Isolation at the Heart of Gothic Literature One of the key aspects of Gothic literature is the idea of isolation from "normal" society, in desolate settings like haunted buildings and remote valleys. These allow the characters to behave in other ways than the norm and in some cases to experience the supernatural through the power of their imagination and fears because of the lack of the normalizing influence of society. In all of the following examples the leading women of the stories are confined within a realm of their own femininity and in physically isolated environments that reflect this state of mind. In The Chrysanthemums John Steinbeck utilizes the setting as a way to highlight the protagonists loneliness. He begins the story by introducing …show more content…
To reassure herself that God is there for her instead, in her final moments Granny thinks: "God, give me a sign! For the second time there was no sign. Again no bridegroom and the priest in the house. She could not remember any other sorrow because this grief wiped them all away. Oh no, there's nothing more cruel than this—I'll never forgive it. She stretched herself with a deep breath and blew out the light" (82). Granny once again looks for a sign from God, but is also left alone and jilted once again on her own when the candle blows out and she dies. Hester Prynne from Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is one character from Gothic Literature who truly exemplifies the meaning of isolation because she is an outcast from the beginning. Her secret love affair with Dimmesdale separates her from the rest of society and "it had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity and enclosing her in a sphere by herself" (11). Her daughter Pearl is a physical manifestation of Hester's loneliness when her husband Chillingworth left her. As a result of this isolation Pearl develops a strange nature and becomes