LITR 4232 American Renaissance

LITR 4232 2004 final exam
Sample Answers to Question 1
on the Gothic

copy of final exam

The Gothic is a literary style that is typically used to evoke an emotion of fear and mystery. Yet the style has evolved and been used by so many different people and in so many different new ways that the gothic is a term that defies mere definitions, especially when discussing the American Renaissances use of the Gothic.

The first noticeable change in the Gothic that took place in the American Renaissance was the change in the setting. In America the gothic had to take on a new shape and a new form. American authors no longer had the benefit of using the old cathedrals and dilapidated houses as the harbinger of mysterious events. American authors only had the untouched and open landscape of the American frontier so that they had to find a new confiding place to set their story. They found this new place in America’s wilderness so that the haunted house now becomes the haunted forest.

This is apparent in Cooper’s book “The Last of the Mohicans” when the characters of the story travel from the open wilderness into the mysterious forest. This can easily be paralleled to characters that walk into the haunted castle, as in the European Gothic. Yet the characters in Last of the Mohicans would once again walk into an even more confiding place, when they walk into the cave that is “forever a secret from all mortal man.” This description of this cave illustrates perfectly the gothic tendency to evoke mystery and wonder. The cave is called a “secret.” Although the Indians were no doubt talking about the secrecy of its location, the term still makes the reader wonder “what else is secret about it?” The term “mortal man” also adds to the mysteriousness. If it is secret to only “mortal man,” then there must be something not considered mortal which know of its location. This one comment used to describe the cave has effectively attached the same emotion to it, a reader gets when he or she reads about the haunted house.

This traveling into the “haunted forest” can also be seen in the writings of Washington Irving as well. In particularly, in his short story Rip Van Winkle when the hero journeys into the “awful woodland.” And just as Cooper used a natural object like a cave to evoke a gothic reaction from its readers so too does Cooper uses the natural object of an “enormous tulip tree” to evoke a gothic emotion. With its description of its ugliness and its “gnarled” and “twisted” limbs can easily be paralleled to the twisting passages of the gothic labyrinth. As well as its enormous size and grotesqueness calls to mind the gothic monster.

The journey into the “haunted forest” is seen once again in Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown.” The main character Brown travels into the “deep dusk in the forest” where he is confronted by the devil and a host of his town members there to partake of the devilry. Yet despite the supernatural nature of this plot, ironically the appearance of the gothic tends to take on a more subtle form. Consider the passage which describes the event that Brown was witnessed to as the flames show light on the people he sees: “As the red light arose and fell, a numerous congregation alternately shone forth, then disappeared in shadow, and again grew, as it were, out of the darkness, peopling the heart of the solitary woods at once.” The hellish nature of the flames is obviously apparent and in many ways must be considered gothic yet the comment “Peopling the hearts of the solitary woods” is a thought provoking comment. What does Hawthorne of the narrator mean by this?  This comment seems to drive the attention away from a fearful emotion to a more thought provoking message. The result of defusing the gothic elements in his story is to turn the typical gothic journey into the forest into some what of an Everyman’s journey, an exploration of ones morality. The focus being on the intellectual process of thinking about ones morals and the morals around you rather than on the emotion one feels at his circumstances. The Gothic elements tend to pop up every now and again only to add to the fear, not of his circumstance but of his life.

If there would be one person in contrast of Hawthorne’s style of the Gothic it would be Edgar Allan Poe. Poe does not concern himself with moral complexity. He only concerns himself with the emotion that he evokes from the reader. Perhaps this stems from a difference in their subject matter. While Hawthorne’s subject matter is morality, Poe’s subject matter is desire and loss, and what better way to represent this subject matter than with the light and dark aspect of the Gothic. The first example of Poe’s desire and lost subject matter I think of would be his short story Ligeia. In this story the Narrator is blessed by his love of Ligeia. The description of her is undoubtedly gothic, with her “raven-black” hair and skin the color of the “purest ivory.” The gothic description of her is beautiful yet strange, in the narrators own words he states, “I perceived that her loveliness was indeed “exquisite,” and felt that there was much of ‘strangeness’ pervading it, yet I have tried in vain to detect the irregularity and to trace home my own perception of ‘the strange’.” This reaction of the narrator is the same reaction that the reader gets from reading this gothic description of her. But to know the narrator is thinking the same thing, in some way, acts as a foreshadowing of some strange event that is to follow. Not only does it foreshadow the events to come but it heightens the emotion of loss we feel when she dies as well as the since of “strangeness” we get when she returns. Poe unlike Hawthorne can use the gothic to its full potential in order to evoke emotions which appeal to his subject matter.

