ipl-logo

'Prey': The Elements Of Gothic Literature

526 Words3 Pages

Gothic literature can make you feel like you are in the story. It provides a dubious feeling and is some of the most descriptive writing out there. Pretty much all gothic literature can be connected through the gothic elements within the story. In the short stories, “Prey”, by Richard Matheson, “A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner, and “The Raven”, by Edgar Allen Poe, gothic elements such as grotesqueness and supernatural events connect together.
In “Prey”, by Richard Matheson, The author writes that the main character “felt warm blood running down her skin”(Matheson 4). In this case, The element of grotesqueness is used to formulate the situation and make you feel what the girl in the story feels. In “A Rose For Emily”, it is said that …show more content…

If it were not for this elements, gothic literature would not be where it is today. In one of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous writings, “The Raven”, the notorious raven looks at the main character and says the words, “nevermore”(Poe). The reader doesn't know how or why the raven spoke, but that is exactly what the writer wants. In “Prey”, a lamp across the room that was previously on, “went out”(Matheson 4) when the spirit was roaming around. This element connects these two stories because they are both trying to accomplish the exact same thing. They both want the reader to be afraid and feel that they are in jeopardy. The main character in “Prey”, said that “she thought she heard a noise behind her-fragile, skittering”(Matheson 5). BY the character saying this, is makes the reader afraid. The way they are doing this is by creating a feeling of mystery. The reader wants to know where the spirit doll is in “Prey”, but it won't show itself and remains anonymous. All they know is that it is close. It keeps readers thrilled because they know that the spirit is chaotic and just waiting to cause havok. Supernatural events such as these examples and crucial to gothic

Show More
Related

  • Compare And Contrast The Fall Of The House Of Usher And House Taken Over

    459 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gothic literature is a style of literature that takes place in the past, most of the time it has someone who dies and it has a creepy vibe/tone behind it . Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” is a good example of Gothic literature because it shows how a man goes to visit an old friend and see how his friend and his friends twin sister die. “The whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day. ”(13)

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Black Cat And The Cat From Hell

    854 Words  | 4 Pages

    This technique is used usually to attract readers and to make them feel entertained. It makes people curious as people don’t know what is going to happen and people tend to predict what is going to happening, which the technique Foreshadowing gives clues on what is going to happen. So “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe, uses a significant amount of literary devices such as symbolism, suspense, foreshadowing. Poe added a lot of suspense in the story, such as unusual characters, because the man who owned Pluto is a drunk owner, which is strange and normally doesn’t appear in gothic stories (“One night, returning home, much intoxicated” | Paragraph 7).

    Read More

  • Masque Of The Red Death Literary Analysis

    1394 Words  | 6 Pages

    The authors’ use of strong imagery invokes strong emotions that give the audience a personal connection to the characters and events. In the “The Masque of the Red Death”, the theme is mortality. Poe shows how people are vulnerable to death, even after taking every possible precaution. Poe writes, “The mask ... was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse ... gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood - and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror” (6).

    Read More

  • Suspense In Roald Dahl's 'Lamb To The Slaughter'

    1734 Words  | 7 Pages

    Gothic Literature, both traditional and contemporary are sources of unpredictable, mysterious entertainment. For example, ‘The Signalman’ written in 1866 by Charles Dickens utilises the setting, imagery and symbolism, as well as the theme of supernatural to generate the tension in the story. On the other hand, ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ written by Roald Dahl exploits intense emotions such insanity and the theme of reality to conceive suspense. Both writers successfully integrate mystery into the stories to provoke suspense. To begin with, the setting in ‘The Signalman’ is used to generate thriller, especially the creepy, isolated tunnel and the Signalman’s post.

    Read More

  • Gothic Fiction In 'Where Is Here '?'

    745 Words  | 3 Pages

    Author Joyce Carol Oates ' discovery of the stories of Edgar Allen Poe and Ann Radcliff “sparked her interest in Gothic fiction”. These Gothic elements typically include gruesome or violent incidents, characters in psychological or physical torment, and strong language full of dangerous meanings. Oates herself is citied as saying that "Horror is a fact of life. As a writer, I’m fascinated by all facets of life". “Where is Here?" This story is sort of eerie and tells the tale of a grown-up man who goes back to visit his childhood home.

    Read More

  • Udolpho Frankenstein Analysis

    1118 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Suspense In The Tell Tale Heart Analysis

    765 Words  | 4 Pages

    Suspense is an integral part of storytelling. Without suspense, certain stories would not create their intended effect. Edgar Allen Poe wrote many books and poems, which were all under a gothic theme. His writings were very dark and mysterious, and they all contained suspense. Poe’s novel “The Tell-Tale Heart” and his poem “The Raven” contain suspense, which is created through point-of-view, irony, and diction.

