“The Minister’s Black Veil,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and “The Pit and the Pendulum,” by Edgar Allen Poe, are two short stories that both exemplify gothic literature. In gothic writing, there are 10 elements that a story could be counted as gothic. One element is the environment. Gothic environment is described as a place that is usually dark, stormy, or foreboding. In “The Pit and the Pendulum,” an example of environment is used when the narrator describes the darkness “The blackness of eternal night encompassed me,”(Poe, 252). The narrator describes the overall environment of the place that he is trapped in. The word, blackness, describes what the narrator is seeing. The narrator talks about how dark the room was, causing him to walk like …show more content…
a zombie to get a feel of his surroundings. Another element is Protagonist. The element protagonist means the character is isolated in an area.
An example of this in “The Minister's Black Veil,” is “Mr. Hooper had on a black veil,”(Hawthorne). This quote was said by a colonists living in the same area as Mr. Hooper and when the whole colony sees Mr.Hooper had on a black veil, everyone started gossiping and tried to get away from him. Many people were too scared to even talk to him causing him isolated in his own world. In “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “I saw that two of its iron angles were not acute with a low rumbling and moaning sound,”(Poe, page 262). The narrator in this story was put in a dark secluded room. He had no one to talk to due to him being trapped in a room. A third characteristic in gothic includes the atmosphere. The darkness of the room gives off sense of isolation, fear and suspense. The atmosphere is usually mysterious and horror. We can find that example in “The Pit and the Pendulum,” when it says “At its conclusion, the bell tolled for the funeral of a young lady,”(Hawthorne). The atmosphere in this felt really mysterious because a young lady died and also the reader never found out why Mr. Hooper had on the black veil. This made the readers feel depressed and gave the story a sad
vibe. Decay is also an another element. “When Mr. Hooper came in, the first thing that their eyes rested on was the same horrible black veil,” (Hawthorne). This quote explains the town's reaction and his finance when they kept on seeing the black veil over and over again. The narrator’s finance tried to talk to him about taking it down but he resisted causing a breakage of their relationship. In both of the stories, the author's tone was really dark and depressed. There were basically no happy moment in both stories and most of the colors described were either black or white. Themes in both stories can be said is death. In the “Pit and the Pendulum,” the narrator experienced close to death events more than one time and in “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Mr. Hooper encountered many deceased people. More specifically, the theme in “The Minister’s Black Veil” symbolizes our secret sins and how terrible people can be looking at others. Those are some evidence that proves “The Minister’s Black Veil” and “The Pit and the Pendulum.”
The first example of Gothic literature is the atmosphere of decay. Not too far from the moor is a prison, which a convict seems to have escaped from. This adds even more creepiness to the already spooky moor. Then, there is the Grimpen Mire, which lays north of
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Minister’s Black Veil”, the reader is introduced to Parson Hooper, the reverend of a small Puritan village. One Sunday morning, Hooper arrived to mass with a black veil over his impassive face. The townspeople began to feel uneasy due to their minister’s unusual behavior. When Parson appeared, “Few could refrain from twisting their heads towards the door; many stood upright….” (Monteiro 2). Throughout the story Hooper does not take off the black veil and the townspeople, including Reverend Clark from a nearby village, treat him as if he were contagious disease. A veil typically is used to represent sorrow, but in this story it is used to represent hidden sins. No one exactly knows why he
An assumption is a thought or opinion that is accepted as being true, without enough or any proof. In The Scarlet Letter and The Minister’s Black Veil, this occurred a lot in their community. Both stories were solemly based on this theme. Judgment went along with assumption. The people of the community in The Scarlet Letter used assumption as a way to justify an excuse of judging Hester Prynne. The people of the community in The Minister’s Black Veil, used assumptions to think of ways to describe how minister, Mr. Hooper, has changed. Punishment leads to judgment, false facts, confrontation, and change.
Gothic texts are typically characterized by a horrifying and haunting mood, in a world of isolation and despair. Most stories also include some type of supernatural events and/or superstitious aspects. Specifically, vampires, villains, heroes and heroines, and mysterious architecture are standard in a gothic text. Depending upon the author, a gothic text can also take on violent and grotesque attributes. As an overall outlook, “gothic literature is an outlet for the ancient fears of humanity in an age of reason” (Sacred-Texts). Following closely to this type of literature, Edgar Allan Poe uses a gloomy setting, isolation, and supernatural occurrences throughout “The Fall of the House of Usher”.
