Violence In Washington Irving, Richard Matheson, And Edgar Allen Poe

Although Gothic Elements can be very sadistic and twisted the use of it is seen in all types of stories. Some of the more famous stories that Gothic Elements are used in are the following “ A Rose for Emily,” “ The Minister’s Black Veil,” and “ The Tell- Tale Heart”. In these stories, gothic elements are found all over the place do you know why? Well the reason is that all these stories are darker stories than most. Gothic Elements are needed to make a superb scary story.

Gothic Literature is characterized by elements of fear, horror, death, and gloom, as well as romantic elements, such as nature, individuality, and high

Gothic stories contain supernatural occurrences to incite an imminent feeling of darkness, and mystery. Using supernatural themes helps the reader become entrapped in the story, causing the reader to crave more of the story. For example, in Edgar Allen Poe’s The Black Cat in the short story Poe integrates the theme of supernatural by creating a dark and ominous

Gothic literature is a style of writing dating back to 1764, some of the most important elements of this writing style are of an eerie setting and mental decay, stories that made great use of these elements are: “The Raven”, “Black Cat”, “The House of Usher”, and “The Devil and Tom Walker”. The authors use the gothic element of eerie setting so that they can enhance the mood of the story and of mental decay to highlight what the conflict in the characters’ lives is causing.

In all of Gothic Literature, many strategies are used to give the reader chills during his or her downtime. Themes like Entrapment and supernatural forces are displayed throughout this genre of writing to further portray an overlaying message. Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving and Horacio Quiroga use Entrapment and Supernatural powers to provide an intense feeling in the reader involving scenarios beyond conventional limitations.

Richard Matheson, Edgar Allen Poe, and Washington Irving all take advantage of the metaphoric and literal meanings of entrapment and violence in each piece of their gothic literature. In “Prey”, “Black Cat”, and “The Devil and Tom Walker” the authors use entrapment to show how evil finds and can hold us one way or another. Similarly violence is incorporated to portray the dangers of what horror can inflict on one and those associated.

Gothic literature contains many thematic elements such as horror, death, and even at times romanticism. This type of literature incorporates various different elements, in order to evoke the emotions of terror. There are many authors who are extremely talented and are still remembered and read in classrooms today. These are authors like Edgar Allan Poe, best known for his mysterious poems and short stories, Richard Matheson and Horacio Quiroga, who have all incorporated psychological problems and violence themes in their short stories in order to fascinate the readers and add suspense to the story. These three gothic authors correlate the themes of violence and the psychological/ mental issues in order to depict anticipation and terror

Gothic literature uses wide ranging themes and gothic elements to convey its story. Gothic literature short stories can range from romance to horror to supernatural occurrences. Horacio Quiroga’s “The Feather Pillow,” Richard Matheson’s “Prey,” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” all incorporate the following gothic elements: violence, revenge, hallucinations, nightmares, and psychological issues.

To begin, “The term Gothic fiction refers to a style of writing that is characterized by elements of fear, horror, death and gloom, as well as romantic elements, such as nature, individuality, and very high emotion. These emotions can include fear and suspense.”. (Greaver, 1). This specific style of writing began in the late seventeen hundreds. Gothic fiction was created in order to keep a narrower set of viewers or readers more intrigued and interested. “The term Gothic actually originated as a term belittling the architecture and art of the period, which was dark, decaying, and dismal. The settings were often old, dilapidated buildings or houses in gloomy, lifeless, fear inducing landscapes.” (Greaver, 1). Gothic literature is often explained as an illusion that is unexplainable. “Gothic fiction hovers between the uncanny and the marvelous, offering little

“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe as well as, “A Rose For Emily” by William Faulkner, both use ambiguity to be mysterious and make the reader question the text. As for violence the author uses it in, “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe to depict the insane reality of the situation and how curiosity and thirst for revenge can drive one madly insane and in a lust for violence. “ A Black Cat” uses violence to give the reader a suspenseful terror as they wonder what a character’s determination is to kill his own wife in such a lust of revenge as in this section of the text, “Buried the axe in her brain” (Poe 4/6). Has he gone so mad, that it’s enough to kill his own wife with no remorse. “The Raven” is the most ambiguous of all, because to the reader the text makes nearly no sense at all. “Tis some visitor, tapping at my chamber door - only this and

Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne are the great Gothic writers of the 19th century. Gothic in the 19th century was considered gritty, grim and barbarous, depending on the author you come across. It is what brought the unconscious mind, also known as altered states, to the surface. The unconscious mind being, the fear you don’t seek. Most of the time, in your dreams—or what you think to be your dreams. The unconscious mind shows you that with great hope, also comes great fear. It makes you think about the darkness you fear and creates it into your Gothic, which is why it scares you. Poe and Hawthorne both made Gothic their own versions of their fears and they did it well.

Gothic literature was a popular writing tradition of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and is still used today. Gothic literature explores the wicked, perverse and dark desires. Gothic conventions can include burial alive, ghosts, hysteria, ruined bodies, tales within tales, undead characters, underground spaces, and more. Gothic themes are guilt, sex, violence, death, and cosmic struggle. Gothic stories or poems should inspire terror or horror. Edgar Allen Poe was one of the many well-known Gothic writers. In his stories he uses a variety of themes to carry out the gothic theme.

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

Gothic Literature consist of countless varying themes and elements that other works do not contain. Violence and entrapment are two crucial themes that consistently appear in the following literary masterpieces: “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, “Prey” by Richard Matheson, and “The Feather Pillow” by Horacio Quiroga. Plenty of violence occurs throughout all three literary works in vital situations, beginning with “The Black Cat”, Poe depicts the narrator as an alcoholic that cannot control his emotions/behavior. In the short story, the narrator took “a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the [cat] by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket” (Poe 2) , explaining the gruesome details on the cat by the narrator, aiding in

Gothic literary traditions began in the middle ages and were used to evoke the reader’s emotions of fear and suspense. The elements within the stories were heavily described to add to the author’s tone and mood of the reader. Edgar Allan Poe is a well known author in Gothic literature, one of his pieces “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a Gothic short story that features a grim tone using Gothic elements to draw the attention of the readers. The intentions of Gothic authors were to give the readers a look into the dark side of the time in which the book is written. Poe uses a grim tone throughout “The Fall of the House of Usher” and expresses it through the setting of the story and the imagery he uses.