The Tell-Tale Heart: Examples Of Gothic Elements

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil" embodies the hidden sins that we all hide and that in turn distance us from the ones we love most. Reverend Hooper dons a black veil throughout this story, and never takes it off. He has discerned in everyone a dark, hidden self of secret sin. In wearing the veil Hooper dramatizes the isolation that each person experiences when they are chained down by their own sinful deeds. He has realizes that symbolically everyone can be found in the shadow of their own dark veil. Hooper in wearing this shroud across his face is only amplifying the dark side of people and the truth of human existence and nature.

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

Although Gothic Elements can be very sadistic and twisted the use of it is seen in all types of stories. Some of the more famous stories that Gothic Elements are used in are the following “ A Rose for Emily,” “ The Minister’s Black Veil,” and “ The Tell- Tale Heart”. In these stories, gothic elements are found all over the place do you know why? Well the reason is that all these stories are darker stories than most. Gothic Elements are needed to make a superb scary story.

"The Ministers Black Veil," is a story that describes the sins of people and how they are misunderstood. In the story, Mr. Hooper is bearing the burden of the people. None of them even seem to care at all about Mr. Hooper and how he is misunderstood the whole story. First of all, in the story of The Ministers Black Veil, the main character Mr. Hooper is misunderstood and hated for most of his life for wearing a black veil. Even in Article 1 by Angie Fullen, she said, "Another theory is that Mr. Hooper had committed no greater sin other than mankind's normal daily sins, but that he was more aware of the need to be defined by his heart and words than by his appearance.

However there is no specification about what happened to Mr. Hooper in The Black Veil, which affected on his decision to wear the black veil. I interpret the veil as a wall that separates minister from the rest of the real world. Mr. Hooper did something and now he awfully repents about that. To wear this veil is the only valid way to be on his own and be able to sink deeply in his concerns and thoughts. Mr. Hooper’s desire is to be separated from community mentally, but not physically.

Next, horror is developed in “A Rose for Emily” by the southern gothic elements. Emily’s psychological issues depict a twisted turn in the story. When Emily keeps her father’s body in her house for three days after he died, it sets up for a future turn of events. After she dies, the town women go to her house, but when they get to her house and go inside; they discover her lover petrified in the upstairs room. “The man himself lay in the bed. For a long while we just stood there, looking down at the profound and fleshless grin” (Para. 58). Homer, her lover and husband to be, was dead in the bed. Emily poisoned him because she did not want him to leave again, so she could keep him forever. She is

The third and final element of gothic literature that can be found in “The Tell-Tale Heart” is that of the presence of madness and the thin boundary line that

“The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe is a fantastic short story, but how does it fit into literature? The story uses elements and techniques that delve into the gothic genre and allows the reader to be introduced to a darker reality. In “The Tell Tale Heart”, gothic elements reveal themselves in the short story through the use of setting and also through the use of characterization. These two elements are key components which demonstrate gothic features and help to classify this story as gothic literature. Murder and the supernatural elements also show that this text can be considered within the gothic genre of literature.

If we take “The Minister’s Black Veil” as a horror story, it leads us to certain conclusions about the nature of the veil and Hooper’s refusal to take it off. If horror is something that centers upon the horrifying or macabre, especially concerning the supernatural, one can see that this story could belong. Hooper never divulges the exact nature of the veil, and we are left to speculate about what it could possibly mean. Several possibilities present themselves if we think of this story as a horror story; it could be that the veil is covering Hooper’s face to be a constant reminder to his congregation and all who see him of secret sin. It seems that the idea that he could possibly know someone’s secret sin is terrifying to the townspeople. Indeed, this veil does give Hooper “awful power over souls that were in agony for sin” (943). Sinners fear him, because they feel that the black veil is a reference to their own personal secret sins. And the veil gives him an association with the dead and ghostly qualities; after the girl’s funeral at the beginning of the story, one woman remarks that she thought she saw Hooper walking hand in hand with the ghost of the dead girl. Such things would not have been imagined if he had never donned the veil.

