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Gothic themes in literature
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The characterization of the characters come from how the author establishes how each character presents its knowledge about
The characters in any story are the main parts of the story that engage the readers with the uniqueness
All readers have come across the stereotypical character who is charming, good-looking, and the savior of the story and our hearts, but that is present in commercial fiction. In literary fiction, characters are something greater and deeper. In literary fiction, characterization is considered one of the most important elements in an author’s work. Characterization is the concept of creating a character.
Character is a literary term that is very important when reading any story or poem. The literary term character can be defined as the person or thing that the story or literature focuses on. For example, usually in a story or poem, there is a central character that will experience some type of change. The change can be physical, mental or emotional. In the story “A&P,” which was written by John Updike, Sammy was the central character in the story.
As a kid I remember going to school and hating it. The white people were always better and always had the nicer things. I had to go to school in fear of getting beat up, questioned by all my teachers as if I was dumb, segregated down to the drinking fountain and more. But with the court case Brown vs. Board of Education things started to slowly change. It happened slowly and still isn’t perfect, but change was happening.
Archetypes: The Key to all Literature Characters, almost every book there is has at least one, though there are some repeating of character types or characteristics that they might share. This is called an archetype, it’s basically a typical character or an action/situation that represents patterns of human nature. An archetype could also be a universal symbol, a theme, or it could even be a setting. Overall, to better understand literature, one must be able to recognize archetypes.
Gothic fiction is the Romantic Period’s form of self-expression involving terror, madness and the supernatural. The terror, madness and the supernatural concepts that this form of fiction offers, are the reasons why critics believe individuals should resist reading it, listening to it or watching it. Many critics believe that such form of expression from writers could influence the public into possibly performing other similar treacherous actions. Another reason that critics offer for resisting Gothic fiction is for the possible outbreak of resistance to authority. According to Gothic critics, the adrenaline and satisfaction of reading, listening, or seeing bad actions could make the public feel some sort of empowerment to stand against authority.
The Gothic Influence Although the word “Gothic” is often associated with supernatural creatures or haunted, abandoned places, the word actually originates from an elaborate style of architecture. The reason that the word “Gothic” has become associated with these ideas of horror and death is because the architecture was thought of the ideal place for mysterious, suspenseful, and dark stories to occur. These types of stories became known as the Gothic genre. The Gothic literary genre often includes elements of fear, death, and strong emotions, and is set in set in a dark or mysterious place.
Gothic literature is a style of literature that takes place in the past, most of the time it has someone who dies and it has a creepy vibe/tone behind it . Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” is a good example of Gothic literature because it shows how a man goes to visit an old friend and see how his friend and his friends twin sister die. “The whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day. ”(13)
Women in literature represent many things. They are sometimes omnipresent and protagonist, but also feared, dangerous and often completely forgotten. The role of women throughout the History of literature is quite representative and relevant to understand the Historical moment. Gothic is no exception.
Gothic Literature is a genre that was popular between 18th to 19th centuries in North Germany. It is always being associated with Dark Romanticism which the emphasize was more on nature, terror and death, horror and many more. It involves dark and gloomy setting and also unexplainable things that are beyond human senses and reason such as ghosts and monsters. The main characters, on the other hand, are always ineffectual which they do not give much effect on the story plot. This can be seen through Washington Irving’s “Rip van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” which can be considered as American gothic work in terms of its description of setting, the involvement of supernatural element in the story and also the characteristics of the main character.
A classic element of gothic fiction typically involves a threatening atmosphere and it is very important that this is not just part of the background, but forms a crucial part
The term gothic came into use in post-medieval times when the work of the Middle Ages men considered being crude & barbaric. I believe that this term was given to this style due to its structure; huge stone walls with pointed arches & gargoyles for example as mentioned by Jonathan Glancey, an architectural critic who worked as the architecture and design editor at ‘The Guardian’ in his book ‘Architecture: Eyewitness Companion Guide’, “High above the naves of these ship-like structures, and often well out of range of the human eye, we find expertly carved angels, demons, fronds, and finials: nothing was too good for the all-seeing eye of the heavenly
They seem simple, basic enough to the modern eye that one can barely take them seriously, it is not until we put ourselves into the shoes of an everyday London labourer that we begin to see the effects that these pieces could have had on people (Canny 55). Similarly, it is a strange experience to read a piece of gothic literature such as The Castle of Otranto and be told that it is in fact a horror story, as some may have read it and mistaken it for an early adventure into black comedy. While the language and imagery during the Depositions and Temple’s work are basic and almost primitive, it is difficult to deny that they have not inspired and been improved upon in future titles that we would eventually come to call gothic
In the early 18th century a new genre of fiction prose, named "Gothic Novel" was introduced. The term ”Gothic” used to refer to the German tribe of the Goths. The Gothic novel spread over the 19th century and had the popular theme of haunted places such as castles, crypts, gloomy monasteries; supernatural elements having the role to intensify the atmosphere. The characteristic motifs of the gothic genre were the strange places, the supernatural, magic objects, monsters, demons, science used for bad purposes. And many of them appear also in "The Picture of Dorian Gray".