Elements Of Gothicism In How Clear She Shines By Emily Bronte

Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey is written as a satirical mockery of gothic novels, ridiculing the shallow plot of the genre. In order to parody the genre, Austen includes different Gothic elements into the story. The first element that Austen includes is the suspenseful and dramatic feeling of Gothic novels. Another important component in the novel is the young and innocent heroine who encounters a villain. The third element, the setting, has a feeling of gloominess, and everything looks to be decaying. Austen sees beyond the dramatic, predictable plot line, and in irony, writes a gothic story ridiculing its own genre.

Within the specter of the Gothic fictions arises the atmosphere of gloom, terror, and mystery with some elements of uncanny challenging reality. One major characteristic function of the Gothic fictions is to open the fiction to the realm of the irrational and perverse narratives, obsessions, and nightmarish terrors that hide beneath the literally civilized mindset in order to demonstrate the presence of the uncanny existing in the world known rationally through experience. At certain points, the interactions between the conventions of the Gothic fictions with other thematic, ideological, and/or symbolic functions of the narrative would rather be challenging. However, though the analysis of Jane Eyre written by

Gothic can be defined as “literature dealing with the strange, mysterious, and supernatural designed to invoke suspense and terror in the reader.” (Pickering, 2004, p. 1425) Gothic literature generally presents the same themes and motifs: love lost, hidden secrets, love and death hand in hand, beauty, youth, grotesque characters, macabre eroticism, etc. Gothic literature also explores taboo subjects such as murder, suicide and incest. “A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner, is representative of the Southern Gothic stories since the themes of love lost, death, and murder are present in it. There are many elements that hint at the Gothic nature of the story: Emily’s description, her house,

Gothic can be defined as “literature dealing with the strange, mysterious, and supernatural designed to invoke suspense and terror in the reader.” (Pickering, 2004, p. 1425) Gothic literature generally presents the same themes and motifs: love lost, hidden secrets, love and death hand in hand, beauty, youth, grotesque characters, macabre eroticism, etc. Gothic literature also explores taboo subjects such as murder, suicide and incest. “A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner, is representative of the Southern Gothic stories since the themes of love lost, death, and murder are present in it. There are many elements that hint at the Gothic nature of the story: Emily’s description, her house, the poison she bought, and finally the ending.

Gothic literature is a literary genre that began in England in the late 1700’s. It contains bleak and remote settings as well as weird plots and violent incidents. Strongly dramatic, descriptive language is used here, which sets the overall mood. Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a good example of gothic literature because it portrays all of the elements of the gothic style; gloomy/eerie mood and symbolism. For example, in Poe’s story, the narrator stated, “During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country.”[13] This sets the melancholy mood as well as the mysterious setting. The setting was written in a descriptive manner, which is another aspect of gothic literature. Therefore, “The Fall of the House of Usher” is

Gothic literature is a style of writing that includes a bleak, dark setting, tortured characters, strange plot, striking description and a gloomy mood. Elements such as these are found in all gothic literature tales. “Fall of the House of Usher”, by Edgar Allan Poe, is a good example of this writing style. This is due to the countless dramatic and strange descriptions. Poe is the designated father of gothic literature. An example of a dramatic description of this story is when the narrator is explaining the demise of the Usher’s legacy and their mansion. “There was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters-”. (Page 30, Paragraph 48) This dramatic explanation gave more of an impactful description, rather than saying the house simply fell and was no longer there.

The gothic literary movement is a part of the larger Romantic Movement. Gothic literature shares many of the traits of romanticism, such as the emphasis on emotions and the imagination. Gothic literature goes beyond the melancholy evident in most romantic works, however, and enters into the areas of horror and decay, becoming preoccupied with death. “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe is a powerful example of gothic fiction, whereas James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans serves as the romantic predecessor, illustrating the differences and the similarities between romantic and gothic literature.

Gothic literature originated in the 19th century, having diverged from the larger Romantic Movement. Like the Romantics, Gothic writers embraced the sublime nature and endeavored to evoke deep emotions in their readers. However, their motives were manifested in a fascination with the exotic and eerie human nature and the effects of guilt, evil, isolation and terror on a human being. Authors employ isolated and grotesque settings, supernatural beings and events, combines horror and romance as well as highlighting overwrought emotions. The ability to captivate reader’s emotional experience through the exploration of human weakness has allowed the Gothic genre to continue into the twenty-first century, modifying to reflect current societal concerns.

