these kinds of stories. Surprise makes the reader’s emotions more pure because of the instantaneous effect it has; suspense gives you that blood pumping feeling that keeps you on the edge, surprise pushes you over the edge and sends you into a frenzy of emotions.

     Both of these stories are very good and very easily understood. With the facts I have laid out, I set grounds for further discussion of the similarities and differences of both stories. I didn't intend to prove one story to be superior to the other; I have just carefully selected two topics of discussion for the analysis of the reader. The theme of decay and the POV are two very promising topics for future comparison of the stories. These two similar stories have much more aspects than the ones I pointed out to compare and contrast. I highly encourage anyone to explore these aspects more in-depth and come up with more topics for comparing and contrasting.

Bibliography:

Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. Oxford: Forum, 1930. Print.

J. A. Cuddon, A Dictionary of Literary Terms. (Harmondsworth, Penguin Books,1984), p.660-1).

Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Fall of The House of Usher.” Bausch, Richard and R.V. Cassil Eds. The Norton

    Anthology of Short Ficction. New York: W.W. Norton and company, 2006. 661-674.