The Devil And Tom Walker Gothic Elements

Gothic literature, such as The Night Circus, “The Devil and Tom Walker”, “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”, and “Masque of the Red Death”, are known for incorporating gothic elements such as the supernatural, death, and fascination with the past. Both works, The Night Circus and “The Devil and Tom Walker”, feature prominent gothic elements of the supernatural, either in the guise of magic, or through the apparent devil’s work. In The Night Circus, many patrons of the event, such as Bailey, found it to be magical and supernatural, as “The circus arrives… when yesterday it was not” (Morgenstern 3). Even shocking some, such as Bailey, to be “So shocked by the sight of the black-and-white striped tents in the field that he nearly falls out of the

Throughout the duration of not only the circus, but other public demonstrations as well, such as Prospero’s theatrical performances, the most questioned of the senses, was that of vision and perception. Even the most basic of parlor tricks performed by the two main characters was done through the use of magic, and the supernatural. Highly similar comparisons can be drawn from the short story “The Devil and Tom Walker”. Much alike Night Circus, supernatural occurrences happen also in “The Devil and Tom Walker”, in regards to the devil and his work. The work done by the devil is no short of being supernatural, and in league with that done in The Night Circus. Tom Walker, in order to attain wealth beyond any previous measure, made dealings with the devil. Tom Walker, being a greedy and sinful man, “Struck a bargain. A few day’s time saw Tom Walker seated behind his desk in a countinghouse in Boston” (Irving 324). A key difference in the two works is the realization that the supernatural is occurring in the first place. In The Night Circus, the bystanders and onlookers of the illusions and tricks, have not the faintest idea that magic and the supernatural is what’s perpetuating those illusions. Whereas

While the “Masque of the Red Death” features it’s main character, Prospero, doing everything in his power to avoid death, to which it inevitably claims him, The Night Circus however accepts death by the end of the story, and is therefore able to successfully avoid it through the circus’s fascination with the past. Prince Prospero, in the “Masque of the Red Death” met an untimely death as “There was a sharp cry… death the Prince Prospero” (Poe 452), whom was killed by his own futile attempts to subvert the inevitable. The rippling effect led the Red Death, who “Had come… posture of his fall” to also end the lives of everyone else hiding away with Prospero. Unlike the “Masque of the Red Death”, in the Night Circus, Celia and Marco are able to avoid death, even though “A game is completed only when there is a single player left” ( Morgenstern 398). Ironically, it was through the acceptance of the fact that one of the two of them had to suffer through and experience death in order for the game to be complete, that they were able to live. Both works portray death as inevitable, which it was, but in regards to it be unavoidable is where the two works differ, between a larger theme of denial and