Matthew Gregory Lewis Research Paper

Michael Thomas a 23-year old, 6’3, 209 pound dynamic wide receiver out of Ohio State. Look at any mock draft, any big board, or any prospect rankings and look for Thomas. What do you see? I looked at a combination of over 100 different mock drafts, big boards, and player rankings, and much to my surprise, on average Thomas was rated as the sixth best receiver in the draft.

Joe-Lewis, not a name heard often, in fact, if people know boxing, they think he is named after the famous boxer Joe Lewis. However he is not named after the boxer, he is named after our father, Lewis because his nickname was Joe-Lewis, hence Joe-Lewis’s name. His first name is unique just like his middle name, Brown after our great grandfather, Joe-Lewis’s middle name matches his hair and eyes. Small  not a word used to describe his physical appearance anymore, Joe-Lewis is now five foot, six inches tall and slender, his baby fat gone, along with his chubby cheeks, now replaced with strong cheekbones. Not only did Joe-Lewis’s physical appearance change, but his wardrobe changed as well.

Who was C.S. Lewis? What was he known for? Why was C.S. Lewis known as “Jack"?What did Lewis think about the Bible? Was he a fundamentalist? These questions and so many more have been, and are currently being asked today. Humans as a species tend to be drawn to the professional legacy of a man or women of great stature and or power. What if instead of that one dove in to the more personal aspect of said humans legacy? One would see the childhood that shaped this icon, or the beliefs and values that they held. Only when you investigate these treasures will one be able to fully appreciate and admire the accomplishments that a great human has achieved.

“Lamb to the Slaughter” and “The Cask of Amontillado” are qualities of Gothic Literature. In “Lamb to the Slaughter” and “The Cask of Amontillado” both start at a point of not happiness but clam and mystery. “Lamb to the Slaughter” quickly turns from that tranquilized mood into depressing and doubtful when Mary kills her husband. Then in “The Cask of the Amontillado” even when that grim mood was not enough, it had to be more depressing when Montresor gets Fortunato drunk and later kills him. Thus, both “Lamb to the Slaughter” and “The Cask of Amontillado” has bites and pieces of Gothic literature. “Lamb to the Slaughter” and “The Cask of Amontillado” both have twisted and gloomy thoughts, and actions.

Religion has existed for a significant portion of human history and continues to do so; however, even a single religion’s history, traditions, and popularity have not always been constant. On an individual level, religion can also play a huge role in a person’s life, although that may not always be a purely voluntary choice. Defense mechanisms may have to be utilized if a person wants to live as they please or else they will be forced to confront the jarring inconsistencies in their beliefs. Jerrold E. Hogle contemplates that these fluctuations in a culture’s (specifically the middle class, since they are a large audience of gothic media) value system over time, how they conflict, and how they are violently dealt with constitutes the essence of the Gothic in his piece, “Introduction: modernity and the proliferation of the Gothic”. His broader musings provide a window of insight into Margaret Atwood's story, "Lusus Naturae", in which the characters' Catholic morals appear at odds with their self-interests. Those Catholic morals include purity, kindness, and selflessness, whereas self-interests include greed, selfishness, vanity, and dishonesty. Hogle relevantly comments on how the “vestiges of ancient Catholicism had become symbols of mostly emptied out meanings” (5). And so Hogle’s analysis of the Gothic and Atwood's gothic story work together to illustrate the efforts of harmonizing two antithetical ideals, leading to the weaponizing of Catholic symbols against the very

The eccentric romantic gothic genre and the surrounding supernatural presence lurks around crowds of chapters. The contrastive saint Helen Burns used as a reverence to the good aspect and purity of christianity.

Unlike Francis Collins, I grew up in a very religious family. My paternal grandfather is a Pentecostal preacher, so my siblings and I grew up in the church for the first decade or so of my life. Even at a young age, I was fascinated with science, especially paleontology. Despite growing up in an environment that held firmly to the literal interpretation of Genesis, my parents encouraging me to learn as much as I could about things that interested me. Of course, this led to some strange questions and answers about the origins of dinosaur fossils. Just because I had questions, though, did not mean that I thought I had to choose between my faith and science. Until I came to JBU, I categorized fossils as a mystery that I would eventually understand. I may have felt threatened by my own attempts at trying to explain what I believed about God and science, but even before Francis Collins’ talk, I realized that no matter what science discovers, it cannot threaten God. He gave us the ability to discover things that He made. Why should He feel threatened by the things He made with love and pride?

