Gothic Literature: Terror At 20, 000 Feet

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Option 5: In gothic literature there are always four main traits. The traits are as follows. They start off with violence, which is one of the biggest traits. Psychological torment which means messing with someone's mind to the point of them being in pain. Then supernatural is the third, which means something that is unreal or scary. Lastly, there is isolation which means you are left alone by yourself. There are two pieces of gothic literature in which these traits are prominent. These two pieces are Terror at 20,000 feet by Richard Matheson, which is about a mentally unstable man. The second piece is The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe, which is about a plague that attacks people in a castle. In Terror at 20,000 Feet there is evidence of all four of the key traits; violence is portrayed by the man shooting the gremlin, Psychological torment is portrayed by the man being out of the mental hospital and was only out for 6 months, Supernatural is portrayed by the gremlin standing on the plane and not being blown …show more content…

Violence is the second most prominent trait in Terror at 20,000 Feet. It is shown in the beginning when Wilson had a gun in his carry-on bag. He had voices in his head telling him to hurt the people on the plane when he was in the bathroom. When he left the bathroom, he started seeing the gremlin and no one else saw the gremlin messing with the engine. He was getting desperate so he pulled his gun out and opened the emergency door and shot the gremlin multiple times before he ran out of ammo. Psychological torment is the most used train of terror at 20,000 feet. The man is mentally unstable and was just released from a mental hospital and was on his way home. He was scared to fly and his mind was not in a good place. In the story he was talking to his inner thoughts and it was saying to him to hurt people. This adds to the gothic effect by foreshadowing what will happen later in the

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