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Examples Of Fear In Gothic Literature

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The Dangerous Repercussions of Fear

Fear is a sense that can improve daily life. If you are in a dark neighborhood with run-down buildings, fear is what stops you from moving forward. Fear makes the senses more acute and restrains you from making irrational decisions. However, fear can also do the exact opposite, clouding rational thoughts and causing paranoia. Fear can be extremely dangerous to the mind in the right circumstances. This concept is commonly found in gothic literature, usually giving examples of how fear can be negative. For example, the poet Edgar Allan Poe wrote three stories, the “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Masque of Red Death”, and “The Pit and the Pendulum”, that exemplify this idea using literary devices. Poe uses symbolism, irony, and imagery to demonstrate how fear and paranoia can warp your sense of …show more content…

The narrator, after being inquired by the Spanish, was thrown in a eerie, dark dungeon. Poe describes, “...the tall candles sank into nothingness; their flames went out utterly; the blackness of darkness supervened; all sensations appeared swallowed up in a mad rushing descent as of the soul into Hades. Then silence, and stillness, and night were the universe” (63). This description depicts the fear the narrator was feeling as he descended into the dungeon and describes how the inquisitors are not the angels he thought they were. Surprisingly enough, the narrator did not have an unnatural obsession or fear of death. Even in an extremely dark room, the narrator remained calm. He was scared, but he didn’t let that fear cloud rational thoughts and actions. He knows that he can survive for longer if he remains stoic. Using rationality and cleverness to stay alive should be the number one priority. No matter how dismal the situation looks, there is always hope. Staying hopeful and keeping a balance of emotion and rationality can save

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We live our lives in fear. Some of us fear failure, maybe you fear the dark, others fear heights. While some of humanities fears may be irrational, there is no denying that everyone experiences fear. But how does fear affect us? How does it affect our actions?

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Fear can turn human beings into monsters. It can also change actions, thoughts, and others' thoughts. Fear can change human actions from exile to horrid in a second. In the teleplay, Les Goodman's car started when no one else could. And when the woman said he looks up at the stars at night.

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Poe uses symbolism a lot in his stories to make his writing have a more eerie feeling. ”The Tell-Tale Heart” and “Masque of Red Death” both have symbols that induce fear into the main characters hearts. In The Tell-Tale Heart Poe writes “...for it was no the old man who vexed me but his evil eye “(75).The narrator kills an innocent old man for that hr thought the old man's eyes were judging. Although the old man just had cataracts ,the narrator could not stand the man for his eye he compared looked as vulture's eye. The narrator was afraid of this old man and his “evil eye”.

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353 Words | 2 Pages

Fear is definitely not always a harmful emotion. Fear influences people to take extreme measures as well as act irrationally to emotion. While fear is one of the main emotions people face, this emotion pushes people to do what they desire. It drives people to madness, and throughout history, caused people to commit extreme acts. In Arthur Miller’s play, fear drives characters to extreme actions in order to save the reputation or their lives.

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The Fear of Reality Fear dominates various aspects of life. It can elicit physiological and emotional responses that greatly influence an individual’s reaction. For example, fear can cause an individual to experience an adrenaline rush that gives someone an extra burst of energy to lift a car or quickly flee from a situation. Fear can also cripple an individual by producing intense feelings of anxiety and nervousness.

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1492 Words | 6 Pages

Humans are born to be afraid. A feeling of fear is only natural for humans to feel; it is a part of who we are. However, it can be more than just a feeling. Fear can be a weakness in humans even though it is only our natural instinct for survival. Sometimes, fear is so powerful that it can blur our rationality and dominate how we think and what we do.

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547 Words | 3 Pages

Dr. Nichols (2010) writes; “Many fears are positive and productive because they prod [one] to do something about fearful situations” (p. 23). “Fear is a healthy, natural response that can turn unhealthy and manipulative” (Nichols, 2010, p. 70). The concept of action should be one of encouragement because fear can cause anxiety, anger, and depression. Anxiety “wastes mental, physical, and spiritual energy” (Nichols, 2010, p. 54), and anger is a “dangerous emotion that becomes a distraction from the main problem” (Nichols, 2010, p. 57). Fear can also cause bodily damage over a period of time, including heart disease, cancer, and damage to the immune system (Nichols,

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1118 Words | 5 Pages

Have you ever read a story that causes chills or your emotionally invested in a character. The story’s Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The mysteries of udolpho by Ann Radcliffe are literature that are centered in fear. These story’s cause suspense or has ghost or some type of monster. A gothic is a great example of fear in literature. The settings, characters, and story line has a way of making the reader invested by hooking to their emotions.

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648 Words | 3 Pages

Has fear ever caused you to commit an act you knew was morally wrong? Fear can get a hold of someone and completely change their morals, concerns, or how they feel about certain people. It can cloud your mind and make you think irrationally in certain situations. Fear is a feeling that can harm someone emotionally and physically. In stories such as: “The Tell-Tale Heart”, ”The Pit and the Pendulum”, and “The Masque of Red Death”, Edgar Allan Poe displays the use of symbolism, irony, and imagery to paint a picture in the reader’s mind.

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Throughout the story, Poe’s symbolic nature imbues fearful emotions about the narrator’s true fear of time until death. Poe builds up the fear in the audience by using the narrator’s point of view to describe the horrid scent, dark visuals, and frightening sounds discovered after the narrator’s plunge into the pit. For instance, the narrator described his experience saying “I could no longer doubt the doom prepared for me…the pit, typical of hell and regarded by rumor as the ultima Thule of all [Inquisitors’] punishments.” (288) This ominous pit is epitomized to be the worst of the Inquisitorial agent’s punishments since it incites despair upon the captured.

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Fear is not always a harmful emotion. Through fear, we have learned life-long lessons that not everything will work in our favor. We have grown around the definition that fear is “an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain or be a threat” but never that the emotion is a natural and a helpful response. The Crucible, Farewell to Manzanar, and a George Takei interview all provide examples of how fear can be both harmful and beneficial.

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1377 Words | 6 Pages

Fear can be defined as an unpleasant feeling triggered by a situation. It is an emotion encountered by every human being. However, the reactions of people to fear may vary. Indeed, it ranges from the loss of rationality to the capacity of adaptation in extreme conditions. Thus, fear can be perceived as a weapon to control and manipulate society.

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945 Words | 4 Pages

Secondly, in “The Pit and the Pendulum”, the narrator compares his sleep, to that of death, and gives the Pit human characteristics. As an example,Poe writes, “A deep sleep fell upon me-- a sleep like that of death(67)”. In the quote, the narrator describes his sleep as being so deep, that it could be compared to death it self. Maybe it could have been a bit of foreshadowing to his own death, or that of the inquisitors who held him

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1354 Words | 6 Pages

Compare and contrast Fear is like a disease, it will worsen, and spread until your ability to think has vanished and you begin to die. Fear is a powerful tool used by many authors to create good stories. Many elements contribute to making the idea of fear in story too.an example of fear in stories is  the The Lottery by Shirley Jackson  and Examination Day by Henry Slesar. The Lottery takes place at a village that hosts a lottery every year. The main character, tessa, wins it and gets stoned to death due to tradition.

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974 Words | 4 Pages

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Mention the gothic, and many readers will probably picture gloomy castles ... However, the truth is that the gothic genre has continued to flourish and evolve … producing some of its most interesting and accomplished examples in the 20th century-in literature, film and beyond – Carlos Ruiz Zafon.1 1.1. Gothic Meaning and Definition Notoriously, Gothic is hard to confine. This term signifies variety of meanings.

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