Double In Gothic Literature Analysis

Commonly found within literature is the theme of the doppelganger. Usually taking the shadow or a mirror image of a protagonist it may also refer to a character that physically resembles or has a similar mind set as the protagonist. They may even have the same name as well. Found in many works such as: The ghost of Hamlet’s father in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, the nose from Gogol’s Nos, and in Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” forms of the doppelganger or double emerge. There are several types of doppelgangers that have been created to better support what the author wishes to state about their main character. Taking shape of an “evil twin”, not known to the actual person, who confuses people related to that original person.

Think of two twins who are not physically alike but have reflecting and opposite personalities. These two people are shadows of one another and resemble the duality of good vs. evil. These types of counterpart characters are known as doppelgangers. A doppelganger is an alter ego of one's charisma. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, the characters Ralph/Jack and Gene/Finny represent doppelgangers, explaining how they complement each other and maintain supremacy.

Gothic literature has been criticized as being a dreary, dark, and death-involving subset of Romanticism (a literary movement accentuating human individuality, imagination, and subjectivity). In addition, gothic lit incorporates several themes- not all about deathly acts - but includes some emotional and surprising themes such as dreams, nightmares, or hallucinations, and grotesque or bizarre occurrences. Two short stories, both written by Edgar Allan Poe, entitled “The Raven,” and “The Black Cat,” as well as the novel The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern, all encompass these gothic elements, found throughout each story.

Brown does not rely on most of the conventions of the gothic literature. Brown does use conventions of a Gothic genre. Brown follows the topics shared in an American Gothic novel. Allan Lloyd-Smith talks about how many American Gothic writers would exchange key aspects that can be seen in a European gothic novel. For example, instead of a castle the setting of the novel will include a remote house in the country side away from most of the population. Brown does not include a great deal of the setting but uses atmosphere and suspense to inflict fear into his readers. Brown stays away from the European gothic conventions discussed in “The Gothic Novel”. Brown does not include castles, dungeon and does not place his gothic novel in the medieval

The American Gothic Genre, which focuses on the paranormal aspects of life, began in the 1700s and is still used today. Kelly Link is the author of “The Specialist’s Hat”, and the author of many literary collections. She's received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and has co-edited a number of anthologies. She uses imagery, intimidating diction, and literary devices to convey the emotion and theme of snakes, hollowness, and death in this story.

When conferred with the word “romance” any type of scholar would most likely think of the modern day definition. However if one were to mention the same word to someone living in the late 1700s or early 1800s a much different idea would come to mind. Between the years of 1750 and 1837 literature had shifted from the Enlightenment Era, which focused on order, decorum, and rational control, to an idea that was radically different. Romantic literature of this time period directly opposed the literature of the prior time period. “Intellectuals of the age were obsessed with the concept of violent and inclusive change in the human condition” (The Romantic Period). This new style was a response to the revolution going on in France. The Romantics believed that this time of violence and revolt would lead to a universal utopia. Even after this failed, the Romantics continued trying to reform society through the arts. Gothic style writing also came out of this era. Gothic literature was dark, violent, and the main characters were often considered to be evil. In 1818, the epitome of the gothic romantic style was anonymously published. It wasn’t until 1823 that people discovered that it was Mary Shelley who wrote the astonishing novel. Her story, Frankenstein, included many romantic characteristics and themes throughout it. One of the major themes of the novel was individualism and egotism. The reader will also find numerous examples of mysteriousness, primitive living situations, and

The gothic elements presented in the novel constitute the idea that the novel could be about vampires. The embedded idea of the supernatural in her novel aids her in displaying her message regarding how love never stops. The vampire motif begins when Catherine becomes ill. In How to Read Literature Like a Professor (Foster) it is evident that diseases and sicknesses are an efficacious literary tool in a novel. According to Foster, one of the factors that constitute a “prime literary disease” is that it should be picturesque. For if someone had tuberculosis for example, “the skin becomes almost translucent, they eye sockets dark, so that the sufferer take on the appearance of a martyr in medieval paintings” (Foster 216). This bizarre beauty-

Women in gothic literature are presented as either evil or victims how far do you agree?

The ‘double’ or doppelgänger is an optical portrayal of the darker fractions of ones solitary psyche that we as humans refuse to be true so that they're seen in a better light to other people instead to who they really are. Thus, within film, the ‘double’ or doppelgänger is mostly conveyed as a one's fears pictured into a thing they're scared they may come to be. Something that an individual fears they will become is the representation of the ‘double’ that is visualised in many films. Within Freud's essay ‘The Uncanny' he explains how one initially acknowledges the ‘double’, instigating the uncanny sensation of the doppelgänger to

on the aid of Hell itself, and to find things familiar in the world of

‘The Gothic world is fascinated by the struggle for power’. In light of this statement, discuss the ways in which writers present types of power.

Gothic literature is a style of writing that contains elements of both horror and romance. This genre allows readers to experience a mix of horror and romance intertwined. Within the gothic genre there are elements of supernatural events, beings, and gloomy day settings. This style of writing became popular in the late 18th century and early 19 century. Many give credit to it’s uprising to author Horace Walpole, who wrote The Castle of Otranto (1764). His book contains all the elements that constitute the gothic genre. Frankenstein fits perfectly into the gothic category because the gloomy and mysterious setting is placed where most readers think of it as

One of the many joys of reading is that a great novel can transport you to a completely different realm, dimension, or world. There are many genres of books that can do so, but one of the most important ones during the Romantic era was gothic literature. In Jane Austen’s novel, Northanger Abbey, it is clear that she is commenting on the impact of gothic literature during this era. Austen creates this commentary based on the continual exaggeration and use of the word ‘horrid’ by characters, Catherine Morland’s tendencies to get caught up in terrifying or dramatic fantasies, and the incessant mockery of the manners of speech and expressions used within the gothic genre.

The protagonist Catherine, is depicted as an ordinary, naïve girl, and not the typical axiomatic gothic heroine. Books are symbols and used to define characters. The way characters talk about novels and read them provides insight into their personalities. Stereotypically, Catherine is deluded by Gothic melodramatic sentiment prevalent in the fantasised novels she reads. Hence, she concocts a skewered version of realism, infusing real people, and events with terrible consequences. Therefore, Catherine is astonished when overnight she is unexpectedly asked to leave the Abbey, and becomes an unwelcome intruder, ‘His unlooked for return was enough to make her heart sink’ (Austen,

Developing in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, gothic elements have appeared in many pieces of literature. They consist of stories of misery, mystery, consequences, and the supernatural to invoke a feeling of horror and darkness. Stories like Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, become defining pieces in this style’s formation. Many authors were inspired by this movement to create a prolific number of new gothic stories: William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily, Washington Irving’s The Devil and Tom Walker, Edgar Allen Poe’s The Black Cat, Richard Matheson’s Prey, and Horacio Quiroga’s The Feather Pillow. The employed the symbolic descriptions of an eerie setting as parallels to characters’ situations and stories. Through these dark plots, many characters lose parts of themselves, especially their innocence, depicting humanity’s capabilities of evil and change.