Comparing Gothic Elements in Fall of the House of Usher, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Ligeia, and American Slave
Gothic literature has a number of conventions, including evils of horror, present of light and dark, suggestions of the supernatural, and dark and exotic localities such as castles and crumbling mansions (American). Violence in gothic literature never occurs just for the sake of violence; there is always a moral dilemma (Clarke 209). By going the extremes, a gothic author is able to accentuate a contrast allowing the author's point to be made more easily. American fiction was based on fantasy works of writers like Edgar Allan Poe. Although Edgar Allan Poe, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Frederick Douglass, all used gothic devices in their work, the question arises whether Poe's gothic techniques represented his fantasy, or did they represent his reality like they do with Stowe and Douglass. Poe's use of gothic device leads the readers into a downward fall of an insane world representing fantasy. Stowe and Douglass, on the other hand, used gothic details to reflect the reality of the lives of slaves as they struggle to climb upwards out of the descending fall of their lives.
Edgar Allan Poe is primarily known for his mastery of the gothic genre. He constantly explored subjects such as self-destruction, madness, imagination, and earned a reputation for his fascination with death, especially the death of women (Scharf). Poe uses the interplay dark and light and colors such as black, gray, white and red in order to present the downward fall of his characters rather then an upward gain in their lives. Unlike the stories of Stowe and Douglass, these colors are present to represent the upward struggle of the characters ...
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...r cause (Scharf ). All three writers depend on the gothic devices to make their narratives attention getting, but Stowe and Douglass went beyond this. They wanted their readers to know their narratives were not fantasy, but could be almost dreamlike. Poe leaves his readers questioning the sanity and desires of his fictional characters while Stowe and Douglass leave their readers astonished by the insanity of a cruel and truly indescribable world.
Works Cited
Clarke, Doug. Themes and Issues of the Gothic Genre. http://members.aol. com/franzpoet/intro.html
An American Cottage -- American Edition of Smith's Dictionary of the Bible
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/browse.author/a.81.html
Scharf, Douglas. Edgar Allan Poe: Biographical Contexts For "The Fall of the House of Usher".
http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpart/alra/ PoeFall. htm#First.
The famous play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, written by the esteemed playwright William Shakespeare, details the plight of Marcus Brutus and the other Roman conspirators against the dictator Julius Caesar. There are several tragic heroes in this play who suffer extreme downfalls. A tragic hero is a character who was once in high regard or standing but encounters a series of terrible events that contribute to a giant downfall from that position. The character of Brutus fits this description by all means. He, along with the other conspirators, plan to murder Caesar and eventually do. Afterward, Brutus sees the errors of his ways in a moment of enlightenment in his final day on the earth.
Because of Shakespeare's popularity among scholars and literary critics, his plays have been studied time after time. In the four hundred or so years since they were written, Shakespeare's plays and other literary masterpieces have been categorized. Many of them, including Shakespeare's portrayal of Julius Caesar's murder and the resulting events for Rome and for Caesar's conspirators, have been put into the "tragedies" category. According to the specifications and qualifications for a Shakespearean tragedy, Brutus, one of the men who conspired against Julius Caesar, can be considered a tragic hero. Despite the fact that Brutus can be considered a tragic hero, I don't feel that he has the qualities and traits of a true hero.
The play involves a highly respected senator, Brutus, who decides to join the conspiracy to kill Julius Caesar, in the effort to keep democracy intact. Brutus believes that if Julius Caesar is allowed to live, Caesar will take a kingship and turn the government into a monarchy. Brutus, Cassius, and the other conspirators kill Julius Caesar, yet they find Antony, a loyalist of Caesar, seeks revenge on them. Plato set out rules on the traits a tragic hero must possess. A tragic hero must neither be an evil villain nor a great hero, instead the tragic hero must be either a flawed hero or a villain with some good traits. Also, the tragic hero must not deserve what mighty punishment is dealt to him. Another key feature of a tragic hero is the fact that a tragic hero must be a high-standing individual in society. The tragic hero must not deserve his punishment for the play to be a tragedy. Also, a tragedy happening to someone in high authority, will affect not only the single person but also society as a whole. Another reason for the tragic hero to be in high authority is to display that if a tragedy may happen to someone such as a king, it may just as easily happen to any other person. Julius Caesar fits the role of a tragic hero. Julius Caesar is a high standing senator that possesses hamartia, failings of human nature. Julius Caesar’s imperfections may be seen in three distinct aspects of Caesar, such as the following: his pride, his vacillation, and his ambition.
Edgar Allan Poe primarily authored stories dealing with Gothic literature; the stories were often quite dreary. Poe possessed a very sorrowful view of the world and he expressed this throughout his literary works. His goal was to leave an impression with every detail that he included in his stories. Although Poe’s stories seem very wretched and lackluster they all convey a certain idea. A trademark of Poe’s is his use of very long complex sentences. For instance, in his work The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe tried to ensure that every detail was as relevant as possible by integrating a wide variety of emotion. In the third paragraph, of page two hundred ninety-seven, Poe wrote, “Feeble gleams of encrimsoned light made their way through the trellised panes, and served to render sufficiently distinct the more prominent objects around…” This sentence illustrates the descriptiveness and complexity that Edgar Allan Poe’s works consisted of. The tormented cognizance of Poe led him to use a very gloomy diction throughout his writing. Edgar Allan Poe’s use of symbols and the way he conveyed his writing expr...
