Author: Kianna Carrington

Kianna Carrington

Midterm Essay, ENG 2001 0525

October 26th, 2020

Similarities and Differences in Gothic Fictions

Throughout the semester, we’ve read several gothic fictions that have a lot of gothic elements in them. While reading these stories, it came with confusion at first and a liking to them. The stories I truly enjoyed reading the most were “The House of Asterion” by Jorge Luis Borges, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, and “The Black Cat” by Egar Allen Poe. Many of the stories we have read have a lot in common. But in “The House of Asterion” and “A Rose for Emily”, there are so many similarities between the two main characters, Asterion and Emily Grierson. Emily Grierson and Asterion really taught us about gothic violence, death, and a return to normalcy, or the spirit of perverseness in their own words and actions all while feeling at their worst, on the inside. 

       The short story “The House of Asterion” by Jorge Borges is about a Minotaur, half man half bull, named Asterion, who is feared by the people in the land of Labyrinth. He says to the readers that he is a prisoner in his castle but no restrictions are holding him by his will, just society. It’s the people who make him feel like a prisoner because they judge him and make him feel less than he is. He can leave his castle whenever he wants but when he does go out, people are scared and they run away from him. Making him feel bad. He does keep himself entertained by constantly reminding himself that one day his “redeemer” on, who passed away because of an illness and was known for being a classy woman who also keeps to herself. Throughout the story, we learned that Emily and her family were wealthy but also they thought highly of themselves, which made the townspeople talk about them in a negative way and make up rumors about her. They really didn’t like the fact that Emily hasn’t paid any taxes in almost a decade. This was because her father had died and the previous mayor, Colonel Satoris, had granted her a tax free life due to the fact that The Griersons were paying their tax responsibilities and more before. Throughout Emily’s life, her father was an overall pain but mainly a bigger pain in her love life. Up until his death, he drove all the men Emily had tried to be with away. Which made her think something was wrong with her, made her think that she wasn’t meant to be happy, which made her isolate herself from the town she was living in for many years. After her father passed away, it was like she was in shock, she couldn’t make her mind process the fact that her father was gone. She kept his body for a few weeks, until people started questioning where his body was and an awful smell that was coming from the house. After that, Emily met a character, and her love interest, Homer Barron. Homer Barron was beneath Emily. He was viewed by the townspeople as poor. He works as a contract worker. He was seen every sunday afternoon taking Emily on rides. The townspeople start to question his sexuality as well. Judging him once again. Emily is seen one day, at a drugstore buying arsenic, a poison. The townies see her with this deadly posionand immediately think she’s going to kill herself. She doesn’t. She uses it on Homer so she can be with him forever.

      Now that we’re caught up with these two fascinating stories, let’s talk about how similar these characters are. They both feel alone. Asterion, as we see in the story, he isolates himself in his castle because the people in his town are afraid of him which makes him feel bad because he thinks of himself quite differently. Emily felt alone when her father died, even though she did have a black servant in the big house with her, named Tobe. He was the only family she had left, besides her cousins that lived away from her. She felt alone, so alone she kept her father’s body because she couldn’t believe it. Another similarity they share is the spirit of perverseness. The spirit of perverseness is the theory that justifies the narrator’s actions or to go against norms. We see that in Emily’s story. When she goes to buy the poison from the druggist, which wasn’t for her. It was for Homer, her love interest. She wanted to be with him forever. At the end of the story, it’s described that Homer’s body was in a sealed room in the attic of the Grierson house, on a bed, with wedding materials on the drawer, like a suit, and a long strand of gray hair on the pillow next to Homer’s body, which was revealed as Emily’s own. In Asterion’s story, we see the spirit of perverseness work in many ways. When the nine people comes into his castle every nine years, he kills them thinking it’s okay, it’s the way he has to live. Normalcy. He feels that because people are afraid of him, keep making them afraid, and if he tries to change how the townspeople feel, they’ll fear him even more. When his redeemer came, this was the moment he was waiting for, he prepared for that moment. He killed those nine men every nine years because he was sure that his redeemer would come, and he did. They both don’t talk as much to others, well Asterion talks to himself. They live in big houses. They both died. And yet through all these similarities, they wanted to be fulfilled of their wishes. Emily, to be with the one she loves forever, and Asterion, to be redeemed by his redeemer, Theseus. 

     Although there are similarities between Emily Grierson and Asterion, there are also some differences, obvious differences at that. One difference is that Asterion is a minotaur, half bull, half man. They can live up to 150 years, whereas for Emily, she was a human. Asterion died at the hands of his redeemer, Theseus and Emily died of old age. Emily lived in a nice big house which was later redecorated in a small and quiet town, while Asterion lived in a mysterious castle in the land of Labyrinth, this also ties into the gothic element of settings. One thing I noticed that was different about these two was the fact they both wanted different things. Emily wanted the townspeople to stop with all gossip and in fact, wanted a peaceful and happy life. And for Asterion, yes he wanted his redeemer to come but he also wanted to be liked by the townspeople, deep down inside. Even though he was playing it off as if he didn’t need anyone, but as I was reading the story, he felt alone, maybe more alone than Emily. People weren’t afraid of her, they weren’t concerned for her either, they just wanted to gossip, wanted to mind her business, and put in their two cents to make them feel better and make her feel bad. Emily had a love interest, Homer Barron. The townspeople really sunk their claws into Emily’s relationship with Homer. They questioned his sexuality, saying he wasn’t really in love with Emily and was just using her. But Emily felt the complete opposite. She was in love and for the first time, without her father’s meddling, she could breathe. As for Asterion, he was too fond of himself to love anyone or to care. 

     In conclusion, after reading these two gothic fictions, I gathered that people in the world are going to talk about you, whether it’s good or bad, they’re going to make up whatever rumors, to keep themselves entertained. They’re going to say whatever, to tarnish your name. And you don’t have to engage or give them the time of day because at the end of the day, it’s your life and you should live it the best way you know how, regardless of what people say. I think that’s one of the lessons in these stories. Another lesson, I learned was that no matter how tough you look or how tough you think you are, you need people. No matter what you go through, whether it be a death of a loved one or just plain isolation, you will always need someone.