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Gothic Elements Of Gothic Literature

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Gothic literature is surrounded by suspenseful elements that go together to create a sense of anxiety, which is exactly what Poe and Faulkner did with their stories. In “A rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, the story is based off the events that surrounds Emily Grierson and her strange life, which bounces from the time of her death to different time events in her life to create a wicked plot line. “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe is even more eery in the way the story is created. The story line follows the sole remaining members of the Usher family that have already-existing weird qualities such as the fact that both have strange diseases (Roderick suffers Acuteness of the senses and Madeline suffers from Catalepsy) that …show more content…

Gothic-horror -to be specific- fits the genre of the story perfectly and with such a clear example, it sets the standard for all gothic-inspired authors that followed Poe. The reason that the story would eventually grow to be such an excellent example to gothic literature is that it contains obvious signs of gothic characteristics such as betrayal, castles, death, psychologically ill characters etc. For example, in the introduction of the story, the narrator starts off by describing the desperate and gloomy looking run down castle that belongs to the Ushers. Then as the reader finds out that Madeline would eventually be buried alive when she was mistakenly presumed dead, the plot becomes even more intense. Besides the creepy and disturbing description that the narrator gives of the house or the environment such as the winds, the creepiest and most insane part of the story was the part when Madeline frantically climbs out of her coffin; “covered in blood and obviously struggling.” As Poe describes how she violently falls onto Roderick who then dies from a panic attack, the intent was to strike fear through the reader. If anything, the scene where the narrator escapes the house before it simply blows up from a lightning strike suggests that Poe was going through some stuff while writing this

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“ The Fall of the House of Usher “ by Edgar Allan Poe is a short story about a man named Roderick Usher who initiates some events such as evoking his friend The Narrator as a protagonist to the dreadful mansion. The images such as the house and gothic ambience are used to reinforce the idea of giving the mystery to the reader. Edgar Allan Poe uses gothic elements to show how they affect the atmosphere and the characters. In the beginning , the gothic atmosphere of the house is indicated with terrifying images such as “ dull, dark and soundless ” that the feeling of horror vaccinated into reader by the thoughts of the narrator.

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Hybridity In Nineteenth-Century Gothic Literature

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In Perils of the Night: A Feminist Study, Eugenia DeLamotte contends that “[g]othic terror has its primary source in an anxiety about boundaries,” particularly “the boundaries of the self” (12-13). Nineteenth-century gothic writers become obsessed by the uncanny fear of boundaries crossing that arises anxieties of “what distinguishes “me” from “the not-me”” (23). Nineteenth-century fin-de-siècle Female Gothic features the construction of pure national identity with reference to the relationship between the metropolitan center and the colonial periphery. Female monsters can also be a projection of the Victorian fear of the cultural Other that imperils the purity of the British blood through miscegenation. Judith Halberstam further examines the

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Love is a powerful thing, but when the desire and attraction become too strong, or even obsessive, it can lead to powerful consequences. As seen in William Faulkner 's, A Rose for Emily, a woman from an aristocratic family suffers from an obsessive love combined with understated oppression. Throughout the short story, Faulkner applies key elements of gothic literature, like rundown buildings, powerful emotions, and death, therefore creating a twisted tale. Throughout the tale, constant elements of gothic literature are reflected, especially in the atmosphere.

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Gothic Elements In The Fall Of The House Of Usher

942 Words | 4 Pages

(Poe 412).” One element of gothic literature is a gloomy or decaying setting. This scene describes the gloomy setting the literature place in. The dark setting foreshadows the dark theme of the story. The houses feature also represent Poe as himself as well.

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