In ‘The Phantom Coach’ Amelia Edwards has deliberately wanted to make the reader think about what is coming ahead while reading the story. The writer has used a sense of mystery and dread and has created a narrative that adheres to the Gothic genre to a large extent. One example of Typical Gothic convention which is used by the author is ‘I tell it now with a reluctance which I find it difficult to overcome” this shows that a feeling of tension and anxiety that is making it hard to tell the story to the reader as it is bringing back bad memories from the past. Another example that is showing a sense of mystery and dread is shown when it states ‘They happened to myself, and my recollection of them is as vivid as if they had taken place only
yesterday’ this suggests that the story the writer is about to tell feels like it only happened yesterday as the memory of it is very clear meaning it may be a very bad memory so this is creating a bit of tension for the reader making them want to read on. Also another example, which creates a sense of mystery and dread in the opening, is shown when it states ‘I have told the story to but one other person’ this shows that the story is very secretive meaning the reader really wants to read on to find out what is going on. A final example is demonstrated when it says ‘I want nothing explained away.’ This means the story Amelia is telling us is a secret that she doesn’t want anyone else to know about this is also a very mysterious quote as it makes the reader feel lucky to be told this secret like their the only one who knows the story. Amelia makes the story effective when she uses her strong, powerful sentences to describe or prove what the true story was all about.
Gothic literature, such as The Night Circus, “The Devil and Tom Walker”, “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”, and “Masque of the Red Death”, are known for incorporating gothic elements such as the supernatural, death, and fascination with the past.
Written in 1818, the latter stages of the Gothic literature movement, at face value this novel embodies all the key characteristics of the Gothic genre. It features the supernatural, ghosts and an atmosphere of horror and mystery. However a closer reading of the novel presents a multifaceted tale that explores
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,
In Will Jenkins’ “Night Drive”, the author uses suspense to warn readers to be careful whom they trust. In the story, Mr.Tabor called Madge and asked her for a favor. He asked if she could take his niece, Eunice, to Colchester because he had heard she was going that way. Although Madge agreed, she was uneasy about it. She didn’t know Eunice and barely knew Mr. Tabor. Madge had known Mrs. Tabor. In the story, it is mentioned that Madge knew about Mrs. Tabor being in an accident while driving at night alone. It mentions another unknown girl who was also in an accident. Madge wonders how Mr. Tabor knew she was traveling that way. She thinks back about her telling the gas filling station attendant why she was so picky about getting her car
“An action-occurs which proceeds from the supernatural (from the pseudo-supernatural); this action then provokes a reaction in the implicit reader (and generally in the hero of the story). It is this reaction which we describe as ‘hesitation,’ and the texts which generate it, as fantastic” (Todorov 195). The fantastic is the moment of hesitation that is experienced by the reader who is confronted by a supernatural event in the story or novel and thus understands the laws of nature are put into question. Todorov uses three conditions that constitute the fantastic, in the first, the reader enters the character’s world and considers it a natural world and so the reader hesitates between determining whether there is a natural or supernatural explanation of the events that occur in the story. The second condition is when the reader identifies himself with the character in the novel and by doing so interprets the events by the characters in the novel. Lastly, the reader must obtain an attitude in relation to the text, and decide what levels or modes of reading he or she will hold. The fantastic can be divided into two genres, the uncanny and the marvelous. The marvelous occurs when a reader must create new laws of nature for the particular event to occur, whereas the uncanny is when reality remains intact and there is an explanation for the event. Todorov argues that the ambiguity persists even after the reader is finished with The Turn of the Screw which is interesting but there are stronger textual clues that support the governess was in a state of hysteria.
Now we have examined three stories written by two well distinguished authors known for their Southern Gothic Literature and found many similarities in each story. Each story has its form of the grotesque we have Miss Emily, the Misfit, the Grandmother, and Marley Pointer and let’s not leave out Helga. The characters of each story has some form of cringe inducing quality, meaning some kind of attitude about themselves that gets under ones skin. Then as we can see from the stories they all are Southern based each story is in a Southern setting. And the final thing we look for in Southern Gothic literature is tragedy which all three stories possessed.
Sothern gothic literature that include Works like Flannery O’Connor’s “A Late encounter with the enemy” incorporates the idea of “investigating madness, decay and despair, and the continuing pressures of the past upon the present, particularly with respect to the lost ideals of a dispossessed Southern aristocracy and to the continuance of racial hostilities.”(Marshall 3). These ideas all share a common theme that O’Connor brings to the table in “A Late Encounter with the enemy, along with “The American South serves as the nation’s ‘other,’ becoming the repository of everything from which the nation wants to disassociate itself” (Marshall 3–4). But in true Gothic fashion, the horrors of the past continue to dominate the present.” (Marshall 12). Flannery O’Connor gives readers insight into the life of the granddaughter Sally Poker Sash and how she heavily relies on her families past lineage to shape her present and future in this southern gothic horror (O’Connor 87).
