Abstract

This paper is a comparative study of Gothic features adopted by Emily Bronte and William Faulkner in the great novels Wuthering Heights and A Rose for Emily. From this study, we can better understand the style of Gothic novels and better appreciate the everlasting charm of the novels in terms of gothic theme, demonic character and heavy atmosphere.

Key words:  Gothic, theme, characterization, environment

摘 要

本文对艾米莉·勃朗特的小说《呼啸山庄》和威廉·福克纳的小说《献给艾米丽的一朵玫瑰》中大量哥特式文学艺术表现手法进行了对比研究，包括主题的烘托，人物形象的塑造，环境的刻画三个方面。正是这种哥特式文学艺术表现手法使得小说更具有浓郁的哥特式色彩，并让人们对哥特式小说风格有更深刻的理解。

关键词： 哥特式；主题；人物形象；环境

1.    Introduction
1.1 Introduction to Gothic Elements
"Gothic" is derived from the name of a Germanic nation. The Gothic known as barbarously, and then "Gothic" refer to an architectural style. During the Renaissance, the "Gothic" has been given a cruel and subtle meaning. In 1760s, "Gothic" began to be used to describe a kind of horror, mystery, characterized by a new kind of novel. Half a century later, Gothic novels were popular in the UK and mainland Europe and the United States. The term “Gothic” has also been extended to a type of fiction which lacks the exotic setting of the earlier romances, but develops a brooding atmosphere of gloom and terror, represents events that are mysterious and often deals with aberrant psychological states.
The principal aim of such novels was to evoke chilling terror by exploiting mystery and a variety of horrors. The creation of main characters belong to Gothic mode—Villain Hero. The general strange and isolated characters, both perpetrators and victims, bear between love and hatred. The novels seek to create a gloomy and terrifying atmosphere, so that readers are always in a depression.