“True!-nervous-very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?” (pg. 413) Examples such as this quote exemplifies the typical gothic elements. In “A Rose for Emily”, “The Minister’s Black Veil”, and “The Tell-Tale Heart” various gothic elements denote dark villains, isolated settings, strange noises, flickering lights, saintly heroines, and reliance on the supernatural.

Gothic literature is a deliciously terrifying blend of horror and romance. From Walpole's Castle of Otranto to Shelley's Frankenstein and Stoker's infamous Dracula, as well as Edgar Allen poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart, the Gothic novel has been around for centuries, and, despite a few major changes, has maintained some of the basic elements of classic Gothic romance since its very origins. The height of Gothic literature, which was closely aligned with Romanticism, is usually considered to have been the years 1764-1840, but its influence extends to the present day. Gothic literature was focused on elements of death, decay and both physical and psychological terror. These elements were often portrayed by setting, characterization, form, and recurring motifs. The Gothic style also suggests a belief in the supernatural and thus many gothic texts contain an air of mystery and intrigue. Another key aspect in any gothic text is 'evil'. During the emergence of the Gothic literary movement, it is perhaps not surprising that the period was characterised by widespread terror, namely from the French Revolution. Subsequently, the genre became very popular among writers as it enabled them to express their sympathy and concern over such political movements. The presence of the quintessential elements of gothic horror consequently helped to make the genre so alluring to both readers and authors.

Gothic literature includes elements of style that is usually portrayed in tales and deals with horror, despair, the grotesque, and mysteries. In the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, there are many elements of gothic literature that is found throughout the book. The term gothic is very broad in literature, and gothic can mean many different things from characteristics of people, feelings and reactions of a specific setting, mood, actions that happen being people, and so much more. All of this thrived in the 19th century. Gothic is categorized by an emphasis on the dark, gloomy, and mysterious. Ideas such as magic, hidden passages, wind, ghosts, and other supernatural elements, love, etc were all elements in the Gothic movement during the 19th century. Specifically, the descriptions of the settings, both outside and inside, in the novel, the actions of the main protagonists in the novel, and the love between Catherine and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights all add on to this idea of a gothic literature or tradition.

In gothic literature, the architecture that inhabits a story can go a long way not only in establishing the mood, but also in establishing the story’s characters. In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” by Edgar Allan Poe, published in 1839, readers are introduced to a dreary house that is falling apart, while in another story by Poe published in this same year, “William Wilson,” readers are introduced to a school that, although not in disrepair, is labyrinthian and similarly dreary. Moreover, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, published in 1847, showcases a house, the size of which would normally reflect the wealth and high class of it’s owner, and yet the grounds are overgrown, indicating a lack of attention to maintenance while the house itself only features sparse furnishing. In all of these stories, the buildings that inhabit their pages are more than merely settings. Instead they are fragments of specific characters, representations of some form of wellness, while almost being characters in their own right. In “The Fall of the House of Usher” the house represents the physical wellness of both Roderick and Madeline Usher; whereas in “William Wilson” the school reflects the mental wellness of the lead character; and in Wuthering Heights, the titled building represents the emotional wellness of its owner.

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner takes place a few years after the Civil War in a town called Jefferson. The action of the story is centered in Miss Emily's home. The narrator of the story is a townsperson who recalls Miss Emily’s life through a series of flashbacks. The story has many elements of Gothic because the themes of love lost, death, and murder are all present in it. Other elements that suggest about the Gothic nature of the story are Emily’s description, her house, the poison she bought, and ultimately the ending. Some aspects in the story deviate from the norm of Gothic literature because Emily and Homer can be perceived as a traditional love story that every Gothic has, but it follows another path of doom. Emily ends the love between her and Homer when she takes his life, which in return dooms her for a life without love and a life of isolation. “A Rose for Emily” emphasized larger implications of straying from the traditional elements such as marriage can lead to insanity and isolation.

The term gothic fiction implies a British literary genre from the late eighteenth, and early nineteenth century. The modernized term seems to have been generalized into anything that is dark, gloomy, or depressing. Gothic novels often time posses an emphasis on portraying the terror, a prominent use of supernatural circumstances, the presence of highly stereotyped characters, and the attempt to display techniques of literary suspense. There are also other parallels among this vastly popular genre. Gothic novels often time describe the city of London in corresponding ways. Also a common theme amongst gothic literary works is the duality of human nature, or the quality or characteristic of being twofold. These mutual themes are apparent in

In Emily Brontё’s Wuthering Heights gothic elements such as recurring deaths, and the ruins of Wuthering Heights work together to further the plot and support the theme, nature vs. nurture.