    Read More

  • Roderick Usher Personification

    944 Words  | 4 Pages

    Laura Wakefield Mrs. Schnizler LNG 322 09 February 2018 Everyone Falls The death of a sibling takes a twisted and horrid turn. Roderick Usher is an unstable man with a sister named Madeline Usher who is dying from a disease. The Ushers are old friends with the narrator who goes unnamed the entire story.

    Read More

  • Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde Supernatural Analysis

    923 Words  | 4 Pages

    Much of Stevenson’s works have gothic or Victorian era characteristics. His is because he was raised in a time when Victorian literature and gothic literature were very popular. One characteristic of gothic literature is supernatural events or beings, thus, it is only expected his writings will feature supernatural events and beings. This leads the reader to believe that several supernatural events took place during this novel. Stevenson successfully intertwines the characteristics of gothic literature such as characters encountering supernatural creatures or events

    Read More

  • Literary Elements In Edgar Allan Poe

    1208 Words  | 5 Pages

    In many stories and poems; such as the Tell Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, The Raven, Annabel Lee, The House of Usher, and so many more timeless works, Edgar Allan Poe has been captivating his audiences with spine tingling thrillers through the words and style of his own twisted ways. The only way to describe where Poe’s writing belongs in history, would be classified as gothic genre. From the start of the 1800’s to present day and the future of literature, through irony, repetition, imagery, and symbolism Poe has been bewitching readers with his gore and insane writings. Poe’s life inspired so many of his poems, from focusing on taboo topics, such as death, revenge, love and loss. Poe’s life was painful and heartbreaking that

    Read More

  • The Gothic Influence In Rebecca By Daphne Du Marier

    1603 Words  | 7 Pages

    The Gothic Influence Although the word “Gothic” is often associated with supernatural creatures or haunted, abandoned places, the word actually originates from an elaborate style of architecture. The reason that the word “Gothic” has become associated with these ideas of horror and death is because the architecture was thought of the ideal place for mysterious, suspenseful, and dark stories to occur. These types of stories became known as the Gothic genre. The Gothic literary genre often includes elements of fear, death, and strong emotions, and is set in set in a dark or mysterious place.

    Read More

  • Edgar Allen Poe: The Writing Style Of Edgar Allan Poe

    1459 Words  | 6 Pages

    Of all gothic writers, Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most groundbreaking of them all. From The Cask of Amontillado, a story with integrated historical references of the time, to The Fall of the House of Usher, a deep and morbid story full of imagery. Anywhere from The Tell-Tale Heart, truly a story of both unique syntax and perspective, to The Raven, a poem full of symbols and eerie repetition. Through these and many more, Poe has been using his writing style to immerse people into his stories and poems alike since 1839. However, Poe is only able to accomplish this through his unique writer’s style, particularly his forceful imagery and meaningful syntax.

    Read More

  • Elements Of Gothic Elements In The Tell-Tale Heart

    1056 Words  | 5 Pages

    Gothic Elements in the “The Tell Tale Heart” The classic short story of “The Tell-Tale Heart”, written by one of the all time masters of horror, Edgar Allen Poe, has always been used as an excellent example of Gothic fiction. Edgar Allen Poe specialized in the art of gothic writing and wrote many stories that portrayed disturbing events and delved deeply into the minds of its characters. In "The Tell-Tale Heart," Poe revolves the plot around a raving individual who, insisting that he is sane, murders an old man because of his` “vulture eye”. The three main gothic elements that are evident in this story are the unique setting, the theme of death and decay, and the presence of madness.

    Read More

  • Supernatural Elements In The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow

    1029 Words  | 5 Pages

    Gothic Literature is a genre that was popular between 18th to 19th centuries in North Germany. It is always being associated with Dark Romanticism which the emphasize was more on nature, terror and death, horror and many more. It involves dark and gloomy setting and also unexplainable things that are beyond human senses and reason such as ghosts and monsters. The main characters, on the other hand, are always ineffectual which they do not give much effect on the story plot. This can be seen through Washington Irving’s “Rip van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” which can be considered as American gothic work in terms of its description of setting, the involvement of supernatural element in the story and also the characteristics of the main character.

    Read More

  • The Fantastic: A Structural Approach To A Literary Genre

    1441 Words  | 6 Pages

    In order to examine how postmodern women novelists manage to revise the figure of the female monster, it is worthy to point to the shift in the perception of the supernatural. In his seminal study The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre, Tzvetan Todorov defines uses the word “fantastic” both to define the supernatural and to denote a specific form of it. He writes: In a world which is indeed our world, the one, we know, a world without devils, sylphides, or vampires, there occurs an event which cannot be explained by the laws of this same familiar world. The person who experiences the event must opt for one of two solutions: either he is victim of an illusion of the senses, of a product of the imagination--and laws of the

    Read More

More about 'Prey': The Elements Of Gothic Literature

Open Document