Comparison and Contrast Essay

Tatiana M. Laboy Ortiz

Ingles 3104 L1588

Similar Short Stories.

          Reading two short stories that where published a little over 100 years apart and from different authors, I found them to be quite similar. They don’t have similar events or characters but they do have the same elements. A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner was published in 1930 while The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe in 1839, both published in magazines. The two authors where from the United States and had been writing essays and stories that where well recognized. Sadly they died at an early age, Faulkner died in his early 60 and Edgar Allan Poe in his 40.

           Gothic and horror seems to be the theme for both short stories having a little bit of suspense and strange things happening all around. One of the key elements is the house because in both stories it is rarely visited, is always closed off and the people living in it rarely leave, it has this mysterious aura that screams decay and death that everybody tries to avoid and are inhabited by mysterious people. Decay being a common gothic element does not only refer to death, I think both Roderick and Emily being old where emotionally rotten, also they where mentally and physically ill, and very old. Another common thing is death in both houses like the death of Emily’s father and Homer and the death of Roderick and Madeline. At the end both stories have a twisted unexpected death that is interesting and fitting.

          The actions of the characters came from a deep need that they felt and hadn’t been able to satisfy for the longest time. Emily and Roderick had the same need to live life but in different ways.  For Emily her father has been always by her side effectively scarring away any male suitors until his death. Once her father died Homer came in but according to some rumors he was gay. Emily not wanting him to get away poisoned him so she could keep him to herself. Roderick on the other hand was so tired of having to look after his ill sister. One night that she was cataleptic he passed her as dead and entombed her to get her out of the way. Emily wanting to spend her life with someone and Roderick wanting to get rid of the person he has been with his entire life. They are the same in the macabre way they act (entombing and the necrophilia).

          Of course both stories have differences too like the time, place and era. The place is different because A Rose for Emily was in a small town and The Fall of the House of Usher was in a secluded place where there was only the one house. Another example is that Emily has a little bit of family left like her cousins and the people in her town when she died still came to the funeral. Unlike Roderick and Madeline who are the last left of the Usher family and nobody else was in contact with them besides the maids and the narrator who was contacted by Roderick.    

          I found that both stories where dark and mysterious and really liked them both. The story of The Fall of the House of Usher was much scarier to me because it really left you in suspense at the end and suddenly a lot of things happen. Although I understood A Rose for Emily better because the writing was much less descriptive and simpler my favorite has to be The Fall of the House of Usher. At first you can’t see it but they are very similar in the way the authors present the character, the mystery, the suspense, the end of the story, etc. Both are good stories that captivated me with their gothic writing.