Romantic and Gothic Literature

In these gothic literature short stories regarding romanticism the authors often use many elements that pertain to fear however, the most prevalent themes in “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, “Prey” by Richard Matheson, “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving, and “The Feather Pillow” by Horacio Quiroga are grotesqueness and violence. The authors utilize grotesqueness and violence in order to furthermore portray a dismal mood, foreshadow events to come, and to further entice the reader

Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, and Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, The Fall of the House of Usher, although published in different periods, on different continents, have in common many of the main ideas that stood behind the literary movement of Romanticism (the sublime, the Romantic hero, imagination, isolation), combined with elements of the Gothic (the mysterious and remote setting dominated by a gloomy atmosphere, death, sin, pain, exotic elements, supernatural).

Have you ever come across gothicism? Have you ever noticed it? It first appeared in Great Britain from the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. Gothicism in literature is something that forces you to think beyond the preternatural line between the supernatural and natural. Gothicism exposes the unspoken and deliberately forgotten, using dark language in what we are uncomfortable discussing. The two pieces of American literature Ligeia and The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe are great examples of gothic literature. As a Gothic writer, Poe uses specific words and events which exhibit gothicism in these two texts by haunting, usually unspoken, and dark themes which are characteristic

Poe wrote in the literary movement of Dark Romanticism. The Romantic Movement was intellectual and artistic, but Poe’s work took that and added a gothic twist to it. This was a start to the recognition of disarray and darkness. ”The Fall of the House of Usher” evident characteristics of the Dark Romantics was it was a haunting

Gothic literature is no laughing matter, well at least to everyone besides Horace Walpole. What Walpole started as joke became one of the most notable genres in literary history. It inspired multiple popular novels and tv shows today such as the Twilight series or Supernatural. Gothic literature is characterized by multiple aspects: archetypes, an ominous setting, a mysterious atmosphere. These are all elements present in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” all being used to support the theme of guilt.

Novels, written in various styles, maintain their value because each one presents the reader with a new thought to consider. Sometimes however, rather than expanding on an entirely new style to “suggest a thought” authors borrow characteristics from other novels to express themselves. These borrowed traits are then molded into a new shape. Authors from the Romanticism era did just that. They borrowed traits from Gothic literature to express their thoughts. Although the novels are unique and valued for their distinctiveness, the borrowed traits remain a parallel between the two genres. Traits such as deterioration of characters, love combating sin, return to animalistic priorities, and alienation of human emotion are all depicted in

John pulled up to the rocky crooked edged driveway, he left his family in the car to check the house out. He came to an old brick mansion with green dull vines like sinister snakes along the sides of the outside wall. John saw the door open automatically, his bones were rattling in his body as if they were shouting to each other. He walked up the stairs that lead in the house as they screamed to him, it was like a girl dying painfully. He stepped into the house cautiously. A laugh appeared in the hallway. It was a deep laugh as if it was echoing throughout your ears. Footsteps came towards him slowly. They were moving so sluggishly you could barely here the floorboards creaking. John’s face was as pale as a ghost. You could hear his hearts

Those who have read Edgar Allen Poe know that his Gothic style of writing is apparent in all of his works. The subject matter emphasized in his stories range from the bizarre and grotesque to the mysterious and supernatural. It is also apparent that the time that Poe wrote and published his stories, the Romantic era, was very influential in his writing. Poe’s stories seems to be a combination of both gothic and romantic, leading many to categorize his writing as Gothic Romanticism. Edgar Allen Poe’s works, “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “Ligeia”, are two stories that employ the Gothic Romanticism style to create a mood of terror.

The Ushers are suffering from a terrible sickness. It is an illness that results in a slow and painful death. The relation here to Edgar Allan Poe is the death of his mother, foster-mother, and wife to a very slow and painful death, a death from tuberculosis. Poe’s personal relation to “The Raven” is in search for the eternal fate of a lost companion. As stated previously Poe’s mother, foster-mother, and wife died from tuberculosis.

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murders are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets” (Voltaire). Murders are fascinating to people and provide a great source of material for Gothic literature. These stories of terror are often a reflection of the world that we live in today. “The Precision with which Jack the Ripper thawed the bodies of his victims, neatly and cleanly removing the internal body organs, made many believe that he had a strong background in the medical science” (topyaps.com). Stories such as “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs and Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”, along with the movie Sleepy Hollow by Tim Burton reflect this gloomy genre. Authors of Gothic horror stories use a variety of literary elements, such as point of view, theme and mood to develop their works.

“The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe uncovers through the use of characterization, symbolism, and point of view that death can never be stopped, no matter how long it is repressed. In the text, Lady Usher's direct characterization resembles symbolism of death. Unquestionably, Lady Usher is ill in the text with “the power

“‘Art has no influence upon action. It annihilates the desire to act. It is superbly sterile. The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.’” The similarities and differences between Doctor Faustus, a play by Christopher Marlowe, and The Picture of Dorian Gray, a novel by Oscar Wilde, are pronounced and characterized by their underlying gothic theme. These can be seen all throughout both forms of literature, including in both character's’ demise through plot progression and internal struggles.

The history of gothic literature is a discussion of how the classic gothic literature has morphed into today’s contemporary gothic literature. From the beginning days of gothic writing one of the main focuses has been on the issues that were relevant in the county or world at the time. Most people think of gothic writings as a scary story of gloom and doom, but there are many aspects that encompass a gothic writing. The true is that there are many elements to a gothic writing. The writer does not need to use all of them at the same time, but to use some of them to make it a gothic writing. As technology and the social atmosphere have evaluated writers have incorporated these elements into their writing.

Gothicism, a style of writing that developed from Romanticism, is evident today in many literary mediums such as novels and movies, but it had its origins centuries earlier with Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto in 1765 (Melani, 2002). The gothic novel was written to thrill and terrify readers with eerie settings and supernatural events. This genre would come to influence one of America’s most iconic authors and the father of the American short story: Edgar Allen Poe. The influence of the Gothic tradition in the works of Edgar Allen Poe, especially in “The Black Cat” and “The Cask of Amontillado” is evident through his use of eerie settings, horror/terror, development of the main character, and common themes seen throughout his work.

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murders are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets” (Voltaire). Murders are fascinating to people and provide a great source of material for Gothic literature. These stories of terror are often a reflection of the world that we live in today. “The Precision with which Jack the Ripper thawed the bodies of his victims, neatly and cleanly removing the internal body organs, made many believe that he had a strong background in the medical science” (topyaps.com). Stories such as “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs and Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”, along with the movie Sleepy Hollow by Tim Burton reflect this gloomy genre. Authors of Gothic horror stories use a variety of literary elements, such as point of view, and mood to develop their works.