'Jane Eyre' is a narrative of darkness, shadows and eerie light. The female gothic genre, therefore, is a significant element within the narrative in which the author explores a woman's roles within society and her home, which leads to the protagonist’s dangerous attempts to challenge, protest and break free of these roles. Bronte applies the mysterious, the supernatural, the horrific and the romantic; to accentuate this. I will analyse the significance of the gothic forms used in Jane Eyre looking specifically at the use of; gothic paraphernalia, supernatural events, death scenes, the heroine, the male tyrant, other evil woman and good lover. Body Gothic paraphernalia is first shown in the novel in the form of the red room.
“Come, thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, that my keen knife see not the wound it makes” (I. V. 56). The darkness that Lady Macbeth called upon seems to be the cruelty that she needs to commit her Duncan’s death. This then lets the readers see the image of the scene about to unfold in their mind. Foreshadowing and aside are both Rhetorical devices used Macbeth but they are used in different manners. Foreshadowing plays an important role in Macbeth because most of the action of the play is hinted at before it happens.
In Macbeth, the darkness in the hearts of the characters either disappear or the characters realize what the darkness had done to them. When the images of witches are brought up in any piece of literature, they are usually associated with darkness and/or evil. This is also the case in Macbeth. Shakespeare uses many techniques to enforce this stereotype of witches. He uses pathetic fallacy to convey the dark surroundings as they “Hover through the fog and filthy air” (1 .
Frankenstein: The Traditional Gothic Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is, without a doubt, an iconic piece of Gothic literature. The Gothic genre evokes dread and horror within its readers and explores the extremes of human emotion, the unknown and supernatural, destiny, and impending doom. The story of Victor Frankenstein’s quest for knowledge and the tragedy which befell him when he tried to equal God and nature has filled the hearts and minds of readers with sadness, terror, and intrigue. The creature which he breathed life into has become a symbol of the dangers of science and how an innocent soul can be driven to barbarism. Overtime, the novel has become synonymous with gothic literature.
Byronic heroes were used to describe Lord Byron by his jilted lover, Lady Caroline. She would describe him as “mad, bad and dangerous to know” (Wikipedia). The term reflects a flawed character and has some of the same characteristics of a Gothic character, with more of Byron’s “negative” characteristics thrown into the mix. Such character istics would include: bipolar, hates social norms, outcast, sexuality (homosexual, prostitute), cynical, loner, and self-destructive (Wikipedia). The features of Gothic fiction are both psychological and physical.
Is Frankenstein a Gothic Story? Can Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” be classified as a Gothic Story? Gothic Literature has multiple elements. The “Frankenstein” text is well written and Shelley uses different Gothic Elements to prove that it is a Gothic text; she uses distinctive diction to create fear and horror and has a staggering way of portraying the setting of the story. The first Gothic Element is setting which is a key aspect in the story; the setting is a unique part of the story because it states the time, place, and circumstances in which a novel takes place, and often it is dark and menacing, to reflect the mood of the novel.
Compare The Examination Of Abnormal Psychology English Literature Essay The abnormal mental state of the narrators in both Browning’s poetry and in Banks’ novel, The Wasp Factory, is intrinsic in achieving the gothic style. Whilst the protagonists’ insanity is more implicit in Browning’s poetry, the narrators, nevertheless, display similar characteristics of psychosis and delusion. Indeed, this madness disconnects the characters from the rest of society, and this element of monstrosity is vital in creating the intrigue and terror that ensues. Inclusion of such monstrous figures destabilises the ‘natural order’: it challenges the fixed social structures and ideology, and becomes inconsistent with what the majority considers both acceptable and intelligible. Yet, whilst on the surface gothic works may appear to reinforce these seemingly grotesque characteristics, in many respects, through exposing the ‘unnatural’, they deconstruct the illogical, and thereby attempt to create a set of social norms.
With his tale of corrupt patriarchy filled with mystery, romance, and tragedy, Horace Walpole bridged the gap between the wantonly romantic and the excessively realistic (Scott 11); filling the space with dark settings, stark characters and tangled narratives. It was the sum of all these parts that became the formula that is still followed today by writers of the genre. This essay will outline various elements of the typical gothic novel, and the way in which they are associated with excess in the themes, characterisation, and style of writing. In doing so, the differences in the techniques used in Walpole’s novel Castle of Otranto, and M.R James’s short story Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad, will be identified and discussed. The primary objective of Gothic novelists is to rouse the reader into eliciting emotional responses such as shock or fear (Hume 284).
With no real purpose but to be mindlessly massacred. Through personification, the guns responsible for taking so much human life are made out to be monstrous, even evil. The poem also likens their deaths to a funeral, but one where the bells are shots, and the mourning choirs are the army's bugles. The drawing down of the blinds, the traditional sign to show that the family is in mourning, has been likened to the drawing of a sheet to cover the dead. Through various literary techniques, Wilfred Owen enhances the meaning of the poem.
The only love that is epitomized in the novel is that of the self, which proved to be perhaps its most gothic aspect. However it does consist of many classic gothic elements. One of its most striking devices is the gothic atmosphere that surrounds the novel on instances such as when Dorian is taking Basil to the room where he hides the notorious painting and the light from the lantern causes shadows on the walls and the wind rattles the windows. Another instance is when Dorian tries to visit the opium den; “A cold rain began to fall, and the blurred street-lamps looked ghastly in the dripping mist. The public-houses were just closing, and dim men and women were clustering in broken groups round their doors.