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Southern Gothic Literature Analysis

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Southern Gothic Literature in “The Cask of Amontillado” A sub-genre of the “18th and early 19th Century Gothic fiction, Southern Gothic Literature spawned in the “mid-20th Century” (Weinauer, Ellen). Southern Gothic Literature is used to characterize the grotesques, in which doom and gloom are displayed. This is a method often utilized to represent strangeness as well as the untraditional. As an “artistic device” characterizing the grotesque allows writers to “expose, highlight, or conceal” the writers “individual apprehensions” (Agata). Southern Gothic Literature also implements fantastic incidents to create a scene that produces a “vivid emotional response” in the reader ("Southern gothic."). These are presented as natural as well as unnatural…show more content…
Violence is an indication of macabre. First, Poe translates this through the “shrill screams” of the subdued Fortunato (240). This use of macabre, assist Poe in revealing Fortunato’s fear of death and moreover his will to live by his chains “furious vibrations” (240). In addition, Montresor “re-echoed” and even drowned out the screams of Fortunato (240). Poe shows Montresors violent demonstration as macabre. Second, Poe represents the horror of the eventual death of Fortunato as macabre. Poe relates this horror through Fortunato thinking his situation to be “a very good joke” and a request to “let us be gone” (240). Although death is evident, Fortunato’s tries to negate his horror of death with the idea that he would be released due to it “growing late”, and his predicament being a rouse (240). Lastly, Poe uses Montresor’s succession of a murderous plot, and Fortunato’s suffrage and demise by a volatile nature as macabre as well. Fortunato’s unwillingness to reply, along with “only the jingle of the bells”, is Poe’s reflection of macabre (240). In addition, Montresor’s “heart grew sick” as he accomplished his task leaving Montresor to death stating “In pace requiescat!” (240).This is Poe’s final relation of macabre. In conclusion, Southern Gothic Literature has thrived since the late 20th Century. This literature engulfs its reader in numerous and astonishing ways. Southern Gothic Literature involves…show more content…
Agata. "Towards the understanding of the modern grotesque (1)." Journal of Literary Studies, vol. 19, no. 2, 2003, p. 205+. Literature Resource Center, http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.np.edu/apps/doc/A120395215/GLS?u=hot20953&sid=GLS&xid=747e5ca3. Accessed 26 Mar. 2018 "Gothic novel." The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide, edited by Helicon, 1st edition, 2016. Credo Reference, https://search-credoreference-com.ezproxy.np.edu/content/topic/gothic_fiction_literary_genre?institutionId=5249. Accessed 28 Mar 2018. Fisher, Benjamin F., and BENJAMIN F. FISHER. "Poe, Edgar Allan." Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Literature: The Encyclopedia of the Gothic, William Hughes, et al., Wiley, 1st edition, 2012. Credo Reference, https://search-credoreference-com.ezproxy.np.edu/content/topic/poe_edgar_allan_1809_1849?institutionId=5249. Accessed 28 Mar 2018. Benson, Sonia, et al. "Poe, Edgar Allan." UXL Encyclopedia of U.S. History, vol. 6, UXL, 2009, pp. 1242-1245. Student Resources In Context, http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.np.edu/apps/doc/CX3048900487/SUIC?u=hot20953&sid=SUIC&xid=196eb2b2. Accessed 27 Mar. 2018. Edgar Allen Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado” first published in Godey’s Lady’s Book, November, 1846. Literature for Composition, 11th ed., edited by Sylvan Barnet et al, Pearson, 2017, pp.
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