The Stephen King’s short story, “The Reaper’s Image,” is considered by many to be one of the best pieces of American Gothic Literature. The story is centered around a mysterious, rare mirror called The Delver Glass. Sometimes, when people look into it, they see a haunting reaper. All who see it run away and mysteriously disappear. Its dark, bleak setting, supernatural events, and psychological torment makes the story a classic in the genre. The story takes the atmosphere of a museum and gives it a dark twist. Carlin, avid collector and keeper of the museum, is being visited by Johnson Spangler. The building is dim and cluttered with gothic statues and random worthless collections. The setting is described as having “Madonnas holding numberless …show more content…
The first symptom of the mirror is seeing the reaper. The doomed victims often doubt their vision as an anomaly. In Spangler’s case, he thought it was only friction tape, and the high schooler only saw a black splotch. Second, victims feel sick and realise that what they saw was, in fact, a cloaked man standing directly behind them. Lastly, when they cannot bare it any longer, doomed victims rush out of the room. This is, however not the only way the mirror has tormented people. Carlin alludes that until it was moved downstairs, many of the museum visitors would act strangely around it. One person, the sister of the high school victim, even tried to break the mirror. Carlin says, “There had been others -- harsh words, wild statements -- but this was an attempt to actually destroy the mirror. The woman, a Miss Sandra Bates, came in with a rock in her pocket. Fortunately her aim was bad and she only cracked a corner of the case. The mirror was unharmed” (King). The delver mirror has a very supernatural description. It is one of the few that has survived throughout the years and, even those intent on destroying it seem to miss. It torments everyone around it by making them say strange and harsh
The play “Permanent Collection” focuses on an African-American man who has just taken over an art museum named Sterling North. While digging through storage, he finds eight African sculpture pieces and wants to add them to the collection at the Morris Foundation on the campus of a college. The Director of Education Paul Barrow is hanging on to the words of Mr. Morris and his vision because he doesn’t want anything to change at the museum according to Mr. Morris’ will, which contributes to the title of the play “Permanent Collection.”
Edgar Allan Poe is known for some of the most horrifying stories ever written through out time. He worked with the natural world, animals, and weather to create chilling literature. Two most notable thrillers are “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Poe was infatuated with death, disfigurement, and dark characteristics of the world. He could mix characters, setting, theme,and mood in a way that readers are automatically drawn into reading. Both of these short stories have the same major aspects in common.
Written during the American Romanticism period, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” by William Irving, personifies the belief in the primacy of imagination. The period of Romanticism in America is often seen as the crucial period of American culture, as it was the central movement of the Renaissance period that moved into a more free-feeling and artistic approach to literature. American Gothic literature made its early appearance with William Irving, first with “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” in 1820, and carrying over to “The Devil and Tom Walker” in 1824, both of which use a macabre approach to establish a moral ending (Matterson). Told by a narrator known as Geoffrey Crayon, “The Devil and Tom Walker” takes on the tone of a legend or tall tale as the story describes the life of a greedy money lender by the name of Tom Walker, who sales his soul to the devil to gain wealth. Irving ultimately uses literary elements such as symbolism and character development, as well as including themes such as greed and hypocrisy to establish a moral to the corrupt man’s tale.
Gothic literature has greatly influenced today’s horror and suspense genres. Edgar Allan Poe wrote many short stories, most of which were filled with dark elements and a deep awareness for the capacity for evil. The Fall of the House of Usher is a key example of gothic literature through the use of grotesque characters, bizarre situations, and violent events. All of these elements come together and express dark impulses and emotion.
When writing a story that is meant to scare the reader, authors use a variety of different literary elements to intensify fear. This is apparent in the stories “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “beware: do not read this poem,” and “House Taken Over”. It is shown through transformation in the character, setting, and sometimes even the story or poem itself, adding to the scariness that the reader feels when reading it. While there are some examples of transformation not being scary or not playing a role in stories meant to scare us, transformation plays a crucial role in making the reader of these stories scared.
The writing style of Edgar Allan Poe shows the writer to be of a dark nature. In this story, he focuses on his fascination of being buried alive. He quotes, “To be buried alive is, beyond question, the most terrific of these [ghastly] extremes which has ever fallen to the lot of mere mortality.” page 58 paragraph 3. The dark nature is reflected in this quote, showing the supernatural side of Poe which is reflected in his writing and is also a characteristic of Romanticism. Poe uses much detail, as shown in this passage, “The face assumed the usual pinched and sunken outline. The lips were of the usual marble pallor. The eyes were lusterless. There was no warmth. Pulsation had ceased. For three days the body was preserved unburied, during which it had acquired a stony rigidity.” page 59 paragraph 2. The descriptive nature of this writing paints a vivid picture that intrigues the reader to use their imagination and visualize the scene presented in the text. This use of imagery ties with aspects of Romanticism because of the nature of the descriptions Poe uses. Describing the physical features of one who seems dead is a horrifying perspective as not many people thing about the aspects of death.