Throughout quarter one, we have had an in depth look at gothic literature. However only two stories stand out to me. One is “A Rose for Emily” and it is a southern gothic story. “A Rose for Emily” centers around the life of a southern lady named Emily who is a deranged character. During her youth, her father chased away any suitors turning her into a spinster.

For my first essay on short stories I have chosen “A Rose for Emily”, which is a Southern Gothic tale written in 1931 by William Faulker. The story is located on pages 31-37 of the Literature textbook. The reason why I had initially chosen “A Rose for Emily” was because the title intrigued me. It left me wondering what the rose symbolized. Did it suggest a wedding? Perhaps a romance? However, I was thoroughly surprised to find out that the story was the complete opposite; the tone and description of the mysterious old woman, through the narrative voice of a townsfolk/city council member, left a very dark and morbid impression in my mind of Emily. I imagined her as a stubborn, socially withdrawn, and psychotic old women. However when I first read the description of the story in the front contents of the textbook which said, “Proud Emily Grierson defied the town from the fortress of her mansion…Who could have guessed the secret that lay within?”(i.v. Contents), I initially thought Emily was probably under some form of outside attack and that she had a cellar filled with

One of the first characters to be introduced in “A Rose For Emily” is Emily who seen as crazy and desperate, but the world is not perceived the same way as Emily perceives it. A prime example of Emily’s behavior can be observed throughout the short story, this article explaining this extremely well with Emily’s condition, “She had no identity, a ghost among the masses, to be pitied surely, but never given the elixir to make her human—alive—once again.” (Faison). This quote illustrates the crazy behavior that Emily demonstrates throughout the short story. Emily had no father, no husband, and no one to save her this nightmare, undoubtedly to be made fun of as a result of these terrible circumstances. Back in the day, not having a husband was like not having a smartphone today, both of them were particularly essential in those times. Since Emily can barely save herself, any looking for love will almost certainly decimate her.

In “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner tells the story of an sad and lonely lady, stuck in her time. Because her father died, she never fully recovered from it and was not able to find herself. Emily’s house was in the past was considered elegant and was built on the best street in town in the 1870’s. Now the house is old and an unattractive building to the neighborhood. People in her town begin to bad mouth her because of her lost soul. Homer Barron, an employee of a construction company, begins to begins to date Emily. The townspeople do not seem ecstatic about this, because they think she is doing it out of being lonely and depressed since her father died. Later on, she

“A Rose for Emily” is a Southern Gothic short story written by William Faulkner. The main character, Miss Emily Grierson, has a story and personality that can be analyzed from many different viewpoints. Focusing more on the psychological perspective, Miss Emily is very erratic and idiosyncratic in behavior. She isolates herself in her home and locks up her house to prevent anyone from coming in. Her home hides many secrets, but the one that stands out the most is the corpse of Homer Barron, Miss Emily’s lover. For years, Miss Emily has lived and slept with the corpse, which was unknown for many years by all the townspeople. After this is discovered, Miss Emily’s mental health and stability became the main topic of interest to both the townspeople and the readers of this story.

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner takes place a few years after the Civil War in a town called Jefferson. The action of the story is centered in Miss Emily's home. The narrator of the story is a townsperson who recalls Miss Emily’s life through a series of flashbacks. The story has many elements of Gothic because the themes of love lost, death, and murder are all present in it. Other elements that suggest about the Gothic nature of the story are Emily’s description, her house, the poison she bought, and ultimately the ending. Some aspects in the story deviate from the norm of Gothic literature because Emily and Homer can be perceived as a traditional love story that every Gothic has, but it follows another path of doom. Emily ends the love between her and Homer when she takes his life, which in return dooms her for a life without love and a life of isolation. “A Rose for Emily” emphasized larger implications of straying from the traditional elements such as marriage can lead to insanity and isolation.