Washington Irving is identified with the gothic with his “Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, however the gothic mode can also be identified in his story, “Rip Van Winkle”. To begin, both will be compared with their use of the Gothic Mode. Edgar Allan Poe’s writing set the mold for most gothic literature to follow. From “The Raven” to “The Tell-Tale Heart” his writing sets the reader on edge and fills them with unease. “Its style tends to be ornate, unnatural” (Carter 134).
The Devil and Tom Walker Gothic literature was and still is a very common form of literature in which the point of writing is to make people scared or to question their beliefs. It started around the Puritan times and was directly opposed to their views, so it was aimed at them to make them question their beliefs. Gothic literature is usually extremely dark and gloomy with more than a little death and decay throughout the story. It also almost always has some form of supernatural being or event. “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving is a perfect example of gothic literature because it has all of the characteristic features of it.
The language techniques that Shelley uses in the novel represent the genre of the gothic and also portray the fears and concerns about the era in which it was written. The aspects that can be taken into consideration when analysing the novel is the influence of Shelley’s personal life on the novel, the attitudes of people and family in the era and the character of Frankenstein. Chapter 4 starts immediately with a main feature of the gothic. Pathetic fallacy is a technique that Shelley uses well throughout this chapter as it creates an atmosphere and the reader can emphasise the setting. ‘It was a dreary night of November.’ Where Shelley describes it as a dreary night the reader gains an understanding of the setting of the scene and it is always in the back of the mind.
Half Hanged Mary, and Crucibles Compare and Contrast The poem of the Half hanged Mary by Margret Atwood and the novel The Crucibles by Arthur Miller, compare and contrast in many ways. Each are written in the time of the puritans during the conflicts of the Salem witch trials, the two stories are contrasted in the way of which they are composed, and their point-of-views. In many ways the two stories compare along their story line, and have very few contrasting factors. Atwood and Miller use each of their stories to depict the awful events of the Salem witch trials,Atwood by reveling the personal thoughts of Mary Webster as she was innocently hung by a tree, and Miller by creating the scene of the Salem witch trials from a whole town’s point of view. The Half hanged Mary and the Crucibles compare in the ways of each ones story lines up.
In Gothic literature, places and settings are often both interesting and important; they may stand for certain themes, reflect certain attitudes or adhere to Gothic elements such as a fascination with the past or the presentation of the sublime. However, what is particularly interesting about the presentation of places is how setting is used to reflect and mirror characters, and vice versa. Therefore to suggest that one aspect is more interesting than the other is perhaps an unfair claim when the two co-operate in such a manner. Mary Shelley makes use of the sublime in her novel Frankenstein, and associates vast, natural landscapes with Victor, Walton and the creature, often to highlight the isolation of the characters. Victor mentions the “sublime shapes of the mountains” in the chapter before the creature kills Elizabeth on their wedding night.
What are at least two common mental disorders one might find in Gothic stories? Two common mental disorders found in Gothic stories include Melancholia and Hysteria. 5. How are terror and horror different from one another, and how are they related to one another in Gothic literature? In Gothic literature, terror is described as being full of fear, or the fear of what we believe will be bad, whereas horror is described as someone in distress, or watching those bad things happen.
There are many gothic conventions in ‘Dracula’, and this is what makes it an eerie delight for the viewers, as well as making it fit into the ‘gothic’ genre. The movie is cleverly adapted from the book, sharing the same title- that was scribed by Bram Stoker. Some very common gothic elements include the theme of isolation and security. Both of these things can be seen in ‘Dracula’ The theme of isolation is presented by the way Dracula’s castle is shown to the viewers- dark, isolated from any form any other form of civilization in the middle of a great landscape consisting of myriad and secret passageways and being a ruin in itself. The settings presented are also dark and eeire, and Dracula himself lives in solitude with no other companion.
Edgar Allan Poe’s uses of terror and dark imagery have earned him a place among classic 19th century authors. The décor of his writing includes such familiar gothic set pieces as castles and mansions with human characteristics, underground passages, and characters with eclectic decorative tastes and creepy sexualities. These props are carefully placed within the context of a story in order to give Poe a strong impression of control: not only over his characters, but also over his audience by manipulating our senses and emotions, and forcing us to view things from different perspectives. He does this in several ways, using descriptive passages to introduce the mood of his unfolding drama, and a first person narrator to give his audience a sense that they are a part of the story. His method of presenting the details of a dramatic situation adds a sense of mystery that contributes to the fearful surroundings and helps build towards a climax.
To an increasingly large extent gothic literature is concerned with and obsession or fascination with death, however some may argue that this notion of death presents merely a sole characteristic of the gothic, and that perhaps there are alternative features that take predominance over it, such as the supernatural. We are first introduced to death almost immediately in Shakespeare's Macbeth although not presented to us we hear of Macbeths bloody actions and vicotrious acts of murder in war. Indeed, perhaps a strategic structural choice by shakespeare, to innitially present this almost positive side of 'death' to heavily contrast Macbeth's later actions, intensifying the extent of corruption and thus feeling of terror from the audience. Not only are we introduced to 'death' almost immediately, death proves to lie at the very heart of the play, highlighting the fascination with it, as it becomes almost the ultimate sin, this act of regecide, the death of the king provides the fundamental plot line. Not only are we as the audience fascinated by this concept of death, the main protagonist too becomes somewhat
I believe the genre for both stories would be considered gothic fiction. This is because they each have elements of both horror and romance. The romance is in the past however, as the couples relationship is now coming to an end. Mr. Carver also describes the setting as the end of winter or early spring, with snow melting and the water running off to make everything dirty.