Summary:
Desiree's Baby and a Rose for Emily are two great examples of a gothic romance. They are both so emotionally powerful when it comes to the five building blocks of a gothic romance. These five are; passion, innocence pitted by a dark experience, fierce demon of the lord, a fire and house with a secret. Both great short stories have great examples explaining the five building blocks of a gothic romance.
A. Saleh
Gothic Romances: Desiree's Baby and a Rose for Emily
Gothic romances are something of a deep nature. You must be analytical when you read gothic romance stories to surely understand the full message. If you do not, then the story will only be another hard to understand, old school short story that lacks understandable modern day words. Desiree's Baby and a Rose for Emily are two great examples of a gothic romance. They are both so emotionally powerful when it comes to the five building blocks of a gothic romance. These five are; passion, innocence pitted by a dark experience, fierce demon of the lord, a fire and house with a secret. Both great short stories have great examples explaining the five building blocks of a gothic romance.
First, let us start off with Desiree's Baby. To me, I enjoyed this short story more than a "Rose for Emily" mainly because of the unforgettable twist at the end. Speaking of the unforgettable twist at the end, that was an example of a house with a secret. The secret was that Armand was the one who had African American blood and he had no idea. He became so upset at thinking it was Desiree's fault; he disowned her completely. Anna Shannon Elfenbein comments on "Desiree's Baby" in this chapter of the book. She says that race is only one issue explored in the story and along with race, Chopin investigates the concept of "Armand's power over women" (126). Also within the story, there is a lot of passion, from both ends of the relationship, between Desiree and Armand. Armand's love for Desiree can be seen by reading that, the passion that awoke in him that day, when he saw her at the gate, swept along like an avalanche, or like a prairie fire, or
like anything that drives headlong over all obstacles. This shows how passionate Armand was for Desiree even at the young tender age of 8. Another parts of gothic romance that is portrayed with in this story, would have to be the fierce demon of the lord. This has to do with Armand's anger toward the slaves, after finding out about the baby. The story says, "And the very spirit of Satan seemed suddenly to take hold of him in his dealings with the slaves." That describes the anger Armand had when he found out about the baby. There are more examples of a gothic romance, but without moving on with this story, it is clear to see how it can easily pass for a gothic romance.
Now I will explain the second of the two stories. A Rose for Emily written by William Faulkner is yet another great example of a gothic romance. This story is a little bit harder to understand than the first one, but has some deeper meaning in a way. I mean deep because Emily falls in love with a man whom she had no idea was gay. She bought him things and truly liked the man. They got married and ended up living together. Emily died; she died from an illness no one new she had. She probably became ill from how saddened she was of the fact that Homer was not that man she thought he was. This also is an example of innocence pitted with a dark experience. The innocence would have to be Emily's love for homer and the dark experience would be his gayness being known by her. Another good example of how this is a gothic romance, would be because of the secret that Emily kept. No one new about her saw her around for the remainder of her life. She was always hiding inside her house. No one even knew she was sick until she
died. A writer by the name of Fatima stated in an essay that, Emily felt as if she were good for the community and therefore secluded herself from everyone else.
I feel that I have given enough examples from both stories to make it clear enough that the term gothic romance is the perfect category for these to stories to be held in. They show passion and anger. They also show how keeping a secret or having the wrong information can lead to a disastrous ending of love or even life. I thank god have not gone through the bad slope of a gothic romance and hopefully I never will.
Bibliography
Elfenbein,, Anna Shannon . "Desiree's Baby." Women on the Color Line: Evolving Stereotypes and the Writings of George Washington Cable, Grace King, Kate Chopin. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1989. 126-131.
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~brandi03/chopin.html
-This critic explained the racial issue and emphasized that social class was a big part of life back in the times of racism. If you were black, your social status was definitely not as high. She found this very clear from the things that happened within the story.
Chopin, Kate. "Desiree's Baby." http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/DesiBaby.shtml
This website provided me with the actual story of Desiree's Baby. What better source than the story itself. In the story, many examples of a gothic romance are shown in a vivid manner. From passion to extreme anger, this story had it all.
Faulkner, William The Forum: Desiree's Baby April 1930 (Brooks 7) http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/wf_rose.html
-Yet again what better source than the story itself. In the story, Faulkner shows many examples of a gothic romance. This story has to do with passion, anger and another, but inevitable tragic ending because of a secret kept unknown.
This is the complete article, containing 911 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page).
