Features of Gothic Horror Displayed in "The Yellow Wallpaper", "The Red Room" and "The Monkey’s Paw"

Edgar Allan Poe is an American Gothic author from the 19th century. It is well known that Edgar Allan Poe was a master of suspense. The word ‘suspense’ is defined by the Oxford Dictionary to be ‘A state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen.’ Two of Poe’s works are ‘Ligeia’ and ‘The Fall of the House Usher’. ‘Ligeia’ is the story of an unnamed narrator in love with his wife Lady Ligeia and how he copes with her death. ‘The fall of the House of Usher’ is the story of an unnamed narrator visiting his friend Roderick Usher at his house. Both of them are full of suspense and this is the main topic this essay will be focusing on. This essay will attempt to illustrate how Poe builds suspense in his short stories

“The Monkeys Paw” is a heavy gothic short story that teaches a grave lesson. This story is jam-packed with foreshadowing and irony. It also teaches the important lesson on being grateful for what you have, and to be careful for what you wish for.

In the short story the Monkey’s Paw, one of the main literary devices that were prevalent in the author’s writing was foreshadowing. From the beginning of the story, all the way to the end, there was always a hint of what was to come.

Published in September 1902, “The Monkey’s Paw,” written by WW Jacobs, used a variety of literary elements to convey horror, suspense, and tension throughout the story. The story is a mystical tale of three different people granted three different wishes by a cursed monkey’s paw. The use of foreshadowing pulled the reader into the dark and cold night when Sergeant Major-Morris visits the White’s home, and told them of the tale of the monkey’s paw and tries to destroy it by throwing it into the fire. Mr. White retrieved the paw and kept it for his own personal use. The use of the wishes from the paw came at a great cost to the family. In W. W. Jacob's, "The Monkey's Paw," he illustrated foreshadowing, imagery, and fate as a theme; thus, it

Horror, what is it, according to literary historian J.A. Cuddon, it is “a piece of fiction in prose of variable length…which shocks or even frightens the reader, or perhaps induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing.” This sets the guidelines for how the generic horror piece is written, as long as it can scare the reader in one sense or the other, or cause them to loath a certain part or character, then it can be called horror. The horror today has roots stemming from old folklore and religious traditions which had elements that dealt with death, the afterlife, and the demonic, along with the things or thing that embody a person. Horror during the 18th century was called gothic horror and this particular type of horror was invented in the

While reading “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I couldn’t help but feel a constant overwhelming sense of dread. The root of this could have come from the story’s dark setting deep within an “haunted forest” or from Brown’s mysterious “Devil”-esque companion. While I read, another story came into my mind; the story of the “Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe. In Poe’s tale the same heart pounding emotion can be felt as he describes the reunion of two friends within “the House of Usher.” With the manors “eye-like windows” and “sorrowful impression,” Poe wastes no time in setting the Gothic mood. Through their distinct writing styles Hawthorne and Poe establish a common Gothic theme within their stories.

The main themes of Edgar Allan Poe’s works are death, perversity, revenge and destruction. The settings he employed in the given short stories, especially in The Fall of the House of Usher and The Black Cat are Gothic. Therefore, naturally the mood of these stories would be dark and sepulchral. However, this is not a trivial employment undertaken to put the reader in a certain kind of zone.

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 most Gothic literature stories, imagination plays a big role in creating fear that for the reader to feel. Both of the stories that were read in class, “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “House Taken Over” included elements of Gothic literature which made the reader use their mind and have a imagination. These short stories involve many examples of imagination conquering of reason.

As I said about “The Monkeys Paw”, it has a cause-and –effect. There was a family that encountered a soldier that gave them the Monkey's Paw. In the end it gave you three wishes, they will be granted but with a twist. The soldier was terrified of the Monkeys Paw, but because of the fathers greediness he still wanted the Monkeys Paw. The solider even tried to destroy the Monkeys Paw because of how scared he was on it, “I threw it on the fire, if you keep it, don’t blame me

The classic short story of “The Tell-Tale Heart”, written by one of the all time masters of horror, Edgar Allen Poe, has always been used as an excellent example of Gothic fiction. Edgar Allen Poe specialized in the art of gothic writing and wrote many stories that portrayed disturbing events and delved deeply into the minds of its characters. In "The Tell-Tale Heart," Poe revolves the plot around a raving individual who, insisting that he is sane, murders an old man because of his` “vulture eye”. The three main gothic elements that are evident in this story are the unique setting, the theme of death and decay, and the presence of madness.

The entire story of “The Monkey’s Paw” was just dominoes of cause-and-effect. The story of “The Monkey’s Paw” is about to be careful of what you wish for. Mr. White and his family obtain a magical monkey’s paw during 1900s London, and they learn the price for making wishes by losing their son for a measly 200 pounds. The main cause if suspense is when dead Herbert is knocking at the door, asking to be let in. Suspense and not knowing what is happening is crucial to get an emotion out of people. “Then he turned and ran quickly back to his room, and closed the door behind him. A third knock sounded through the house.” (Jacobs #8) This shows concrete evidence that

This dissertation will examine and analyse two of the macabre and gothic tales from the English author Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865); The Old Nurses Story (1852) and The Poor Clare (1857). Indicating and demonstrating how representations of mystery and the supernatural are used as vehicles of imagination, expression and exploration into the hidden depths of the female psyche through the use of Gothic fiction within the Victorian era (1837-1901). I intend to delve and explore into the identity of the feminine-self exposing the darker and intimate issues of the female Gothic, otherwise hidden within the oppressive constraints of the female role residing in Victorian society. Applying psychoanalytical examples, I shall discuss themes of the

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

that the Red Room is a very curious title, as a room can't actually be