Among the most striking features of the Gothic genre is the style of its architectural settings. In early Gothic, these were often medievalist, involving ancient stone buildings with elaborate, “Gothic” arches, buttresses, passageways, and crypts. This was to become the mise en scene of Gothicism, replete with trappings of hidden doorways and secret chambers, incomprehensible labyrinths, speaking portraits, and trapdoors. (Allen Lloyd-Smith 7) Gothic Element of the Seven Gables The House of the Seven Gables, by Nathanial Hawthorn is filled with gothic tropes and features. Since the story takes place in the Pyncheon house or rather the Maule’s property, I will focus on the features of the house, which are gothic. That is not to say that the story is only gothic because of the house, but rather that the house and its property is the setting of the Gothic events. The parts of the house are described throughout the story, mostly in small junks reminiscing the past. The narrator passes by the Pyncheon house. He referees to it as an “antiquity” and “the weather-beaten edifice” (11). Right now, the house may not seem that gothic but rather just an old mansion. However, with more description of the house, it becomes more evident. The best description of the house is in chapter one: There it rose, a little withdrawn from the line of the street, but in pride not modesty. Its whole visible exterior was ornamented with quaint figures, conceived in the grotesqueness of the Gothic fancy, and drawn or stamped in the flittering plaster, composed of lime, pebbles, and bits of glass, with which the woodwork of the walls was overspread. On every side the seven gables pointed sharply towards the sky and presented the aspect of a whole sisterhood o... ... middle of paper ... ... discover it, one summer afternoon, when I was idling and dreaming about the house, long long ago. But the mystery escapes me.’ (328). The secret of the trap door as well as the door itself, which lies behind a portrait of Colonel Pyncheon, are both gothic elements. Clifford has lost memories trying to come forth and the Judges fight to make those memories become known is found in many gothic stories. In gothic novels, evil will follow evil and the darkness would fall upon the house. With as hold as the house it, it would seem to decay much faster than it really did. The house, built by the ‘wizard’s’ son its self is strong and is able to stay as long as it holds a secret and a cures. It is not until the curse is broken and the Pyncheon family abandons the property that it takes on the idealized dreary look that the narrator paints at the beginning of the story.
The castles and mansions that provide the settings for traditional Gothic tales are full of grandeur, darkness, and decay. These settings are one of the most recognizable elements of traditional Gothic fiction. Setting is equally as important in modern Gothic literature as well. While the settings in the two stories, “Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe and “Where Is Here?” by Joyce Carol Oates, are incredibly different, they are also very similar.
The house is similar to the mind in other ways. It houses inner demons and fears, which can be heard stalking its prey. It also contains a "basement"...
Written in 1818, the latter stages of the Gothic literature movement, at face value this novel embodies all the key characteristics of the Gothic genre. It features the supernatural, ghosts and an atmosphere of horror and mystery. However a closer reading of the novel presents a multifaceted tale that explores
Connected to the somber image of the town, The house is described with harsh diction such as “streaked with rust”, depicting the years of neglect. Affected by abuse, Petry describes the house as stained with “blood” in the form of rust. Despite the harsh outer layer, Lutie is drawn to it as her figurative and literal “sign”of refuge. A town that had been nothing but cold to her is finally seen as warm from the words on the sign; describing the house as “Reasonable” and open to “respectable tenants”.
Various authors develop their stories using gothic themes and characterizations of this type to lay the foundation for their desired reader response. Although Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and Peter Taylor’s “Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time” are two completely different narratives, both of these stories share a commonality of gothic text representations. The stories take slightly different paths, with Poe’s signifying traditional gothic literature and Taylor approaching his story in a more contemporary manner.
Throughout the years, Gothic literature has developed to be a mirror representation of what the beliefs and thoughts of the time were. The Gothic has a tendency to express beliefs towards the socioeconomic, political and religious situations and grievances of the time. Many texts express this, some including Edgar Allen Poe’s The House of Usher and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, to then allow for the general public – at least those who were literate – to, subconsciously, understand the environment around them without being too direct. This gave the writers of the time a new channel, through this ge...
Gothic elements are used to show suspense, symbolism, and drama, while also setting dark and twisted tones about the story and its characters. In the passage "The Fall of the House of Usher" the author uses Gothic elements to entice the reader with details of ominous character persona and setting.
At the beginning of the story there is a very negative feeling being attached to the appearance of the house. He uses a couple of things to try and make you feel negatively about this place. He used words and phrases such as: “insufferable gloom,” “vacant,” “black and lurid,” and the “rank sedges” were mentioned too. These are obviously there to give a sort of a bad connotation, or bad karma, to the house. He speaks of how the house has a “wild inconsistency” and how each individual stone is starting to decay and fall apart. Suggesting that the house has many problems, all problems that could possibly lead to the destruction of a house.
The term ‘Gothic’ conjures a range of possible meanings, definitions and associations. It explicitly denotes certain historical and cultural phenomena. Gothicism was part of the Romantic Movement that started in the eighteenth century and lasted about three decades into the nineteenth century. For this essay, the definition of Gothic that is applicable is: An 18th century literary style characterized by gloom and the supernatural. In the Gothic novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, a wide range of issues are explored. Frankenstein represents an entirely new vision of the female Gothic, along with many other traditional themes such as religion, science, colonialism and myth.
(1265) along with other disturbing words to stress the mood of horror. Furthermore, the house evokes suspense as it strikes the reader with curiosity as to why the building presents such a dreadful and uneasy feeling. Poe describes the house with further detail emphasizing its ghostly traits: “Dark draperies hung upon the walls. The general furniture was profuse, comfortless, antique, and tattered. Many books and musical instruments lay scattered about, but failed to give any vitality to the scene” (1267). Poe describes the house using very descriptive and daunting words contributing to the story’s depressive mood as well as its suspense.
Several elements from Gothic architecture were borrowed from the Lombards and the Franks. They took the compound pier and archivolt, the alternate system, and the ribbed and domed vault. It can be seen that the main dispositions of the Gothic plan are derived from Carolingian developments of the early Christian basilica. The most fundamental element of Gothic architecture is the pointed arch, whi...
The setting is gothic litereature is commonly located in a Victorian-styled environment, with dull shades of black and white pointed architecture. Some of the place described in the Gothic writing are old, abdondoned house, castles, or
Print. The. Mike. The Evolution of Gothic Architecture. Aquinas Multimedia.
Word by word, gothic literature is bound to be an immaculate read. Examining this genre for what it is could be essential to understanding it. “Gothic” is relating to the extinct East Germanic language, people of which known as the Goths. “Literature” is defined as a written work, usually with lasting “artistic merit.” Together, gothic literature combines the use of horror, death, and sometimes romance. Edgar Allan Poe, often honored with being called the king of horror and gothic poetry, published “The Fall of House Usher” in September of 1839. This story, along with many other works produced by Poe, is a classic in gothic literature. In paragraph nine in this story, one of our main characters by the name of Roderick Usher,
Kathy Prendergast, further contends, that it is this convergence of the Gothic art style and Romantic genre which was quintessential of the nineteenth century era. Both collided to spotlight terror, valuelessness emotion and vulnerability. Both collided to perpetrate a sense of wonderment in the reader/viewer, a sense of helplessness in the face of some superior force. The Gothic architecture with its peculiarity, mystery and imperilment; the Gothic architecture with its a...