In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and Julio Cortazar’s “House Taken Over,” the setting were similar because they both took place in a creepy house . However, in Poe’s story, the setting is in a creepy, almost broken down house. By contrast, Cortazar’s setting takes place in a big house that was very clean.
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.”
Imagination overcomes reason when something happens that could be the result of something wicked, however you do not know. An example of this happening is when your parents call you saying they will be home at 6:00 p.m. although they do not show up at that instant and it becomes 6:30 so you worry that they could have caused a car accident. This demonstrates that imagination overcame reason, because you think they could have caused a car accident, nevertheless in reality there was just a ton of traffic. Another example is when your doorbell rings very late at night when nobody should be ringing it so you think it might be an evil person or something else. This also proves imagination overcame reason, because you think of the worst possible outcome even though in reality your parents just ordered pizza inordinately late without telling you. Therefore, imagination can overcome reason when something happens that you think should not have happened.
What is tone? Tone is the an attitude of a writer about the subject of the piece. For example, the narrator starts by saying “DURING the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.” As the narrator is approaching the house, the tone is horrific. At the end of the story, as the narrator sees all the catastrophic events happening to the house, he changes to a careful and calm manner tone. The fall of the house of usher uses a gothic tone throughout the story, in this case we can see different tones.
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. The book Rebecca by Daphne du Marier is the epitome of the Gothic literary genre because it involves a witch-like character, a Gothic hero, and it is set
In Daphne du Maurier’s gothic-style novel, Rebecca, develops one of her main characters, Maxim de Winter, into a classic gothic hero. A gothic hero possesses certain features including: some degree of a tragic life experience, high social rank, constant foreshadowing of doom, a strong sexual element, etc. du Maurier’s character development of Mr. de Winter is excellent because he portrays all of the features of a gothic protagonist. Throughout Rebecca, Maxim de Winter exhibits the characteristics of a gothic hero: having some degree of tragic stature, having a tendency to be influenced by past events, and having an occasional association with what is non-human.
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.
The Woman in Black is a novel that was written by Susan Hill in the attempt to imitate gothic literature in the late 18th century. In doing this she hopes to terrify and intrigue the reader with various techniques in which I will go through over the course of this essay. By using this methods she attempts to amplify the feelings of the atmosphere and create a weary environment filled with tension and suspense. Various traditional gothic techniques are used, in order to gain a sense of fear and insecurity. The author, Susan Hill, attempts to balance gothic ideas, like pathetic fallacy, with gothic literary devices, such as short sentences and repetition to maintain the readers full divided attention. These are just a few of the wide variety
Why does gothic horror even matter in literature? Gothic horror can create numerous ideas found within a novel more interesting or suspenseful about what will happen next. These stories use different characteristics to create a gothic atmosphere in the story. During the Victorian era, the idea of gothic literature grew in popularity. It is influenced by countless ideas, including religious themes around this time period, and usually reflects on the characteristics of the people living in the Victorian era. For example, a large number of people would like to be surrounded in a world containing plenty of mystery and suspense. Then again, a supernatural force can show what someone might or might not want to become. On top of that, a doppelganger in gothic literature definitely represents who the reader should avoid being. As a result, gothic horror is important to a reader because of how it can connect to their lives in a certain way. In the novel Dracula, author Bram Stoker focuses on multiple elements of gothic horror which apply to several of the characters in the novel and can compare to contemporary works that have gothic elements, as well.
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.
In our class, I have read two short gothic stories, The Veldt and The Lottery. Both stories have similar elements of gothic literature in them. I shall be explaining the two stories and the elements in this essay. The two stories I have read both are very similar. The plot starts off normally for their respective genres, some subtle foreshadowing soon after, then the story suddenly turns very dark and ends.
The earlier gothic works as well as Dracula covered something that is outside the social norm. Female sexuality, something that was unacceptable and under the surface of society, it is exposed in these writings. The earlier readings such as Carmilla, as well as the poem of Christabel question the boundaries. The texts from these literature pieces contain passages of female sexuality and the passages contain phrases that hint towards the social taboos. In the era when women were thought of mere objects these pieces decide to give them a personality or at least a voice that can express desire, a voice that states women have a purpose apart from pleasing men. The literature pieces help explore the subject of female sexuality, as time progress the amount of female sexuality increases. Women can desire, they can have aspirations, even though shown as vampires the text still suggests that they are women. The gothic writing of Victorian era such as Dracula, Carmilla, and Christabel help
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.
One day, the marquis suggests that Julia should marry Duke de Luovo, an old, evil character, quietly the same as her father. Julia refuses to marry the duke and sinks in deep grief and depression but finally convinced by her brother Ferdinand to elope with Hippolitus, the night before her wedding. Unfortunately, their escape is failed; the Marquis and the Duke attack the couple in the hollow tunnels underneath the castle. The marquis stabs Hippolitus and throws Julia in a solitary boarding prison located on the remote south part of the castle grounds. 25
1. The 1641 Depositions and John Temple’s The Irish Rebellion might be described as ‘proto-Gothic’ (Killeen, Gothic Ireland 31). Describe in detail and with reference to both Depositions and The Irish Rebellion how these texts set the stage for the later emergence of gothic literature in Ireland.