Research paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Research Paper Example William Faulkner wrote during the twentieth century and mostly chronicled the mentalities of the American South and the ways in which they had changed following the abolition of slavery as a social institution. The collective mentality of the South forms the story of much of Faulkner’s works. There is thus, a dark tone that he employs throughout his work. There is also an examination of the individual psyche being a symbol of the collective in Faulkner’s works. Faulkner also looks at the absurd elements of daily life and how they may after a point of time, due to habit, not appear absurd to a society anymore. This dark tone arises from the analyses of the human psyche that Poe attempts to effect in his work. In Poe’s world, it is the absurd that appears normal, thus destabilizing the world of the reader and presenting him with no clues as to what to expect after a certain point of time. Through an analysis of different aspects of the story, this paper shall argue that the society and its larger forces form the party of the victimizers rather than the characters Montresor and Emily. â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† presents the story of two men, Montresor and Fortunato, who are interlocked in a struggle of petty power, even though Fortunato is unaware of the same. Having been insulted at a certain point of time by Fortunato, Montresor seeks to take revenge upon him through murdering him. With this in mind, he leads him through an underground hallway at the end of which he promises a rare cask of Amontillado. When they reach the end, Montresor chains Fortunato, leaving him to die there and the reader is made aware of the world’s ignorance at the end of the story. â€Å"A Rose for Emily† talks of a family of the American South which has died leaving just one member alive- Emily. She is very introverted and prefers to stay alone in the house without even paying her taxes and as a result of this, the town is surprised when she starts an affair with a man named Homer Barron. He is thought to leave her and life continues for Emily with the support of nobody but an African American servant. Her death however, reveals the decomposed body of Homer and makes the town aware of the entire history of the woman that they thought of as a symbol of stability amidst the great changes that were happening in their society. The narrative styles of the two stories are not completely similar and this has a lot to do with the fact that the change in the person of the narrative. The figure of the narrator in â€Å"A Rose for Emily† has been a subject of great critical debate since the publication of this story (Nebeker 3). The narrator changes roles quite frequently throughout the story. He or she masquerades as an all-knowing omniscient third-person figure for a large part of the story. Later, however, the readers are made to know that the narrator does not possess the knowledge that conventional third person narrat ors possess. This can be seen from the end of the narrative where the existence of the decomposed body of Homer is a new knowledge for the narrator as well. Thus, the narrator too morphs into a native of the town that the story is set in. this has implications for the kind of writing styles that are adopted by the two writers. While Faulkner writes stories that have long sentences, Poe writes using both long and short sentences. The long sentences are used while describing Fortunato