Essay on Gothic Fiction: An Analysis of Space in The Monk

Gothic literature is when the setting of a novel or passage is described as being gloomy or has a dark setting. In gothic literature the author might often write about a bleak setting, tortured characters or have a strange or violent plot. Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a good example of Gothic Literature because in the story he expresses it as being dark and mysterious, also it incorporates gloomy moods, and a bleak setting in the story. For example, in Poe’s

the seed of doubt in the mind of the reader as to the credibility of

Various authors develop their stories using gothic themes and characterizations of this type to lay the foundation for their desired reader response. Although Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and Peter Taylor’s “Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time” are two completely different narratives, both of these stories share a commonality of gothic text representations. The stories take slightly different paths, with Poe’s signifying traditional gothic literature and Taylor approaching his story in a more contemporary manner.

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.

The topic I found interesting was the meaning of space in the stories we’ve read. What is it and how do we explain it? This is useful because when it comes to understanding the meaning of space there isn’t just only one way of doing so. Were able to discover this through the different author 's stories, and poems we’ve read. The stories that I will look into for this paper are “Passing” by Nella Larsen and “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In both the stories the character 's use these open spaces to hide in and conceal the things important to them.

In the middle of the 12th century, in France started a Gothic architectural wave, characterized by the usage of elements such as the ribbed vault, pointed arch, fine woodwork and stonework, that went on developing throughout Western Europe. Also in the same period and place, Gothic art came to life, mostly paintings and sculptures, a movement that would go on in Europe until the 16th century: The Gothic link between literature and architecture has its beginning in the United Kingdom with Walpole's short novel The Castle of Otranto (1764) . Horace Walpole, in his work 'The Castle of Otranto', went back to the Middle Ages, the 'dark' age as the persons living in the Enlightenment perceived them and integrated metaphysical events into a fiction set , in a time when faith in the supernatural was outspread. He managed to revive in the masses an interest towards the Gothic with his obsession with faux gothic architecture, having even built his own

According to Webster’s dictionary, the definition of gothic is “of or relating to a style of fiction characterized by the use of desolate or remote settings and macabre, mysterious, or violent incidents.” (Definition). As we all know, there is way more to gothic literature than the definition given to us. They did not mention anything about romantic elements such as high emotion, the elements of pure horror, or even the presence of the supernatural. You also have all of the gothic conventions of weather, the sublime, dreams, justice, revenge, unreliable narrator, and those are just a few to name. I believe that Matthew Lewis’ The Monk is one of the best examples of gothic literature because of its ability to thoroughly expand on the definition of gothic literature and use most of, if not all of gothics writing conventions.

The third characteristic of the neo-classicism time period that is represented in Candide was the preference for an urbane, civilized society. In Candide, much of the setting takes place in an urban society, rather than rural society. He has been to all sorts of civilized towns and neighborhoods, such

Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, is acknowledged by many as the first gothic novel. It was the first of it’s kind and many of the conventions used by Walpole, which put it in a literary genre of it’s own, were continued by authors such as Ann Radcliffe and Matthew Lewis. Many of these defining characteristics can be seen within the very first few pages of the text and for the purposes of this essay, to identify some of these conventions used and the relevance of this text to modernity I shall focus this analysis on the passage between pages twenty-four and twenty-six from the Oxford World’s Classics edition.

Pride is one of the most common sins committed in The Monk. There are very few characters in the novel that escape this particular blemish to their personality. Early in the novel, Lewis describes the inhabitants of the church, saying, “the Women came to show themselves, the Men to see the Women,” (7). Thus, although the natives of Madrid have come to mass, they came for the wrong reason; their pride drives most of their actions. Antonia’s aunt, Leonella, is particularly prey to her prideful nature, despite her age. As she returns from mass with Antonia, she tells the girl, “the very moment I produced myself in Madrid, I knew that I should be surrounded by Admirers.” This example of Leonella’s vanity, humorous to the reader because of the woman 's appearance in comparison to that of her beautiful niece, is very quickly criticized. Upon the woman’s encounter with the gypsy as she returned from mass, Leonella was nearly “choaked with passion” as she listened to the stranger’s mocking advice to “lay aside/ your paint and patches.” Even the nuns in the Convent of St. Clare are not immune to pride. When Theodore, disguised as a beggar, attempts to gain access into the Convent, Lewis states, “his feigned timidity flattered the vanity of the Nuns,” (284); he gains a place in their

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

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.

To begin, with intent of initiating mystery in gothic stories, the locale is often portrayed as being physically isolated, triggering insanity in the characters. This idea can be demonstrated by the seclusion of the institution for the criminally

The following piece of writing will explore factors of a gothic novel. It will exclusively do so in regards of the two novels Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein. These very famous novels will be looked at in a very in depth piece of writing. Each novels main themes and their background will be presented. The morality and the gothic novel with specific reference to Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights will be assessed. The second aspect will be the social and cultural of the genre, the genre being the gothic novel. Thirdly, the monster as punishment and the punishment of the monster in both novels. The final aspect that will be analysed is the constructed nature of boundaries in both texts.

The central theme of all Gothic novels is the presence and symbolism of the Gothic castle. Depiction of ruinous abbeys, monasteries, subterranean passages, vaults, secret panels, and the trapdoors is a standard method of achieving the atmosphere. Howells sees the Gothic castle as being ‘a shadowy world of ruins and twilight scenery lit up from time to time by lurid flashes of passion and violence ’(6). Therefore, the gloominess of the exterior and interior environment is illuminated by intense emotional and passionate moments of the characters that inhabit the castle. As Sage claims, the castle is ‘the lair of the villain’(166), and it is an accurate reflection of his dark and frightening character. Gloomy, dark, and dangerous, the castle reflects the emotions and psychological experience of many of the novel’s characters.