Poe vs. Hawthorne: Dark But Not Necessarily Gothic Essay

After Horace Walpole redefined the term “Gothic” with his literary form that mixed history and fantasy in a way that was meant to create wonder and terror, the term developed to take a on many interconnected meanings. These meanings include “Goths/Visigoths” which Edward Gibbon describes as “a general appellation of rude and warlike barbarism”(Moreland, slide 29). It is also a Medieval style of architecture and an “unwritten” constitution which describes the “ traditional balance of power in British politics between the royalty and the people”(Moreland, slide 31). The final meaning is that of Gothic fiction whose characteristics include: strong emotion (mainly terror/horror), antiquity, haunting, isolation, obscurity/mystery and/or monstrousness/grotesquerie. Among the 18th and 19th century fiction that draw upon and foreground these meanings are Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher and Stoker’s Dracula.

In this essay I will explore the idea that having a fundamental understanding of the concept of eighteenth-century “gothic” and the literary techniques involved in creating it is necessary in gaining a well-rounded appreciation for the works of authors such as Edgar Allen Poe. Through a close reading of Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher I will illuminate the methods used by Poe to warrant it one of the most innovative pieces of gothic literature, and therefore establish how it paved the way for many gothic and dark romantic authors after its publishing.

Edgar Allen Poe is often praised as being the father of the American gothic, but why is that? Poe’s literary works are exceptionally unnerving. Filled with vivid images of death, ghosts, destruction, torture, and emotional instability, Poe’s works often inspire fear in the reader. However, Poe’s work is not frightening because of the obvious reasons – his work is frightening because it seamlessly melds with the uncanny. This so called “uncanny” in Poe’s writing stems from strong allusions to the male power and superiority while also showcasing a fear of women.

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.

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 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)

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.

Since the 19h century, American Gothic fiction started to exist independently from the British type. In fact, the latter was marked by its use of fantastic, externalized and metaphysical elements as opposed to the boundaries of American Gothic fiction in which were expressed by historical, internalized, racial and psychological characteristics. (Edwards, XVII) In Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, Fall of the House of Usher and The Tell-tale heart and The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym and in Charles Broken Brown’s Edgar Huntly expresses a transformation of certain gothic conventions to an American setting which are the result of 19th century

Gothic literature incorporates many different elements, but in Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, Black Cat and The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe, I found that the most prevalent element was psychological issues or madness.

As contemporaries of each other, Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne endeavored to write about man’s dark side, the supernatural influence, and moral truths. Each writer saw man as the center-point in his stories; Poe sees man’s internal struggle as madness, while Hawthorne sees man as having a “secret sin.” Each had their reasons for writing in the Gothic format. Poe was not a religious man; he was well educated and favored reading the German Gothic literature, which would become the basis for his own writing. Hawthorne on the other hand, called on his Puritan-Calvinistic background to influence his writing style.

The term gothic serves as the ideal backdrop for a literary era of suspense, mystery, and terror. A haunted mansion bursting with secrets, a naïve helpless heroine, and the male hero that saves the day are all quintessentially gothic. When Ellen Moers first coined the term “Female Gothic” in her 1976 book, Literary Women, she defined it as “the work that women writers have done in the literary mode that, since the eighteenth century have been termed Gothic” (Moers). Her argument that Female Gothic literature is a code for women’s fear of domestic entrapment, especially within their own bodies as was mainly experienced in childbirth and motherhood, was quite influential. Anne Williams, in her book The Art of Darkness: A Poetics of Gothic,

When discussing gothic fiction many early authors come to mind, Mary Shelley, the Bronte Sisters, Bram Stoker, and Oscar Wilde, to name a few, were all exceptional European writers of this style. As for American authors, there are two names that hold top places of honor, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Poe, with his talent for lyrical, poetic prose and conveying the macabre, is considered by many to be the master of gothic fiction. However, Hawthorne with his propensity toward humor and his ability to breathe humanness into his characters is an excellent contender for the title. They both exhibited gothic traditions in their writing, while at the same time adjusting elements of this previously European genre to fit into American surroundings, all the while delivering their own unique contributions to the gothic scene. I will explore and compare some of their works with hopes of identifying what I find to be some of their genius contributions to this dark romantic style.

2). Gothic tales rely upon and are defined as being tales of mystery and horror. According to A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, the Gothic tale 'contains a strong element of the supernatural... monstrous apparitions and curses; a stupefying atmosphere of doom and gloom ... wicked tyrants, malevolent witches, demonic powers of an unspeakably hideous aspect, and a proper complement of spooky effects and clanking spectre" (Cuddon, 2012; Gothic novel/fiction).

The term gothic serves as the ideal backdrop for a literary era of suspense, mystery, and terror. A haunted mansion bursting with secrets, a naïve helpless heroine, and the male hero that saves the day are all quintessentially gothic. When Ellen Moers first coined the term “Female Gothic” in her 1976 book, Literary Women, she defined it as “the work that women writers have done in the literary mode that, since the eighteenth century have been termed Gothic” (Moers). Her argument that Female Gothic literature is a code for women’s fear of domestic entrapment, especially within their own bodies as was mainly experienced in childbirth and motherhood, was quite influential. Anne Williams, in her book The Art of Darkness: A Poetics of Gothic, argues that Female Gothic can be further dissected to include its intention to criticize the patriarchy while educating and socializing its female readers with an affirmation of absolute independence and strength. The Female Gothic is often pursued and haunted by a villainous patriarchal figure, but finds salvation on her own accord and more importantly, within herself. Another element of Female gothic is madness and monstrosity as an explanation for why the female would deviate from the conventional norm.

“Gothic architecture” now denotes the medieval from of architecture, characterized by the use of the high pointed arch and vault, flying buttresses, and intricate recesses, which spread through western Europe between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries. The Gothic Novel ,or in an alternative term ,Gothic romance ,is a type of prose fiction which was inaugurated by Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto : A Gothic Story (1764) – the subtitle denotes its setting in the Middle Ages – and flourished through the early 19th century. It is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe first published in 1839.The Fall of the House of Usher possesses the Quintessential – features of the Gothic tale: a haunted house, dreary landscape, mysterious sickness ,and double personality. For all its easily identifiable Gothic elements, however, part of the terror of this story is its