Gothic Elements In Gothic Literature

Gothic Literature started in the mid 1700’s in Europe. This form of writing began to grow more popular through the works of Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, and Emily Brontes. In America, gothic literature grew popular by the works of Edgar A. Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville. These writers grew more popular during the Romantic Era, which started in the late 1700’s, but it’s peak was from about 1800-1850. In Edgar A. Poe’s horror stories and poems, he uses several different gothic elements. In Edgar A. Poe’s, “The Cask of Amontillado”, he uses the gothic element of entrapment. The element of entrapment is shown when Montresor ”hastened to make an end of my labor. I forced the last stone onto its position; I plastered it up,” (Cask

Poe, the narrator has the feeling of the gothic element of explained supernatural. The narrator hears a “ringing became more extinct… I found that the noise was not within my ears” (Heart 4). The narrator hears noises after he kills the helpless old man after seeing his Evil Eye and he tries to explain what the noises were coming from. In Edgar A. Poe’s horror poem, “The Raven”, the gothic element of the revenant is present. This occurs when,”an echo murmured back the word,”Lenore!’ “. This is revenant because the speaker begins to go crazy and he hears several noises and his dead wife, Lenore, can be coming back to haunt him. The speaker can not stand living without his deceased wife and he now is going to be haunted by Lenore after she comes back from the dead. The short horror story, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the gothic element of revenant occurs. The narrator kills the old man and buries him in the floor. The police men show up after hearing a loud shriek coming from the house. The narrator was fine until the old man came back to haunt him. The narrator notices that a tapping “noise was not within my ears,” (Heart 4). The noise grew louder and louder and he couldn’t take it anymore. The narrator thinks the old man has come back from the dead to haunt him and his heart is still beating. The narrator tells the police to “ ‘tear up the planks! here, here! --It is the beating of his hideous heart!’ ”(Heart 4). The