Edgar Allan Poe is arguably one of America’s most famed authors of American gothic literature. His text more than most authors exemplifies true gothic horror. His stories often tend to relate to very dark themes that make the reader feel very uncomfortable. It deals with themes of death, very extreme taboos, and supernatural elements. The stories are also set in very Gothic settings with creepy atmospheres such as tombs catacombs. Two of Edgar Allen Poe’s stories that stand out in particular is the “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”. “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Fall of the House of Usher draw heavily on American Gothic tenants, themes, ideas, and settings.

The gothic genre often gives the ideas of darkness, gore, mystery and trepidation. Gothic literature first appeared in the 1720’s, the most common eerie yet beautiful themes used are death and decay, insanity and internal chaos, as well as the supernatural. Gothic writers often attempt to unmask the dark and horrific side of human nature, the irrational and destructive desires of men. However, Edgar Allen Poe’s literary creations stray away from the conventional and traditional concept of Gothic. The essential spirit of Romanticism which focuses greatly on characters’ passion and inner struggles can also be found in Poe’s macabre tales. Unlike other Gothic writers, Poe does not focus on the sheer terror nor lustful romance like the famous and

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.

Whether it be in the shape of looming shadows cast by some unseen foe or a pair of cold entwining hands around some unsuspecting neck, our dread, anxieties and greatest fears manifest themselves upon the pages of every gothic novel. Gothic novels play on the heart stings of their readership, inflaming feelings of unease that are already present. Matthew Lewis took advantage of his readers’ unsettled state by appealing to the fears which pervaded throughout Europe during the Eighteenth century. The Monk plays on the fears of people stirred by the French revolution and it fans the flames of distrust towards the Christian church brought on by the Enlightenment and Christianity’s revival. Matthew Lewis’ The Monk can be characterized as “the most

Just like the slow ticking of an old grandfather clock, gothic literature will be one of the most feared titles one will ever read for good reason. It’s heart-pounding. Sweat-inducing. Pupil-shaking. It is startlingly real and lifelike, and you won't be able to stop yourself from turning around to just check. Those deep, dark, unexplained laments in the murky recesses of our minds have moulded itself into two very distinct types of gothic literature - traditional and contemporary. Traditional gothic literature, like Charles Dickens’ ‘The Signalman’ utilises an unusual setting, and revolves heavily around the supernatural, which is further emphasised in its use of first person; contemporary literature, like Roald Dahl's ’ ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ has a varied range of

These critics maintain that while male novelists “tended towards a plot of masculine transgression of social taboos, exemplified by Matthew Lewis’s The Monk,” female writers create their own gothic plot revolving around the story of a “persecuted heroine in flight from a villainous father and in search of an absent mother” (2). The traditional male gothic novel is based on “the standard Bildungsroman” in which a “satanic revolutionary superman” moves towards the accomplishment of his “personhood and individuation” (Maggie Kilgour 37). Its narrative structure is linear, motivated by the liberation of the defiant male protagonist who refuses to conform to the social conventions that oppress him. However, eighteenth-century women writers create a different gothic plotline that suggests “the re-establishment of conventional life” (38). Based on a circular pattern, the traditional female storyline foregrounds a restoration of the normalized social norms that oppress the victimized heroine. It

Gothicism, a style of writing that developed from Romanticism, is evident today in many literary mediums such as novels and movies, but it had its origins centuries earlier with Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto in 1765 (Melani, 2002). The gothic novel was written to thrill and terrify readers with eerie settings and supernatural events. This genre would come to influence one of America’s most iconic authors and the father of the American short story: Edgar Allen Poe. The influence of the Gothic tradition in the works of Edgar Allen Poe, especially in “The Black Cat” and “The Cask of Amontillado” is evident through his use of eerie settings, horror/terror, development of the main character, and common themes seen throughout his work.

“Lewis’s Narrates the progress of Ambrosios destruction as his lust leads him to atrocious crimes.” These words of David McCracken concisely depicts The Monk which takes the readers through a chaotic journey . In the book The Monk there are many conflicts that are in the way of the characters. Through the use of religion, Romance, and Greed, Matthew Lewis reflects the elements of the supernatural, sexual temptation, and Fallen man thus expressing Gothic Literature.