Leslie Cortez Mrs.Barr English 10A CP 12 June 2024 Gothic Essay Gothic literature is literature that consists of mystery, horror, unusual locale, and even romance. The defining elements of Gothic literature are having a bleak setting, Gothic Villain, Gothic theme, gloomy mood, and recurring symbolism. A great example of Gothic Literature is the poem “The Feather Pillow” written by Horacio Quirgoa. ‘’The Feather Pillow” can be defined as Gothic Literature because it contains a gloomy mood, a Gothic Villain, and recurring symbolism. The “The Feather pillow” by Horacio Quirgoa contains a gloomy mood. Throughout the entirety of the poem Quiroga uses adjectives and diction that contain a pessimistic connotation in order to set forth a gloomy mood. For example, after Alicia was …show more content…
He paced ceaselessly, with tireless persistence, from one end of the room to the other. The carpet swallowed the sound of his steps”(Quiroga para 9). The utter silence described in the quote prompts an uneasy feeling within the audience. The husband being on edge and observing his deteriorating wife along with the peculiar diction used to describe his footsteps creates a gloomy mood. A gloomy mood is only one of many Gothic elements within the poem. Another Gothic element in “The Feather Pillow” by Horacio Quirgoa is a Gothic villain.The story focuses on a woman named Alicia who got diagnosed with Anemia because she had been missing various red blood cells. It was later revealed the cause of Alicia's Diagnosis was in fact, not random, but the result of a tick.For reference, after Alicia finally passed, the servant was stripping her bed and found that the pillowcase was unusually heavy and called over the husband. The confused husband proceeded to cut open the pillow case, and both him and the servant were astonished when they realized what they had found. “...slowly moving its hairy legs, was a monstrous animal, a living, viscous
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”.
I offer by way of introduction to the Gothic literary world an extract taken from Ann. B Tracy’s book The Gothic Novel 1790-1830: Plot Summaries and Index Motifs:
The Feather Pillow written by Horacio Quiroga is a very touching story. The story contains a female who seems to be in love with her husband. The female seemed to not feel conformtable at home though, she mentioned that her husband gives her chills. She narrates the story as if he husband controls her life and she has no freedom.
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.
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.
Gothic Literature was a natural progression from romanticism, which had existed in the 18th Century. Initially, such a ‘unique’ style of literature was met with a somewhat mixed response; although it was greeted with enthusiasm from members of the public, literary critics were much more dubious and sceptical.
Romantic literature, as Kathy Prendergast further claims, highlighted things like splendor, greatness, vividness, expressiveness, intense feelings of passion, and stunning beauty. The Romantic literary genre favored “parts” over “whole” and “content” over “form”. The writer argues that though both the Romantic literary genre and the Gothic art mode were medieval in nature, they came to clash with what was called classical conventions. That’s why, preoccupations with such things as the supernatural, the awful, the dreadful, the repulsive and the grotesque were the exclusive focus of the nineteenth century Gothic novel. While some critics perceived the Gothic as a sub-genre of Romanticism, some others saw it as a genre in its own right (Prendergast).
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
The inclusions of gothic conventions of the same variety create a gothic genre for the novel. The use of the weather in the form of pathetic fallacies is particularly important in the way this forms the novel to be gothic. As the description of the weather evokes an atmosphere of suspense and the many connotations associated to the weather in particular the stereotype...
Mood is the feeling the reader gets from reading a piece of literature. If it is properly made it can be felt through the main character or the text. Many literary devices can aid the development of mood in a passage. In “Denn Die Todten Reiten Schnell,” Stroker uses techniques of diction, types of imagery, and elements of narrative stance to create a dominant impression of fear.
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,
The blending of terror and romance in Gothic Literature was used in a unique combination to attract and entice the reader into the story. The terror in the literature helps the reader explore their imagination and form their own picture setting of what is happening. Using romance in the story also keeps the reader's attention because of the unknown and the curiosity of what happens next. The Gothic writing became popular after the Romantic period because readers were still a...
The term ‘Gothic’ conjures a range of possible meanings, definitions and associations. It explicitly denotes certain historical and cultural phenomena. Gothicism was part of the Romantic Movement that started in the eighteenth century and lasted about three decades into the nineteenth century. For this essay, the definition of Gothic that is applicable is: An 18th century literary style characterized by gloom and the supernatural. In the Gothic novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, a wide range of issues are explored. Frankenstein represents an entirely new vision of the female Gothic, along with many other traditional themes such as religion, science, colonialism and myth.
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.
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.