Gothic Romanticism

Gothic Romanticism 

Southern gothic  romanticism- a form of literature that displays iron or unusual events as well as shows somewhat disturbing characteristic of the plot and setting. Often displays violence and some act or feeling of imprisonment.

In the story "The Life You May Save May Be Your Own" one way the author shows southern gothic romanticism is by giving details of the feeling of imprisonment. "Fifteen, sixteen," the old woman said. The girl was nearly thirty but because of her innocence it was impossible to guess." This is showing imprisonment because the author is saying that this young girl is stuck in an older women's body because of her simplicity and she will never be able to get mentally older. Another reason this is considered southern gothic romanticism is because of the front porch imagery. "The old woman slid to the edge of her chair and leaned forward, shading her eyes from the piercing sunset with her hand." This is unusual because of the fact that they are in the middle of nowhere and some man is coming up to them. Another element of southern gothic romanticism is when the old man marries the daughter of the story. "...Mr. Shiftlet and Lucynell were married in the Ordinary's office while the old woman witnessed." This qualifies as a reason for southern gothic romanticism because that is just unnatural and weird! One display of southern gothic romanticism is "A Rose for Emily" is "One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-grey hair." This is a prime example of level 90 weird. Seriously no one should sleep with a dead person. Another example would be "...a huge meadow which no winter ever quite touches.", this is showing that the setting is a bit out of the ordinary. Something that establishes the southern part of this story being southern gothic romanticism is all the talk about "negro's" in the story. 
These stories compare mostly to Gothic stories because the level of gross odd things that happen in these stories. Such as Lucynell getting married to Mr. Shiftlet and the man sleeping next to the dead woman in "A Rose for Emily".

One reason Miss Emily's crime goes unnoticed is because she disappears. In the story it says she vanishes and typically when someone is gone for a while they tend to be forgotten or at least the problems other people cause do. Another reason her crime went unnoticed was because "When her father died, it got about that the house was all that was left to her;" thus this made people feel bad for her so what she was doing didn't really matter. Her wrong doings also went unmentioned because "Now she too would know the old thrill and the old despair of a penny more or less." Over all her issues with the law went unnoticed because people felt sorry for her.
The hitch-hiker scene works because the man is now doing more for someone else than he was all along and he isn't getting anything out of it like he did when he was helping the mom at the beginning of the story. Also, it isn't very natural for people to pick up high-hikers so it just adds to the element of creepy in the story.