Essay Poe

Similarities

The House of Usher and A Rose for Emily

The House of Usher and A Rose for Emily have many similarities, even though they have almost a century between their original publishing. This is clearly due to the stylistic choice of both authors. Gothic horror is a very popular genre in writing. In both of these stories, some themes are recurring, so much so it can be hard to tell them apart. With themes like death, psychological trauma and suspense, these stories can send a shiver down your spine.

Undoubtedly, death is something that is clearly visible in both stories. The Ushers face death when they wrongfully bury Madeline, and she comes back to haunt the characters in her story. On the other hand, A Rose for Emily is riddled with death from beginning to end, from the death of Emily shown at the start to the death of her father, and lover soon after. Both display gruesome realistic scenes with either blood or disgusting decaying bodies scattered about.

Additionally, both stories tread into the scary topic of mental illness, which is especially terrifying to me. There’s something noticeably wrong with Emily as soon as her father dies in her story, and Roderick is also clearly going mad due to his disease. This is an important aspect to the development of the stories, because they could never be as crazy or scary otherwise. It might be because of their unpredictability.

Finally, a defining feature of these stories is their suspense. Perfect timing in each of the narrations keep readers on the edge of their seats as they try to guess the outcome of a mystery. The sounds Roderick hears as he listens to the story, later to find it was his sister all along. Emily buying high amounts of poison at the store without wanting to reveal her motives, and to much later find out she kept corpses in her home. The reveal of these conclusion are always surprising, and this is why Gothic horror is so beloved among authors and readers alike.

In conclusion, these stories are very similar, not only in the way they were written, but in other aspects too, like the fact that they both take place in a large old home with descriptive imagery of horrific details. Another thing that is similar between these two pieces of literature is that they are amazingly good. Old or new, these stories can hold the test of time and fascinate me and other readers for centuries to come. I would definitely recommend them.