Grotesque Characters In Gothic Stories

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

Gothic literature is a literary genre that began in england in the late 1700’s that “Gothic” refers to medieval buildings, such as castles that were seen typically as dark, dreary, gloomy and mysterious which inspired a mood for many books. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a good of example of gothic literature because it had a gloomy tone commonly found in most gothic literature. This can be found in the first paragraph when the narrator says “ a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit”. This shows“The Fall of the House of Usher” is gothic literature because it sets up a gothic tone in the first paragraph.

Gothic Literature includes a gloomy mood and a dramatic description throughout the story. Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a good example of Gothic Literature because it has a gloomy mood which helps the story feel more eerie and also contains a dramatic description which makes the reader feel as if they are in the moment and living the event. For example, in Poe’s story,”...but the first glimpse of the building a sense of insufferable gloom prevademy spirit.”(13). He sets a gloomy and dark mood which is one of the requirements for Gothic Literature and describes it in a way that makes everything sound like a crucial event. He also explains the building using words such as “spirit” making the mood very menacing and creepy. Therefore, “The Fall of the House of Usher” is considered Gothic Literature because it meets all of the requirements and views the world in a dark and mischievous way. (Melissa Medina)

Gothic literature has a number of conventions, including evils of horror, present of light and dark, suggestions of the supernatural, and dark and exotic localities such as castles and crumbling mansions (American). Violence in gothic literature never occurs just for the sake of violence; there is always a moral dilemma (Clarke 209). By going the extremes, a gothic author is able to accentuate a contrast allowing the author's point to be made more easily. American fiction was based on fantasy works of writers like Edgar Allan Poe. Although Edgar Allan Poe, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Frederick Douglass, all used gothic devices

Have you ever come across gothicism? Have you ever noticed it? It first appeared in Great Britain from the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. Gothicism in literature is something that forces you to think beyond the preternatural line between the supernatural and natural. Gothicism exposes the unspoken and deliberately forgotten, using dark language in what we are uncomfortable discussing. The two pieces of American literature Ligeia and The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe are great examples of gothic literature. As a Gothic writer, Poe uses specific words and events which exhibit gothicism in these two texts by haunting, usually unspoken, and dark themes which are characteristic

Gothic Literature is a style of writing found in many books. It combines fiction with horror, death, and sometimes romance. It includes settings, which are usually dark and scary, characters, with some hidden morals, a plot that might have a horrifying twist at the end, and supernatural entities. Strange Angels by LiLi ST. Crow, who is known for Gothic Literature style novels, is a great example of Gothic Literature because it includes horror, death, a strong heroine, and supernatural beings.

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.

There is one known very influential writing style called Gothic Literature. It is not only considered to involve the horror or gothic element but is combined with romance, superstition, women in distress, omens, portents, vision and supernatural events to name a few (Beesly). The history and beginning of this era is not well known. From a few writers came this writing style that has impacted the world. A famous artists known for this type of writing is a man named Edgar Allan Poe. He wrote many short stories and poems that include horror, gothic, and romance just mentioned.

The grotesque in literature focuses on the human body and all the ways it can exaggerated or distorted. For example, in Baudelaire’s “A Carrion” he talks about the dead prostitute’s vulva being eaten away by maggots. By doing this he is giving a picture of a dead person, but exaggerates it through the talk of the maggots eating away at a normally private part of the human body. In William Burroughs excerpt he talks about the abundance of drug use, and ease of obtaining it. Burroughs does this in a grotesque way. It is not that society has too much time on their hands, but that they have too much drugs instead. Burroughs also tells how through the use of drugs it affects society, and causes a decline of the human being as a major factor.

What comes to mind when one is asked to define the term “Gothic?” Usually it is described as being dark, mysterious, and scary. The term Gothic is actually a style of literature marked by gloomy settings and mysterious events. There are major works of literature that have displayed strong elements of the Gothic tradition such as, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown.”

Gothic Literature is a writing style that has dark setting, it has an overall atmosphere of mystery, exoticism, death. A Gothic story will revolve around a large, ancient house or an obscure setting that conceals a terrible secret or that serves as the refuge of an especially frightening and threatening character

Gothic literature shares many of the same themes to show a sense of fear, horror, mental state, and paranoia through supernatural beings along with literal and psychological entrapment. This set of themes is shared by authors Richard Matheson, Washington Irving, and the fore father of gothic literature Edgar Allan Poe in their gothic short stories.

What is Gothicism some people might ask? Well that in and of itself is not the easiest thing to explain. For many it is the dark themes in literature, but that is not so. Gothic Literature appeared in writings because writers started to delve into the murky past of literature in order to capture the ancient folklore and interesting mysteries. The web that makes of gothic literature stretches far and wide and touches different territories, that many find scandalous, escapism, stalking, outré, and perilous. Gothicism over the years has changed in several ways due to the fact that the writers were devouring French romances, and other things like the Grimm’s Teutonic tales, Grimm’s Brothers Fairy Tales. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, one of

The word Gothic often gets associated with a style of dress or mentality. Gothic actually refers to a society of people found in Europe around 470 A.D. known for being barbaric and dark (Heather 1). Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven are works of literature that fall under the category of Gothic literature, which alludes to the Gothic people. To be a work of Gothic literature the writing must display certain qualities, such as a dark setting, an isolated main character, and insanity. Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven and Bram Stoker’s Dracula display many similar Gothic elements, but Dracula permits a far more Gothic experience than The Raven.

Gothic literature originated and was very strong at the time of the Romantic Writers Movement. They were very popular and had authors such as Horace Walpole who wrote “The Castle of Oranto”, and novels such as “Frankenstein” and “Dracula“. Gothic novels all had a similarity between each other. They always had typical Gothic features which alleviated the novel in one way or another. For example, most Gothic novels involved settings which generally added fear and suspense. They were always quite dark, scary and isolated. Also the characters of the Gothic novels never seemed to fit in the community and the society. They usually were handicapped, disabled or deformed