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Laura Wakefield Mrs. Schnizler LNG 322 09 February 2018 Everyone Falls The death of a sibling takes a twisted and horrid turn. Roderick Usher is an unstable man with a sister named Madeline Usher who is dying from a disease. The Ushers are old friends with the narrator who goes unnamed the entire story.
The term gothic novel refers to stories that combine romanticism and horror. Common elements include supernatural events, mysterious places, and strange happenings. The Veldt also touched on overdependence of technology. Some famous novels include Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Dracula.
In gothic literature, the elements used by the author depicts how the piece of work is going to unfold. Authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and Washington Irving depict the themes of psychological issues and entrapment through the short stories: “Black Cat”by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven”by Edgar Allan Poe, and “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving. The gothic theme of entrapment is commonly used across various pieces of literature. Entrapment is the idea of being contained by something either physically, mentally, or emotionally.
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)
Arthur despairingly discloses, “Our baby son had been thrown clear, clear against another tree. He lay there crumpled on the grass below it, dead” (Hill 164). The author made sure that the woman carried through with the curse instead of breaking it. This is the true definition of a gothic element.
Why does gothic horror even matter in literature? Gothic horror can create numerous ideas found within a novel more interesting or suspenseful about what will happen next. These stories use different characteristics to create a gothic atmosphere in the story. During the Victorian era, the idea of gothic literature grew in popularity. It is influenced by countless ideas, including religious themes around this time period, and usually reflects on the characteristics of the people living in the Victorian era.
In many stories and poems; such as the Tell Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, The Raven, Annabel Lee, The House of Usher, and so many more timeless works, Edgar Allan Poe has been captivating his audiences with spine tingling thrillers through the words and style of his own twisted ways. The only way to describe where Poe’s writing belongs in history, would be classified as gothic genre. From the start of the 1800’s to present day and the future of literature, through irony, repetition, imagery, and symbolism Poe has been bewitching readers with his gore and insane writings. Poe’s life inspired so many of his poems, from focusing on taboo topics, such as death, revenge, love and loss. Poe’s life was painful and heartbreaking that
Gothic Elements in the “The Tell Tale Heart” The classic short story of “The Tell-Tale Heart”, written by one of the all time masters of horror, Edgar Allen Poe, has always been used as an excellent example of Gothic fiction. Edgar Allen Poe specialized in the art of gothic writing and wrote many stories that portrayed disturbing events and delved deeply into the minds of its characters. In "The Tell-Tale Heart," Poe revolves the plot around a raving individual who, insisting that he is sane, murders an old man because of his` “vulture eye”. The three main gothic elements that are evident in this story are the unique setting, the theme of death and decay, and the presence of madness.
Of all gothic writers, Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most groundbreaking of them all. From The Cask of Amontillado, a story with integrated historical references of the time, to The Fall of the House of Usher, a deep and morbid story full of imagery. Anywhere from The Tell-Tale Heart, truly a story of both unique syntax and perspective, to The Raven, a poem full of symbols and eerie repetition. Through these and many more, Poe has been using his writing style to immerse people into his stories and poems alike since 1839. However, Poe is only able to accomplish this through his unique writer’s style, particularly his forceful imagery and meaningful syntax.
Gothic is set as the mood and tone of this story. The gothic elements are the haunted house, the dull landscape, and the mysterious illness. The mood and the tone have some difference in this story. The mood that a reader can see it as is mysterious. The tone is how the writer feels towards what he is writing, in the story we see the changes in the tone.
(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.
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
usually associated with important events like the climatic, anticipating moments in the novel or the appearance of the evil figure .84 Thirdly, the Gothic Hero (Protagonist) , in any gothic fiction a vicious character is substantial to establish the atmosphere of horror . However, a gothic hero is not necessarily a gothic villain . As in early gothic novels, specifically Radcliffean gothic fictions, the gothic protagonist is simply a helpless heroine: The very words "Gothic heroine" immediately conjures up a wealth of images for the modern reader: a young, attractive woman running in terror through an old, dark, crumbling mansion in the middle of nowhere, from either a psychotic man or a supernatural demon.
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".
