The Devil And Tom Walker Gothic Elements

Various gothic elements are depicted by the following gothic writers: Washington Irving, Richard Matheson and Edgar Allan Poe; elements such as: entrapment and supernatural characteristics are illustrated in the short stories: “The Devil and Tom Walker;” “Prey;” and “The Raven.” Entrapment was a significant element represented in all of the short stories aforementioned. In, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” soon after Tom Walker established his broker’s shop in Boston “he made money hand over hand, became a rich and mighty man, and exalted his cocked hat upon "Change." He built himself, as usual, a vast house, out of ostentation, but left the greater part of it unfinished and unfurnished, out of parsimony. He even set up a carriage in the fulness of his vain-glory, though he nearly starved the horses which drew it”(Irving 326). Irving illustrates

Entrapment was also expressed in, “Prey,” when the doll of death is chasing after Amelia with lust for her blood, Amelia looks for an escape route through the front door when, “The door was held. Amelia reached up quickly to the bolt. It had been shot” (Matheson 6). Matheson illustrates physical entrapment in this quote, as she can not escape the doll that is out to kill her; however, this quote also illustrates symbolic mental entrapment, as Amelia’s mom continually holds her back from living her life, thereby trapping her inside to effectively die. Notwithstanding, entrapment was illustrated in, “The Raven,” as the ebony bird was fluttering above the widowered man’s chamber door Poe writes, “Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore! Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore””(Poe 4). Poe