Gothic Literature: The Fall Of The House Of Usher

Gothic literature is a popular literary genre that combines the elements of horror, mystery, and drama. These types of stories have a darker tone than most stories, making you want to turn all the lights on in your bedroom and curl up under the covers. But sometimes, the authors of these types of stories took things a little too far. Those authors make their stories feel like they aren’t actually happening. There are Gothic stories that make you feel safe with the lights off, but there are others that make you wish that daylight never ended.

There are many elements that make a Gothic novel what it is. There main antagonists are supernatural beings, the setting is a spooky or dreary estate with bad weather, the dialogue is odd, and the stories take place in the olden days. A perfect example of this is Edgar Allen Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher. The Fall of the House of Usher took place in the 1800s at the old Usher Estate in the dreariest part of the country. At the end of the story, Roderick Usher is killed by his sister, Madeline, by

It felt real, and it was scary. Although, there are some Gothic stories that are not really scary. An example of this would be the short story House Taken Over by Julio Cortazar. The major flaw of the story is that the characters didn’t seem to care at all. The story is about two siblings who live in a large home that is later taken over by unknown characters. Because of the break-in, they had trouble sleeping, but they didn’t seem to care during the daylight! Cortazar didn’t explain if they were scared about dying in the middle of the night or something. The story then ends with the siblings escaping the house, with the brother throwing the key away. They locked the strangers inside their home. The only Gothic element of the story was the spooky estate. House Taken Over is claimed to be an important piece of Gothic literature, but it wasn’t really scary at