Goth Subculture Research Paper

Throughout the next six stanzas, the poem starts to build up tension again for the Raven does something that is sure to be unearthly. The Raven speaks. When asked for what it’s name may be, it answers with “Nevermore.” But after marveling at the speaking bird, the man mutters to himself on how just as his hope have

The narrator can anticipate the answers of the raven, knowing that the only word it speaks is "nevermore", and tortures himself even more by asking certain questions to which the answer nevermore would devastate him. He asks if there is balm in Gilead. He even goes so far as to ask the raven if Lenore is in Paradise-"within the distant Aidenn, it shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore-" (733). The answer "nevermore" sends the narrator into a rage. He calls the raven a "prophet", but cannot place if it is a prophet of evil or of good.

Other than goths I think a subculture that really stands out in our culture is the subculture deemed as redneck, I am not certain what the exact title of this subculture is or should be because it can be pretty diverse. I was raised in a small farming and mining town so I have seen firsthand how diverse red necks can be; a redneck can be anything from a dignified rancher to a back woods, alligator wraslin’[sic], moon shine drinking, hillbilly. Webster defines rednecks as, “a white person who lives in a small town or in the country especially in the southern U.S., who typically has a working-class job, and who is seen by others as being uneducated and having opinions and attitudes that are offensive.”(Webster,2016) I think as a general consensus

He is so upset by the loss of Lenore that it leads him to the edge of insanity. The speaker then is seen throughout the poem supposedly struggling with the raven because the raven responds with “Nevermore” which gets the speaker angry as he is struggling within himself. The speaker seems to be trying to achieve "surcease of sorrow for the lost Lenore" by burying himself in books and trying to forget about her. But the Raven seems to be a messenger from the spirit world who has been sent to the speaker’s chamber door to keep reminding him of his loss. Instead of trying to forget about Lenore, he is forced to think about her more emotionally than he had been thinking before.

This also says a lot about the level of sanity of the student. “A more rigorous reading suggests that the raven's "Nevermore" does not provide even the ostensible answer the speaker reads into it” (Freedman, 1). With this quote it is clear that the level of sanity of the student is suffering from the loss of his lover Lenore. The loss of his lover is what drives the student to see the raven as a prophet something far more than what he really is.

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 novel Dracula is a very popular book that was written in the form of Gothic Literature. This novel was written by Bram Stoker in the Victorian Age. A large portion of this piece of writing deals with many famous Gothic motifs. Gothic Literature combines the usual Gothic horror with fiction and Romanticism (Wikipedia). A motif is a distinctive symbol or dominant idea used in literature. So therefore, a Gothic motif is a literary symbol that usually combines fiction with either horror or romance. Bram Stoker’s usage of Gothic motifs not only helps define Dracula as a piece of Gothic Literature, but also helps the reader become better acquainted with what is happening in the novel. Gothic motifs are found in many different forms in pieces of work, and if readers are already accustomed to these motifs, it makes reading Dracula clearer and easier. Stoker uses many different Gothic motifs throughout this novel, but there are only a few that are the more important and stand out from the rest. These motifs are: castles and strange places, power and constraint, and revenants.

The Gothic genre often reproduces a conservative paranoid structure when it comes to homophobia and other moral panics over sex (Hanson, Pg. 176). Eve Sedgwick depicts this in her work, ‘Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosexual Desire’ as she discusses how these ideas (paranoia) are represented within the Gothic, in what she describes as the ‘homosocial’ in reference to male bonds (Sedgwick, Pg. 86). She also discusses how bonds between men exist as the backbone of social form and forms (Sedgwick, Pg. 86). Thus, a consequence of said structure is the ability to define, control, and manipulate male bonds, which in turn becomes an inexplicably powerful instrument of social control (Sedgwick, Pg. 86). Thus, homosexuality is represented as the ‘unspeakable’ within the Gothic, as it has been defined, controlled, and manipulated to be such though social control. Therefore, this paper will discuss how ‘homosocial’ bonds between men, are used as a tool in social control and used as a way to produce paranoia and moral panic, thus in reference to the Gothic, these forms epitomize homosexuality as the ‘unspeakable,’ especially through homosexual representations within the contexts of ghosts and haunted houses.

