Southern Gothic literature can be dated all the way from early Gothic that was popular in 18th century in England, which always include grotesque elements such as death, darkness and madness. Emily Grierson, for example, is a perfect model of a southern gothic character, due to her strange behaviors, according to that "Southern Gothic writers were interested in exploring the extreme, antisocial behaviors that were often a reaction against a confining code of social conduct (Surber)."  

Emily's extreme and antisocial behaviors are described obviously in the text. Her stubborn refusal to change makes her not adaptable with new lifestyle in town, which also makes her to be an antisocial. We can also discover that from the description after Miss Emily's father's death.  "She no longer went out at all, all we saw is the Negro man went in and out with the market basket (Faulkner177)." This behavior cuts down all the communication that Miss Emily would have with the people in town, which further shows the unwillingness in her nature to accept change that can either be her father's death, or her privilege of no need to pay taxes. But both changes lead to her mentality to be unstable, which makes her a mad woman who ends up killing and storing her husband. The author uses these behaviors to interpret his thought as the meaning to a bigger society, meaning to use a small detail to reflect a real world problem. As the "traditional Gothic hero as a romantic transgressor against the norms of society" fits well in the existence of Emily, who breaks both social and gender norms, pushing outside her given roles as a Southern lady, a bride, and even a taxpayer. (Palmer)

Southern Gothic follows the idea of exposing the problems of society, does by the development of complex characters (Surber). This can be shown in the context of "A Rose of Emily", that the author uses fact that Miss Emily has a complex characteristic to expose a bigger social problem. Emily Grierson is clearly wealthier than many of the current residents of Jefferson, but she is considered to be the only people in town that has not yet change to a more modern living arrangement. The words that the author used to describe how the they viewed Miss Emily's home are presented old, almost Gothic decor like "dank," "heavy, leather-covered furniture," and "gilt tarnished easel." The description of her place is clearly stood for her "old world" mindset.  She is mentally unstable but with a function-able body, as she is extreme with certain things. For example, she refuses to pay her taxes and state her purpose for buying the poison. She also refuses to have numbers attached to her house when federal mail service is instituted. "Her triumph is in her ability to preserve an exterior facade that conceals a corrupt interior" (Palmer) also revealed her as a complex character, as she "carried her head high enough" (Faulkner176) and meanwhile losing her mind and being mentally unstable that "we believed that she was fallen (Faulkner176)".  These examples not only show her complex characteristic, but also reflect to the fact that the old aristocracy does not want to accommodate with the new lifestyle, which social classes gaps are less likely to occur, meaning that aristocracy are losing their privileges and power.

Another example of the idea of exposing social issue while developing the character will be when Miss Emily "sealed" her husband Homer Barron's body up. According to "but now the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the grimace of love"(Faulkner, 179), Miss Emily poisoned Homer and hold him hostage just to keep their love forever, and she had to hide him because she did not want anybody to find it that it will expose what she did. In another word, she is afraid of being seen under the light, being exposed to public. This matter shows the fact of a social issue that aristocracy are afraid of the new lifestyle replacing them.

A traditional Southern Gothic novel is always involved with three elements: "a setting in an ancestral house, real or perceived occult events, and a woman at risk (Palmer)." As the word "house" that might signify other meaning, we here think about it as a family tree, or the ancestral lineage. This is visible as in the text as a background, by saying "Miss Emily's father had loaned money to the town, which the town preferred repaying her by excluding her from paying taxes (Faulkner 173)." This background was set up to present and emphasize Miss Emily's mentally unstable, and clarify the situation later on that why Miss Emily had gone partly crazy in the quote " 'But, Miss Emily  -- ' 'See Colonel Satoris.' (Colonel Satoris had been dead for almost ten years.) (Faulkner 174)." However, it also has a literal meaning on this specific case, which is the outdated house that she lived in. Apparent words such as "a close, dank smell" and "cracked leather" shows that the house has been outdated, which is match up to the dark and ominous genre that a Gothic novel is considered to have. Overall the setting of the ancestral house gives reader a clear mind of what is going, but meanwhile drag them into the atmosphere of the darkness and Grotesque. 

"The occult mechanisms can be explained rationally or accepted as supernatural (Palmer)." However, Miss Emily is not a typical case. The decaying of aristocracy led to her unstable mentality that she could not be able to stay at a rational mind, but yet those supernatural conditions that are expected to be seen in a Gothic novel did not happen in this case. Instead, it is the mindset of her that creates those occult events. "She was over thirty then, still a slight woman, though thinner than usual, with cold, haughty black eyes in a face the flesh of which was strained across the temples and about the eye sockets as you imagine a lighthouse-keeper's face ought to look (Faulkner 176)." This quote fully expresses Miss Emily's appearance as a crazy person, and yet we will never expect the appearance of her to be like that because she was the aristocracy that was at the top level the social class, and neither does her will expect herself to be like this. Those shockingly miserable facts lead to her nervous breakdown that she completely lost her mind. This is the moment that "occult events" and "woman at risk" come in the same time. Miss Emily poisoned her husband just for keeping their love forever, and the incident was not founded all the way until Miss Emily's death. Miss Emily is considered a "woman at risk" because she is not able to functioning well at this point and she did risky thing, and she consider herself to be a risk because she is "broken in spirit and struggling to find a place in society once again" (Surber). One of the occult events happened after Miss Emily's death that is considered to be a "supernatural element" is where the room above the stairs becomes metonymic for the Miss Emily's mind, which townspeople had to "wait until Miss Emily was decently in the ground before they open it" (Faulkner 179). It contains supernatural element, as old Gothic novels will have, because people revere spirit as they all do in most of the novels, and the same thing happened in this case, that people feel extremely curious about the room, but they are scare of the existence of  "Emily's Ghost", so they wait till Emily to be deeply buried.

Generally, "A Rose for Emily" is considered to be a Southern Gothic literature because it is truly obvious that the text reveal social issues through describing the complex and extreme characteristic of the Miss Emily, and it contains all three elements a Southern Gothic literature should have. Overall, it's the Magnum Opus, as well as the perfect example, of Southern Gothic literatures.