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards and “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne are both 1700s Puritan works of literature with similarities, as well as differences, from their theme to tone and to what type of literary work they are. Edwards and Hawthorne are both expressing the topics of how people are all sinners, especially in regards to their congregation and that questions their congregation’s faith.
Throughout his literary endeavors, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes symbolism to present a certain theme that pertains to human nature and life. In his works, The Scarlet Letter and "The Minister's Black Veil", Hawthorne uses symbolism to present a common theme pertaining to religion; that though manifested sin will ostracize a person from society, un-confessed sin will destroy the soul.
Key Elements of Gothic Literature Jasmine Giles People enjoy reading gothic literature due to its heart rate exciting nature. Without having to engage with any real danger, it is common for the reader to feel anxiety and impaitence when reading gothic fiction. In order for the reader to feel these emotions, the author uses certain elements, such as a gloomy setting and old-fashioned dialoge. In the stories “The Black Cat” and “The Tell Tale Heart”, by elgar allen poe, and “The Landlady”, by Roland Dahl, there are many similarites that remanticize the idea of horror and mystery. Some elements, however, bring out the disbolical horror of gothic literature: the setting, characterization, and the motif of suspense.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil" illustrates the dangers of secret sin. Allowing guilt from things done in the past, things that cannot be changed, can ruin lives. The life of the secret-carrier will be devastated, along with the lives of that person's most loved ones. Hawthorne uses various types of figurative language in his works to portray his message. "The Minister's Black Veil” is no exception; Hawthorne uses symbolism and suggestion to add depth and mystery.
Gothic elements are used to show suspense, symbolism, and drama, while also setting dark and twisted tones about the story and its characters. In the passage "The Fall of the House of Usher" the author uses Gothic elements to entice the reader with details of ominous character persona and setting.
Each author sets a gothic tone first and foremost by the techniques used to describe setting and characters. Irving and Hawthorne set their stories in ghostly mysterious forests. Each author uses phenomenal to truly connect the reader with the stories. Hawthorne’s use of similes to tie in what the forest was like gives a sense of letting the readers feel like they are there with young goodman Brown, “ . . . surrounded by four blazing pines, their tops aflame, their stems
Gothic writing is related to a style of fiction that deals with the mysterious or grotesque; Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Ministers Black Veil” is classified as a dark romantic work because it contains the themes of sin, guilt, and looking at the darker side of human life. He had trouble from his early life, his dreary adulthood, and his fascinations with common man. His early and more unsuccessful work is from his silent and productive years.
The Minister 's Black Veil has characteristics that are unique to the Romantic period, particularly those which are directly connected with Gothic literature. In Gothic literature there are several elements to be considered but
Edgar Allan Poe, renowned as the foremost master of the short-story form of writing, chiefly tales of the mysterious and macabre, has established his short stories as leading proponents of “Gothic” literature. Although the term “Gothic” originally referred only to literature set in the Gothic (or medieval) period, its meaning has since been extended to include a particular style of writing. In order for literature to be “Gothic,” it must fulfill some specific requirements. Firstly, it must set a tone that is dark, somber, and foreboding. Next, throughout the development of the story, the events that occur must be strange, melodramatic, or often sinister. Poe’s short stories are considered Gothic literature because of their eerie atmosphere and atypical plot developments. Consequently, in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe is distinguished as an author of unique, albeit grotesque ingenuity in addition to superb plot construction via his frequent use of the ominous setting to enhance the plot’s progression and his thematic exploration of science versus superstition.
What makes Poe 's story Gothic according to Nicole Smith is the killing of the old man and the way the narrator hides the body after murdering him. Even the way the narrator goes on to describe the eye as “pale blue that constantly follows him” is weird and unnatural. Edgar Allan Poe also briefly includes a scene of the supernatural. On the first page second paragraph of the novel the narrator talks of hearing voices before he goes to the old mans room “I heard all things in the heavens and in the earth. I heard many things in
In this period of time, an increasingly popular genre was gothic. A gothic novel contains mystery, doom, decay, old buildings, ghosts and madness but also subtler features such as courage, mysterious places. a sense of place, dreams and weather, but mainly abnormal events and... ... middle of paper ... ...