In William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Brutus is portrayed as a tragic hero. He believes he can amend the Roman Empire by killing Caesar and granting Romans freedom from a potential monarchy. Cassius comes to Brutus with intentions of obviating Caesar from the throne. At first, Brutus is against this. Then, Cassius changes his mind by lying to him and persuading him with false letters supposedly from other Romans. Ultimately, Brutus is the tragic hero because his actions cause him to lose all superior status; they also land him on a path toward his downfall and his death. Brutus has severe flaws, he loses power and respect, and his readers show sympathy for him in the end.
Brutus is classified as the tragic hero of “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar” by William Shakespeare because he is blinded by single-minded focus on personal ethics that combined with a tragic flaw dooms him to make a serious error in judgment; however, he himself maintains his morals and his spirit lives on.
The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, defined the “Tragic Hero” — his idea of a tragedy’s main character. The Tragic Hero has good intentions, but his own actions result in his downfall. The hero is usually male, of noble birth, and may have supernatural experiences. Although he may not initially fully comprehend the consequences of his choices, he eventually understand their contributions to his doom. There are characters in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar who may fit some of these characteristics. Caesar is unexpectedly killed by senators for his political approach when he assumed he was serving Rome. Antony loses his dear comrade and friend, Caesar, and tries to avenge him, but his efforts are in vain. Caesar and Antony do not meet Aristotle’s definition of the Tragic Hero in full context. However, Brutus clearly represents Aristotle’s Tragic Hero as his intentions for killing Julius Caesar were to protect the empire he loved. and brought upon him personal destruction.
Edgar Allan Poe has a unique writing style that uses several different elements of literary structure. He uses intrigue vocabulary, repetition, and imagery to better capture the reader’s attention and place them in the story. Edgar Allan Poe’s style is dark, and his is mysterious style of writing appeals to emotion and drama. What might be Poe’s greatest fictitious stories are gothic tend to have the same recurring theme of either death, lost love, or both. His choice of word draws the reader in to engage them to understand the author’s message more clearly. Authors who have a vague short lexicon tend to not engage the reader as much.
Gothic literature is known for captivating readers by bringing to light the dark side of humanity. The Gothic possesses many key elements such as paranoia, anxiety, death, etc. It strikes fear and suspense in the reader not by creating fictional monsters, but showing the reader the types of monsters that lurk within human beings. In “the Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, various themes of the Gothic are present throughout the short story such as gloom and doom, darkness, and madness. These elements are used to enhance the central theme of the piece: revenge. I will argue that Poe uses a number of the Gothic elements to craft an intense dark tale of revenge: an unreliable narrator, madness, darkness, a haunted setting, and evil/devil
Reading Edgar Allen Poe’s works such as “The Cask of Amontillado” and “Tell-Tale Heart” are both written around 1840’s and written in the gothic style. Poe displays his horror short stories, in which the reader can differentiate his signature style. Although many of Poe’s significant works may have a similar theme, the reader can distinguish the themes through the characters in “The Cask of Amontillado” and “Tell-Tale Heart.”
The play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare, has two main tragic heroes. Set in Rome and spanning from forty- four to forty-two B.C., the play tells of Brutus and Caesar whom both fall from the highest positions to the lowest of misfortune and then are enlightened on their mistakes. Brutus is the stronger example of a tragic hero in this story. Throughout this play, Brutus commits many faults, falls more drastically than all other characters, and regrets his previous actions by the end of the play.
Southern Gothic literature is a group of words bonded together to set a mood, message, plot, etc. Overall Southern Gothic Literature can be interesting and creepy at the same time, its style has been practiced for many years by southern writers which are located in the American South. Its popular writings have grew from generation to generation and is now a world wide genre. Works Cited Alice, Petry. A Rose for Emily.’
The Depiction of Fear in The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
Sakespear's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar holds two possible candidates for a tragic hero, however Brutus fits the persona best. The true definition of a tragic hero, as found by Aristotle, is a character who falls from a high standing to a low standing. They suffer enourmous loss, but are eventually enlightened of their own flaw or flaws. Initially the play begins with Caesar returning to Rome from defeating Pompey. Meanwhile, the first seeds of conspiracy are begining to take root. Although Brutus ignores Cassius's chiding to join the conspirators his tragic flaw of being easily molded and persuaded lead him to fall prey and join. As time progresses Brutus makes many grievous errors, and his flawed logic leads him to become bereft of all he once held dear. In the end, preceding his death, Brutus grasps the fact that he has no one to blame for his loss but himself; thus the enlightenment. All of these characteristics classify Brutus as the tragic hero of this play.
Brutus’s great character and nobility can be seen in Scene 2 of Act 1, when Cassius is trying to manipulate Brutus into joining the conspiracy. Brutus shows his close relationship with Caesar when he says, “I do fear the people do choose Caesar for their king...yet I love him well.” (I.II.78-82) Brutus at first didn’t like the idea of Caesar becoming King and Brutus didn’t want to join the conspiracy because he loved Caesar very much. Although, in Act 2, Brutus is so brainwashed that he decides that he needs to stop Caesar before things get any worse when he says, “That lowliness is young ambition’s ladder, whereto the climber upward turns his face. But when he once attains the upmost round, he then unto the ladder turns his back.” (II.I.22-25) Brutus does not want Caesar to rise in power, so that then he can turn his back on the people of Rome. Brutus saw that Caesar’s ambition could destroy Rome. Brutus shows his loyalty to his country when he says, “Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” (III.II.21-22) Brutus cared about Julius Caesar, but he loved the people of Rome more. Brutus’ intentions were noble and his ultimate goal was to save the people of Rome. Brutus’ ethical beliefs help him make the tough choices he encounters to protect the people he most cares about. Brutus is