Running head: ELEMENTAL GOTHIC Elemental Gothic May 28, 2009 Elemental Gothic Gothic literature is rooted back to the Romantic movement of the 19th century. Shortly after the first literature works has appeared, this movement has gained popularity and embraced a number of works in short story, novels, dramatic, artistic, poetic ad cinematic works. The essay examines the elements of gothic and compares and contrasts the use of gothic elements in Shelley’s Frankenstein and Edgar Alan Poes gothic elements from his stories Black Cat, House of Usher, and Ligeia. Both authors, Shelley and Poe, have much in common. In most of their works the setting takes place in a vault, ancestral family home or in a castle. The authors widely use the images of vampires, monsters, ghosts and other supernatural beings. Frankenstein, Black Cat, House of Usher, and Ligeia are rich in unexplainable events and an atmosphere of terror and suspense.
Frankenstein, similar to Poes stories is focused on supernatural and mysterious. Each chapter is rich in unexplainable, gloomy, dark events and is rich in such words like destroyed, destruction, and catastrophe, to mention a few (Shelley, 1994).
For example, in the second chapter the protagonist remembers when he was about fifteen years old, he witnessed a a most violent and terrible thunderstorm. (Shelley, 1994) As he watched the thunderstorm with curiosity and delight, a strange though came to his mind later; he thought that so strangely are our souls constructed, and by such slight ligaments are we bound to prosperity or ruin and adds then that it was a strong effort of the spirit of good, but it was ineffectual. Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction. (Shelley, 1994) This fascination with decay, death and gloominess that is so clearly seen in this (and other chapters) is one of the most popular characteristics of gothic literature. Similar to any other gothic stories, Frankenstein, Black Cat, House of Usher, and Ligeia are all focused on death-obsession, destructive forces, fatality, gloomy and dark atmosphere and the evidence of decay. All these gothic elements are widely used by both authors in their stories.
The Term Paper on An Analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born in London in 1797 to radical philosopher, William Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Wollstonecraft died 11 days after giving birth, and young Mary was educated in the intellectual circles of her father’s contemporaries. In 1814, at the age of seventeen, Mary met and fell in love with poet, Percy Bysshe ...
Shelley uses gothic elements in every chapter, the emphasis on morbid, sense of fear, curse, macabre the protagonist is constantly mingled with this horror, feels the bitterness of disappointment, his dreams become a hell, his eyes are aching, he feels fear and he even didnt date to return to the apartment which [he] inhabited, (in Chapter 5) and his heart palpitated in the sickness of fear. (Shelley, 1994) Shelley often mentions that the protagonist was in reality very ill, and, while telling Victors story, always mentions about the commencement of a nervous fever which confined [Victor] for several months, from the very beginning to the end of the novel trying to evoke fear in reader, the integral part of any Gothic writing. (Shelley, 1994) Similar to Shelleys Frankenstein, Edgar Alan Poe also presents gloomy picture of supernatural and mysterious. In his Black Cat, House of Usher, and Ligeia everything seems to be rich in unexplainable events to achieve desired effect on audience. Both authors have common themes, structures and motifs making their stories easily recognizable by the readers. Similar to Shelley, Poe is focused on the persuasive themes of decay and death, the themes of presence of insanity, madness, supernatural events in all possible forms, gloomy and mystic locations and settings (Auerbach, 1989).
Almost in all Poes stories the author describes the process of death or decay. In Ligea Poe tells a gloomy story of a man, whose love has passed away and now he has to live without her.
The Essay on Edgar Allen Poe Short Story cask Of Amontillado
Humans are very complicated. For many years, human beings have been trying to figure out how the body works physically and mentally. Researches led to many discoveries in the human physical body, but the human mind is still relatively mysterious. Whenever a person does not follow the societys guidelines, he or she, often enough, is considered mentally ill. In Edgar Allan Poes short story The Cask ...
Similar to Shelleys Frankenstein, Ligea is rich details, describing fear, death, decay and darkness. Poe shows Ligea being exhausted with emotion, dying, suffering, being tortured (Carlson, 1971) Everything is surrounded by decay, suffering and other elements peculiar to gothic literature. The Fall of the House of Usher and Black Cat are also classical examples of Poes use of gothic elements. The threatening nature of the experience and feelings of fear, the evocation of the nightmare world are all clearly seen in these stories. This atmosphere exists in all Poes stories, from the very beginning to the very end. For example, the first sentence of Poes The Fall of the House of Usher perfectly illustrates what is called a gothic literature: During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was — but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit.
(Carlson, 1971) Both authors manage to create a mood of suspense and gloom even before they present a subject. The feeling of fear, terror, gloom and death emerge to lead the readers through the dark atmosphere of the stories. The uncertainty, the insufferable gloom of the stories, irrational fear, death and decay, presented in Shelley’s Frankenstein and Edgar Alan Poes from his stories Black Cat, House of Usher, and Ligeia serve perfect illustration to what is called gothic literature. Bibliography Auerbach, J. (1989).
The Romance of Failure: First-person Fictions of Poe, Hawthorne, and James.
New York: Oxford UP. Carlson, E. W. (Ed.).
(1971).
The Fall of the House of Usher. Columbus, Ohio: Merrill.
Shelley, M. (1994).
Frankenstein. Oxford: Oxford University Press..
