How Does Bradbury Use Corruption In Gothic Literature

Ray Bradbury’s 1962 gothic literature novel Something Wicked This Way Comes utilizes specific crucial moments in the story to carve a path for the inclusion of gothic elements to drive the reader's immersion into the eerily and of the uncanny mood of the story.

One of the important gothic elements found in this story is purity vs corruption, and it takes on many forms throughout the book. By juxtaposing these two elements against each other, Bradbury was able to portray the contradictions of humanity vs. the inhumane. For instance, when Tom Fury is violently transformed into a dwarf, “his eyes like broken splinters of brown marble now bright-on-the-surface mad” (Bradbury 155). (Simile, Symbolism) This quote showcased how Mr. Fury’s once

This was used to envelop the reader in the setting of gothic literature and the carnival's hidden intention.On page 47 the train of the carnival came into view of the two protagonists: “The wails of a lifetime were gathered in it from other nights in other slumbering years; the howl of moon-dreamed dogs, the seep of river-cold winds through January porch screens which stopped the blood, a thousand fire sirens weeping, or worse! The outgone shreds of breath, the protests of a billion people dead or dying, not wanting to be dead, their groans, their sighs, burst over the earth!” The train's arrival, like the merry-go-round, disrupts time, highlighting the evil and foreboding power and significance of 3:00am in this book, known as the “souls midnight” ; it refers to a time of inner/moral conflict, where one’s soul is at its weakest. This brings in a supernatural atmosphere with its collective history of sorrow at its whistle. Through the many centuries the train experienced all variations of suffering, it revealed the heavy burdens that the train carries from the carnivals' vile actions, how it was described to bear the universal suffering of the world.The train shares an allure related to the carnival, amplifying one of the story's themes of the corrupting influence of the human desire. The mood of the story establishes the uncanny and eariness of the narrative, from distorting the once thought to be playful and ordinary carnival, becomes a haunting spectacle, where innocence is twisted to malevolence. Machines such as the merry-go-round or the train, transform the carnival through the gothic atmosphere and the accompanying supernatural events. To alter what was once known as a playful attraction, it challenges the reader to go into deep introspection of the unknown evils from the carnivals crooked attractions which illustrates how the vile description of the train