Both, "Rose for Emily", and "Old Gardiston", are two different stories that about two different women, but they both struggle with trying to keep time stand still. In a Rose for Emily, she is a very mysterious woman in her town. She never marries, but she did fall in love. Many men always chased after her, but no man was ever good enough for her by the standards of her father, and later the town. The man was just a common man, so it would be against society if she was seen with him. Instead of embracing time and enjoying every moment, Emily holds on to certain moments. When she died, there was a room found in her house, covered in dust, with her lover's skeleton on the bed and a piece of her "iron grey hair" lying on the pillow next to it. Emily had a hard time letting go of what once was, and the only way she finally was able to let go, was by death itself. At the same time, Gardis, the main character of Old Gardiston, wanted to make time stand still. She inherited a great southern mansion, that was falling apart because nobody had the money to keep it up. Gardis wanted to make time stand still, and hold onto the family name, what they once were, which was southern and proud. Event the house is described through proud personification, "Gardiston house, the living reminder and the constant support of that family pride in which she had been nurtured, her one possession in the land which she had so loved". After resisting letting go of the house, and resisting her northerner suitor, Gardis succumbs to both of these things. In the end the old house burns down, and she finally allows herself to fall in love with a man even though he is from the north.
The fact that these women wanted to make time stand still, created a Gothic element in these short stories. In a "Rose for Emily" the end scene was very Gothic including, the mystery of what might lye behind Emily's door, extreme amounts of dust, and a skeleton in the bed. In "Old Gardiston" there was the old southern Gothic mansion, the ending of a family line, and later the burning of the house.
