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Gothic Elements Research Paper

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Gothic Elements Essay

There are many types of genres, but one of the most interesting has to be the gothic genre. Stories that are considered “gothic” contain gothic elements that help the story be gothic. These elements include: Gothic setting, High emotion, an Atmosphere of mystery and/ or suspense, Byronic heroes, Damsels in distress, Hereditary curses, secrets, and doubles. A few authors known for writing gothic literature include Edgar Allan Poe and Mary Shelly. The story “Adventure of the German Student” written by Washington Irving is about a depressed student who is sent to Paris by his friends in efforts to cheer him up and has a surprising encounter with a beautiful stranger. …show more content…

In “Adventure of the German Student” the protagonist Gottfried Wolfgang, invited a beautiful stranger to stay the night in his home and ran errands the following morning. However, when Wolfgang returned, he found the stranger dead. According to the text it states, “When he returned, he found the stranger lying with her head hanging over the bed, and one arm thrown over it. He spoke to her, but received no reply. He advanced to awaken her from her uneasy posture. On taking her hand it was cold---there was no pulsation---her face was pallid and ghastly.--- I a word-- she was a corpse” (Irving 5). Finding someone dead in your home without any explanation on what happened or how it happened can be eerie and make someone uneasy about the situation. In addition, it also makes you question what is going to come. In “Sonata for Harp and Bicycle” Jason Ashgrove stays in the Grimes building after five to search for its secret. While he wanders through the vacant offices he encounters a presence which leads him to the openwork platform and pressures him to jump off. According to the author it states, “How about it?” the whisper mocked him. “How about jumping? It’s an easy death compared with some” (Aiken 7). This shows that it can be ominous when a supernatural force is telling someone to commit suicide. Furthermore, this can give the reader a feeling of apprehension

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