3(c). In “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, the word nevermore relates to the emotional changes the speaker goes through because of one of the questions the speaker asked. The speaker was wondering if he was ever going to see Lenore again, and the raven said nevermore. The raven saying nevermore causes the speaker to believe he is not going to see Lenore again in heaven.

Although The Raven is rich in symbolism, the plot is actually quite simple. In the poem, the unnamed speaker is reading and “nearly napping” in his home alone on a “bleak December” night when he hears a tapping at his door. He is in a deep sorrow over the loss of Lenore who is assumed to be the speaker’s deceased wife/lover. He discovers that it is a raven that was tapping at his door and he begins to speak to the bird who responds only with the phrase “nevermore”. As the poem ends, the speaker seems to have been driven into a fit of insanity because of his “conversations” with the raven.

The man then asks the Raven for his name. Surprisingly the Raven answers, and croaks “Nevermore.” The man knows that the bird cannot speak from wisdom. He assumes that the bird was taught by “some unhappy master.” The man is so lonely that he decides to welcome the raven in, although, he is sad that the friend he just made will be gone in the morning (1174). He says out loud, “Other friends have flown before- On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before.” Then the bird replies, “Nevermore.” Surprised the man smiled and pulled up a chair, interested in knowing what the raven meant when he croaked, “Nevermore.” The chair he sat in brought back painful memories of his love, Lenore and how she used to sit in that chair. Knowing that the raven’s speech is irrational he still asks the raven questions. Since the narrator already knows that the raven can only speak one word, he assumes the bird’s responses. The man asks, “Is there balm in Gilead?" The bird replies, "Nevermore." Can Lenore be found in paradise? - "Nevermore." The man becomes angered and yells, “Take thy form from off my door!" Of course the bird replies, "Nevermore."(1175) Lastly the man surrenders, realizing that continuing the conversation with the raven would be pointless. And his "soul from out that shadow" that the raven throws on the floor, "Shall be lifted -- Nevermore!" (1175)

Gothic architecture a new style developing from an old style of architecture with similar characteristics and in a way different. Architects wanted to build bigger buildings with stronger walls something that could not be found elsewhere. The old buildings did not have windows they were dark places that in order to get light they needed many candles. Not even the candles could give the right amount of light the buildings needed. The middle ages architects wanted big windows on the buildings and this new style made their wish come true. Architecture during the Middle Ages became a new style with new problems to solve and a new kind of extraordinary buildings to build.

The Raven analyzes the theme of death. In the poem, the narrator is seeking hope and wisdom after the death of Lenore. “Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there… But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, and the only word spoken was the whispered word, Lenore? This I whispered, and an echo murmured back Lenore? Merely this and nothing more,” describes how the narrator believed he heard the name of his love, but then his hope fades as nothing more is said. The narrator had to face that his love was no longer there with him because she was dead. “Nevermore” is the only response the raven gives to the helpless narrator, and it makes him increasingly agitated because he is

In the novel Carmilla written by Sheridan Le Fanu the setting when the crash happens at night expresses the gothic aspects of the book and the character development. Carmilla is a gothic story that introduces Laura, a young teenager who suddenly develops a relationship with lovely Carmilla who is exposed to be a vampire. The gothic aspects are developed by the note Carmilla’s father receives from the General, the moonlight in the night, and the strange isolated location where Carmilla lives

It’s strange trying to think about these original film properties—Frankenstein and Dracula, respectively—as serious pictures, void of camp and cheese. However, most of this comes from age. It’s interesting then, watching the Hammond-era films, and trying to view them as anything remotely serious. They aren’t. However, they do, at times, manage to disguise themselves as such. In reality, these movies are no Rosemary’s Baby, but rather the birth of a new brand of gothic horror—the gore filled, B-movie, spin-off franchise films; a weird series of twisted exploitation reboots, upping the ante and upping the ridiculous names. The two things that immediately came to mind when watching these films is the obvious influence they had on the work of Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro, and Kate Bush’s song “Hammer Horror” — I admire both artists greatly, so I went in the Hammerverse with my eyes wide open.