As the tour of the museum began, it was easily noticed that all of the objects on display were placed behind thick glass cases. Many plaques inside of the case provide the visitor with information about the specific case that is being looked at. In most cases the plaques didn’t so much provide an elaboration on the pieces, but rather expand upon the historical context of the pieces. Also, the plaques shed light onto muc...
Growing up, it's taught to always stay aware of your surroundings. Why is that? Is it to warn someone that they are going to trip over a curb, or is it based primarily on the lethal actions that are occurring amongst society. Either way, the cliche hopefully helps to develop an understanding that not everything in the world works at one’s favor. As a result, it should be noted that not all people have a positive mindset, and may be entertained with the awfulness and savagery that one may display. Furthermore, Stephen King states in the article, “Why We Crave Horror?” that horror helps humans alter their emotions depending on significant occurrences. This capability is known as our human condition. Also, King claims that it helps us humans face
We wonder what this great evil could be that makes evil itself tremble. Another personification used is ‘candle writing’. Candles are usually associated with gothic stories, as it is only a small source of light. within the vast darkness of the room.
Stephen King was born in Maine in 1947. His father abandoned him when he was 2 years old. His mother and brother was all he ever knew. Him and his brother were raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana where his father lived at the time. He was also raised in Connecticut too. His mother decided to move them back to Maine for their own good. There he got a job at Kitchens of Pineland. A kitchen of Pineland was by a mentally challenged hospital. He went to a Durham grammar school then attended Libson High School. In 1966, He graduated. At University of Maine of Orana, he was a sophomore that wrote for The Maine Campus, the school’s newspaper. He became a member of the Student Senate in Student politician. He also attended an Anti-war movement. In 1970, he graduated. His examination was a 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums. From his examinations, he got a diploma to be a full time teacher.
Many people on this earth will commit a sin, they find they wish they had not, and 1 in every 5 Americans suffer from a mental illness. In a story named “Young Goodman Brown” by the author Nathaniel Hawthorne, the people in his story have all sinned and meet with the Devil. Then in another story named “The Yellow Wallpaper” by the author Charlotte Perkins Gilman the main character is suffering from a mental illness while her husband, a psychiatrist, tries to help her, but in doing so only makes her condition worse. Throughout both literary texts of “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “Young Goodman Brown,” the authors show numerous entries of Gothic Literature. And although “Young Goodman Brown” and the “Yellow Wallpaper” share similar Gothic elements, the two stories are very much different.
Word by word, gothic literature is bound to be an immaculate read. Examining this genre for what it is could be essential to understanding it. “Gothic” is relating to the extinct East Germanic language, people of which known as the Goths. “Literature” is defined as a written work, usually with lasting “artistic merit.” Together, gothic literature combines the use of horror, death, and sometimes romance. Edgar Allan Poe, often honored with being called the king of horror and gothic poetry, published “The Fall of House Usher” in September of 1839. This story, along with many other works produced by Poe, is a classic in gothic literature. In paragraph nine in this story, one of our main characters by the name of Roderick Usher,
As a gothic writer, Edgar Allan Poe created horror using gloom as his weapon. Hidden within the suspenseful story of “The Masque of Red Death” is an allegorical tale of how individuals deal with the fear of death as time passes. Frantic activities and pleasures (as represented by Prince Prospero and his guests) seek to wall out the threat of death. However, the story reminds the reader that death comes “like a thief in the night”(Poe 3), and even those who seek peace and safety shall not escape. Poe uses symbolism to illustrate that man cannot hide from his own mortality.
As Edgar Allan Poe wrote, "The Fall of the House of Usher", he uses characterization, and imagery to depict fear, terror, and darkness on the human mind.
The representation of monsters in mirrors has a venerable history, stretching back into antiquity with the legend of Medusa. In this myth, the hero, Perseus, uses the goddess Athena’s bronze shield to perceive the Gorgon as a reflection, allowing him to decapitate her and avoid being petrified by her unmediated gaze. The fable enacts the desire to gaze on the spectacle of the monstrous other even as it destroys that very spectacle in its climax. A vampire narrative such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula resurrects this fascination with monstrous revelation through reflection, but troubles this relationship by emphasising the monster’s absence in the mirror. This absence raises questions about the nature and location of monstrousness which can best be answered by a recourse to Psychoanalytic criticism. Lacan’s “Mirror Stage” applied to the ‘shaving scene’, both in the original novel and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film adaption, reveals the vampire not as a monstrous other, but as a spectral self, repressed by the meconnaisance that identification with the ideal-ego produces. The theory, applied to the novel, reveals an inherent doubling of Dracula and Jonathan as oppressor/oppressed – a doubling which the violent end of the book completes. This doubling also extends to the reader/viewer of Dracula, who stands an invisible spectator in front of the mirror. Where the reader of the novel must be content to analogously inhabit Jonathan’s position, the viewer of Coppola’s film uncomfortably takes a position of Dracula, the repressed self who lurks behind/within Johnathan. Ultimately, both texts reveal the unseen presence who haunts the Goth...