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Sanctuary

TERRY HELLER (ESSAY DATE SUMMER 1989)

SOURCE: Heller, Terry. "Mirrored Worlds and the Gothic in Faulkner's Sanctuary." Mississippi Quarterly 42, no. 3 (summer 1989): 247-59.

In the following essay, Heller focuses on Faulkner's use of mirrors in Sanctuary as it relates to the convention of mirroring in Gothic fiction.

In Sanctuary Faulkner presents a mirror structure, the underworld of bootlegging and prostitution mirroring the respectable world of law and order. This mirroring is extended from the world to characters and to language. William Patrick Day's study of the Gothic tradition, In the Circles of Fear and Desire,¹ suggests a fruitful way of interpreting the meanings of this mirroring in relation to romantic definitions of sexual identity.

Interpreters of Sanctuary have noted the multiple appearances of mirrors, the first...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Primary Sources
   1. William Faulkner (Story Date 1930)
4. General Commentary
   1. Elizabeth M. Kerr (Essay Date 1979)
5. Title Commentary
   1. "A Rose for Emily"
   2. Sanctuary
6. Further Reading

1. William Faulkner