ESSAY POE

Comparison and Contrast Essay

               The short stories of The Fall of the House of Usher and A Rose for Emily are very intriguing. Although they both have different developments in their respected stories, they bring a couple similarities. The author of The Fall of the House of Usher is Edgar Allan Poe, a very recognize magazine editor, poet, short story writer, critic and lecturer. In contrast to The Fall of the House of Usher, A Rose for Emily’s author is William Faulkner. William Faulkner earned his popularity by writing novels. They both had a similarity in the way they wrote. The similarity could be seen in their way of expressing each and every detail. The feeling when you read these two short stories is like if you are living it while you read it.

               A Rose for Emily begins with the death of the protagonist Emily, after it, the author recalls all the events that transpired before her death. In comparison, The Fall of the House of Usher starts in order of event, giving exact details of transpiring events. In both of the stories you sense a bit of evil and fear. In The Fall of the House of Usher the narrator is intriguing, it seems like the friend of Frederick is Edgar Allan Poe. Some could argue it is not but if you pay close attention you will figure it out. In A Rose for Emily, Emily lost her father when she was thirty years young. She took it very hard on herself because her father was that only man figure Emily ever had.

               Emily Grierson did not want to accept her father’s death, so decisive she kept the body until the people in town got tired of the smell and did something about it. In similarity of the Usher family who had only two members of the family alive, the Grierson family only had Emily and her two cousins alive. The Fall of the House of Usher was composed of twins, Roderick and Madeline. They both had catalepsy but Roderick did not have it diagnose. Roderick was feeling so emotionally and physically ill, that he sent a letter to his childhood friend (narrator). The letter was asking him to come visit him because it was urgent and necessary.

               In a Rose for Emily, her father never gave any men permission to go out or be with Emily. After her father’s death the town felt some kind pity toward her person. The mayor at the time, Colonel Satoris, decided to excuse her from taxes by lying to her. He decided show her that the town owed her father a lot of money for all the great things he managed to do. He could not say it was a matter of charity because she would not accept it. Unlike Emily, Roderick did accept help from his childhood friend. On the other hand, they both can be characterized as crazy people.

               Emily in the development of the story has a relationship with a man called Homer Barron, who the town people loved. Whereas Frederick, just had a relationship with his sister, there is a point in the story when he tells his friend that Madeline had died and they should bury her. The reason why Frederick didn’t want a person to know of this was because they would make lots of studies of her disease with her dead body. The weird part of this is that they buried her alive and at the end of the story he tells the narrator he thinks they buried Madeline alive. When they go check if she was alive, Madeline was already waiting for him at the door and strangled Frederick to death. The narrator ran off and the house went soaring down. Likewise The Fall of the House of Usher there is death but in A Rose for Emily it seems to be for a kind of satisfaction. Emily decided to kill Homer Barron with poison and sleep with his dead body for years.

               Is somehow odd how the two short stories are but that is what makes them unique. Similarly both have a sense of terror and mysterious beginning until the end. It’s a nice way to compare and contrast stories because they are so well explained by detail. This two stories just make you want to read more and more about other writings of the authors.