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).
The horror story is a uniquely interactive genre. Its main objective is to make the reader feel something, whether that be fear, anxiety, suspense, or any combination thereof. These feelings are evoked with the use of a monster, depending on the story it can be an external source, like a vampire or werewolf, or it could be something inside one of the characters, something in their psyche. In her story, “The Grave”, P.D.Cacek utilizes the literary elements of symbolism, imagery, and point of view.
Gothic Literature is known to incorporate many gothic elements into it’s stories. Authors such as Ransom Riggs, Horacio Quiroga, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edward Poe have done a great job by proving this using elements like monsters, grotesqueness, and fascination with the past. In both the novel Mrs. Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children by Riggs and the short story “Feather Pillow” by Quiroga two main characters died suddenly by a monster. In Mrs. Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children Jacob finds his Grandpa Abe dead by a “tentacle-mouth horror in the woods” (Riggs 39).
When a person picks up a Horror Novel for the first time, they have no idea what is in store for them. Certainly they know the book will be quote unquote “scary”, but of course it will be scary. The sole purpose of that book is to scare the reader. Many horror books attempt but are unable to scare the reader, or if they do scare the reader, the book is not very well written. The three books that this essay is focusing on all do a brilliant job of not only terrifying the reader, but also using and exploiting many literary devices that make the book stick in the reader's memory.
One of the most common themes in horror literature is fear; fear of the unknown, fear of the powerful, fear of death, and more. There are so many aspects that pertain to something being fearful. Often the time period plays a huge role in this as well. There also are many different stigmas of what “fear” is in each time period. This creates a different meaning of “fear” in each story, as each story is unique and has many different factors like time period influencing what exactly is conderied fearful.
How do Literary Elements inflict a Scary Perception of a Publication? No matter the genre, filmmakers, authors, and artists all use a similar strategy to lure in their publications and attract their audience. Edgar Allen Poe’s renowned publications, “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” along with W. W. Jacob’s “The Monkey’s Paw,” are great examples of these literary techniques. Poe and Jacob’s use of elaborate imagery, repeating symbolism, and the overall mysterious setting of a publication all come together to create a suspenseful and scary environment that stimulates the audience’s perception of horror. First of all, the appalling imagery in “The Cask of Amontillado” conveys fear to the reader.
Have you ever read a story that causes chills or your emotionally invested in a character. The story’s Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The mysteries of udolpho by Ann Radcliffe are literature that are centered in fear. These story’s cause suspense or has ghost or some type of monster. A gothic is a great example of fear in literature. The settings, characters, and story line has a way of making the reader invested by hooking to their emotions.
All gothic literature are structured to have at least one gothic element within the story, but most show that they posses more than one. Some of these stories are the devil and tom walker by Washington Irving, Prey by Richard Matheson, and The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe. These elements include revenge, grotesqueness, and presence of the supernatural. One of the less common themes in gothic literature is revenge. Although revenge is something that is nothing new to us at all, we are all aware of it and what it can makes us do.
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.
Stephen King has changed the way people view horror by bringing in factors to show horror in a way that has never been seen before. “King’s writing has always displayed significant literary qualities, particularly ongoing literary themes that have shaped how we understand horror as well as ourselves” (Romano). Stephen King mad a big impact when he changed the way the characters act. “He [King] can do this because his boys and men tend to be nerds and outcasts who already exist outside traditional masculine norms. The bookish nerdy kid is relatively uncommon in mainstream adult fiction before King came along; now we recognize such characters as hallmarks of genre literature” (Romano).
He even learned some of their speech. But in a really dark way he spying stealing and learning from these people. Next I will talk about the castle that the monster was created in and this relates to the theme of the story because of what it is. A creepy dark and evil castle where life is given to the unholy monstrosity. Over all the gothic is more focused towards the supernatural then the grotesk and disturbing.
Firstly, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Mystifications of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe are two Gothic novels that probe the theme of fear. Both novels
Horror is the most blood curdling of all man’s passions. Human fascination with fear drives an industry of cultivating genres full of frightful, gorey content for entertainment purposes. Sudden frights startle audiences and inspire awe and apprehension; though the most chilling, dismal displays of pure terror come from the deepest, darkest pits of human misery. To truly terrify, one must convey a torment so unrelentingly pertinent that every terrific aspect strikes the witness as an undeniable reality. Humans, the greatest source of pain and suffering, afford authors the chance to capture a tormented soul in writing and control a reader’s heart.
In this part of the essay, Lovecraft explains the origins of horror in the history of horror literature. Horror is one of the most old things in the world, it is as old as speech and it appears in the folklore of all races (Lovecraft, 1927). Lovecraft thought that horror was born in humanity itself, in rituals, demons and spectres, reaching its highest point in Egypt and the semitic nations and influenced by the Book of Enoch and Claviculae of Solomon (Lovecraft, 1927). Then, tales of witches, werewolves, druids, vampires, ghouls, sacrifices and similar thing improved horror during the Middle Ages, with cults and the Gothic ecclesiastic arquitectural style with gargoyles like the ones of Notre Dame and St Michel a bit later.
A classic element of gothic fiction typically involves a threatening atmosphere and it is very important that this is not just part of the background, but forms a crucial part
