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A Comparison of Four Literary Works EssayGreat writing does not necessarily pass water a great work of literature. More often than not, on that point has to be something special about a writers work of art. This could be as well as considered their trademarks, signatures that had set them on canonical status. Shakespe are has his soliloquies, Hawthorne attacks the Puritans, Hemmingway uses symbols, Borges possesses fondness for infinity, and the list goes on.However, there could be some similarities between these literary signatures of writers. It is important to take note that having similarities does not try on a writer less special than others. What is remarkable about the works sharing similarities in their trademarks is that they all express a common concernconcerns that could be considered as major issues in the society. The selected works had all talked about women and genial status. The literary works that this paper would feature are Nathaniel Hawthornes The Birthm ark, Flannery OConnors A Goodman Is Hard To Find, William Faulkners A Rose For Emily, and James Joyces The Dead. Hawthornes The Birthmark had shown us how the priapic-dominated society perceives women. In the narrative, there was a beautiful woman named Georgiana. She was almost perfect, however, her most visible flaw was her hand-shaped birthmark on her cheekthus the title. She was married to a scientist named Aylmer who is not felicitous with Georgianas birthmark. Since he was a scientist, Aylmer conducted a procedure to supposedly fix his wifes face. As a consequence of the Aylmers discontent, Georgiana died while low operation. Hawthorne story tells us that women are commonly judged according to their physical appearance and not according to the beauty of their intellect and character. Moreover, the story suggested to us that the pride of the male specie is on of the main reason for the oppression of women in the society. It is very likely that Aylmer had treated his beautifu l wife as a mere retainer to display to the public. As we could observe in the history of societies, husbands are judged according to their wives, and vice-versa. In William Faulkners A Rose For Emily, women are presented in a quite disturbing manner. The story is basically about a former aristocrat woman who had kept the corpse of her beloved in her bedroom. That is not to mention that she is the one who killed her beloved and she had slept with the dead corpseslept, with all the connotations of the word. Faulkner has this talent to disturb people with seemingly harmless countryside scenarios. But what is remarkable about this particular work is the pic of how a woman could love a man. A womans version of love is a topic that is rarely touched throughout the great history of literature. A Rose For Emily tells us that a woman could love unconditionally even if their love is unrequited.Moreover, A Rose For Emily touches the topic of social status. In the story, Emily came from a family of aristocrat status. The object of her affection, Homer Barron, came from a common family. The difference in their social status had somehow prevented them from getting married. In addition to that, it is Emilys social status that had made the townspeople treat her differently.On a different tone, Flannery OConnors A Goodman Is Hard To Find had depicted women and social status on a less favorable stance. The protagonist of the story was an annoying grandmother. The family in the story wanted to go to Florida, but the grandmother insisted that they go to Tennessee.The grandmother cited the news that there was a roaming criminal along the way to Florida just to scare off the family. On their way to Florida, the grandmothers talking to became true that she and the family had actually encountered the criminal. As a ploy to save herself, the grandmother constantly tells the criminal sarcastic remarks like you are a nice person.With regards to social status, the criminal was aw are that the grandmother was just pretending to treat him as a nice person. The criminal already knows what to expect from the society with regards to place of criminals at bottom the social thread. The criminal knows that people like him would always be discriminated by people. It is almost the same case for James Joyces The Dead. The author had reiterated the notion that women are good at telling lies. The disturbing ending of the narrative tells the readers that Gretta, the wife of the protagonist (Gabriel), was deeply in love with someone who already died. The conflict was she was already married with an insecure man. The ending of the story shows us how Grettas action of not telling her husband her past had such a tragic seismic disturbance on his insecurities.On the note of social status, Gabriels insecurities were highlighted during the gathering, where most of the plot had developed. His insecurities were most rooted from his social status. When he was interacting with peo ple of higher social status, he would be insecure of his intellect, language, and physical appearance. There is a subtle hint in the story that social status has some effects on a persons confidence. All in all, the recurring themes of women and social status could be roughly considered as clichs. However, it is important to take into consideration that these issues should not be forgotten. It is just remarkable for these great writers to reiterate these issues that the society is seemingly eluding.Moreover, the recurrence of these themes tells us that the issues of women and social status are still unresolved by the society. maybe if people would read these stories, the society could come up with solutions to the problems at hand. If I were made to study a favorite among the feature stories, I would have to choose Faulkners A Rose For Emily. Aside from its innovative use of point of view through the townspeople, the story touches themes that are both close to heart, like love, an d socially relevant like social status.Works CitedFaulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. An Introduction to Literature. Ed. Joseph Terry.New York Longman, 2001Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Birthmark. Demas, C. Various, Mjf. Great American Short Stories From Hawthorne to Hemingway. Spark Educational print USA,2004Joyce, James. Dubliners. Penguin Books England, 1993OConnor, Flannery. A Good Man is Hard to Find. NJ Rutgers University Press, 1993