The gothic often presents dangling characters and plot lines, which contribute to the main point of the gothic: suspense. Brown’s works depend on the use of suspense as a literary technique and is evident in Wieland within Clara’s first person point of view narrative. Her constant reflections on how difficult it is for her to continue on with the series of events. Such actions, although they may seem trivial, persuade the reader to continue on to find out what happens
In both ‘Eve Green’ and ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’, the protagonists experience fear in many guises. Although traumatic events in both Eve and Antoinette’s lives do lead to moments of sudden, striking fear, fear is also presented as having the potential to be subtle and muted, and therefore, “haunting”. Fletcher and Rhys seem to suggest that this form of fear is more damaging to the psyche than fear in its more conspicuous manifestations, as it is more deeply intertwined with the characterisations of the protagonists, therefore allowing for the fear to “pervade” the novels. As a result, it could be argued that fear has an almost constant presence in each novel, particularly because fear is seemingly linked to other prominent themes in each novel.
A proper coaching philosophy contains principles which improve character development, teach step by step tactical and technical skills, form proper progressive physical training regimens, and carefully utilize team management to handle and control problems with administrative issues. A coach with a sound philosophy should mold a team with strong cohesion, and he should treat players not only as teammates, but as family and friends who are encouraged to develop communication and lifelong learning of skills through positive support and role modeling from the coach (Mergelsberg, 14-15). The philosophy should also contain written documents of implemented strategies and techniques, so that the coach will know what to improve upon season by season
With her extensive knowledge of mental institutions and mental illnesses, Susan Vaught draws readers to her completely creepy and fascinating novel Insanity intertwining the accounts of four young people who find themselves tormented beyond their imagination in the Lincoln Hospital. It is a place where the living and the dead cannot find peace. Forest, an 18-year-old girl, works the graveyard shift at Lincoln Hospital, her colleagues and herself knew this when she asked for the job. Lincoln is a large state mental institution, a great place for Forest to earn some money to pay her college tuition. Along with hundreds of extremely unstable patients, it also has hidden underground tunnels, bell towers that ring surprisingly, and a closet that carries more than donated clothes. A dead husband of one of Forest's patients shows up late one night apparently accompanied by an advocate of the Devil, Forest drops all sense of reality and all judgment of time. Horrified, she understands she has a role to play, and when she does so, she discovers a heritage that she never anticipated. In his paper, I will take an in-depth look into five archetypes: the journey, the task, the orphan, the fairy god mother and the quest in Vaught’s work.
Stories have an opportunity to leave the reader with many different impressions. When you look a different characters within the stories the ones that leave the greatest impressions are the ones that tend to scare us. The figures in Bob Dylar’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have you been?”, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”, and Stephen King’s “The Man in the Black Suite” all instill a bit of fear in the reader. They are symbols that represent the devil or devil like attributes in people and the uncertainties of human nature.
William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” has many gothic themes such as, when Emily buys the arsenic and the tomb that lay buried in her house. These themes show that gothic literature consists of cryptic and dark settings and tones. This mysterious story is filled with violent events and creates suspense and terror.
Edgar Allan Poe has a unique writing style that uses several different elements of literary structure. He uses intrigue vocabulary, repetition, and imagery to better capture the reader’s attention and place them in the story. Edgar Allan Poe’s style is dark, and his is mysterious style of writing appeals to emotion and drama. What might be Poe’s greatest fictitious stories are gothic tend to have the same recurring theme of either death, lost love, or both. His choice of word draws the reader in to engage them to understand the author’s message more clearly. Authors who have a vague short lexicon tend to not engage the reader as much.
Since the creation of gothic literature in the late 18th century, it has provided authors the prospect to investigate the contentious ideas and views of this genre; they did this by their character’s behaviours, going against the expected social norms of the time. John Keats, Emile Bronte and Angelia Carter all present characters with these attributes, despite writing within different periods; and through these attributes they are effectively making the use of the gothic genre, being able to transgress social and moral boundaries. Madness, violence and fatal passions are closely associated with revenge, passion, sadistic and elements of control are shown by each writer’s protagonists in an attempt to make their audience feel captivated towards their suffering. On the other hand it could be perceived as each writer trying to explore the darker side of humanity, which confronts society’s cruel nature. Furthermore, the genre has an interest in identity and subjectivity, and alienates characters from their own self which sets them apart from society. The gothic genre emphasises the extremes of emotional and physical consciousness, such as Bronte’s characters Heathcliff and Catherine all-conquering love, and the extremes of location such as Keats isolation in a magical place in Lamia; and finally the imagery of blood, murder, passion as seen in carters work.