Just as Poe uses the gothic to foreshadow his inevitable loss of love, Hermann Melville also uses the gothic in a similar way to foreshadow the death of Billy Budd. Yet Melville’s use of the gothic would more likely be compared to Hawthorne’s gothic. Melville’s gothic appears in a much subtler form, almost imperceptible unless one knows what to look for. Consider the passage when Billy Budd is accused of mutiny: “Not at first did Billy take it in. When he did, the rose-tan of his cheek looked struck as by white leprosy. He stood like one impaled and gagged” (2692). The gothic becomes apparent in the light and dark represented in Billy’s face when he becomes “white.” The gothic is further revealed when Billy takes on the form of death, not only is he pale but he becomes “impaled and gagged” as if rigidity of death has set in. The appeal of the gothic here adds a since of strangeness and almost a supernatural since. As if Billy can see into the future and has seen his impending death. In which case the passage becomes another foreshadowing of emanate doom. Yet it should be noticed that it is not the emotion evoked that is emphasized. Instead it is the doom of Billy’s future; Melville merely uses the gothic to emphasize this emotion, because like Hawthorne, Melville is not concerned purely with emotion of the reader but with a message about the complexity of sin. [BP]

The gothic started out as an architecture style, characterized by high pointed arches and ceilings, an interplay of light and dark, and a general sense of mystery. Though the buildings with this style were quite old by the nineteenth century, they fascinated the writers of the Romantic Movement in Europe, who adapted the gothic style to writing. Light and dark are important motifs, often symbolizing good and evil, sometimes accompanied by red or yellow. Buildings such as haunted houses and castles (or, in America, a dark and perhaps haunted forest) are generally present, with their hideous gargoyles or other figures, as are various strange and often sublime beings, such as the ghostly lady in white or some darker specter. Sound is also important. There are stock moments like creaking doors, shattering screams, and distant ghostly wails. The plot often involves a main character entering into the haunted house at the beginning, to his or her later regret. Common themes involve lost love (and the rememberance of it or return of the loved one as a ghost), past guilt (and the payment for it), death, and often a combination of these and others.

            Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper both used gothic elements in their writing, but they had to adapt it to a new country without any old mysterious buildings. . . . [BL]

            The traditional European Gothic style uses old castles and cathedral churches to create dark and ominous literary settings.  The Gothic style also uses the contrast of black and white with lurid red or yellow color schemes, dark enclosed spaces, and the personification of inanimate objects or nature to evoke feelings of fear.   The Gothic style is a useful literary tool to evoke strange and ominous feelings in the reader, and aid the author in portraying certain themes– especially death and loss.   The Gothic style is used in many literary works throughout the American Renaissance period.  Throughout the semester we have encountered many authors who have used variations of the Gothic to illustrate their themes in their writing. 

            Irving and Cooper are prime examples of authors who vary the use of the Gothic styles to create a unique “American Gothic”.  America lacked the old architecture necessary to create the traditional “European Gothic” style.   Therefore, Irving and Cooper transformed the vast American wilderness into a Gothic setting.  For most Americans during this period the wilderness was a scary and mysterious place that had been largely avoided and unexplored.  Although the setting was unique, many of the traditional Gothic elements permeate the texts.

            Irving masterfully evokes the Gothic in his short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  The gothic is apparent during Ichabod’s horse ride home near the end of the story.  Irving writes “the night sky grew darker and darker” and he effectively emphasizes the darkness further when he continues “the stars seemed to sink deeper in the sky.”  He uses the contrast of the dark sky and the “white” stars to evoke feelings of loneliness and fear.  Furthermore, he personifies the “fearful tree” by indicating that the tree “groaned.”  This personification gives the reader the idea that the tree is a threat when in reality it is not. 

            Cooper uses many of the same elements to evoke the Gothic in is novel The Last of the Mohicans.  The untamed wilderness replaces the castle, and he uses an Indian burial ground to evoke images of spirits and death in much the same way that a traditional cemetery might function.   However, his most intriguing gothic element is his use of race.  Cooper’s Gothic color scheme is used to portray his characters.  For instance, Alice is seen as the fair-skinned, pure female who must be protected from the dangers in the forest.  In contrast, Cora is the darker skinned, less pure female who shows some “manly” characteristics. 

            In contrast, to the styles of Irving and Cooper is Edgar Allan Poe.  His use of Gothic is truer in form to the traditional European Gothic.  In fact, when reading Poe you could very easily mistaken him for a European writer.  For example, in his short story The Fall of the House of Usher he uses an old mysterious house for the setting.  He evokes feelings of confinement and uneasiness when Usher requests the aid of his guest to create the “temporary entombment” for his deceased sister in the basement of the home.  Poe further evokes feelings of uneasiness by writing that the “vault” in which the deceased lay was “immediately beneath that portion of the building in which was my own sleeping quarters.”  Poe’s  House of Usher is densely packed with Gothic language and elements, and it would be difficult to find any part of the story that is not filled with interplay of light and dark or descriptions of luminous rooms or hallways. 

            Hawthorne is another author who uses Gothic elements throughout his work.  The Minister’s Black Veil is an example of Hawthorne’s Gothic style.  The “black veil” that penetrates the entire story is an obvious gothic element.  The dark veil in contrast to the ministers pale face is one example of the interplay of light and dark color.  Furthermore, what the veil represents is in itself gothic.  The veil represents the hiding of a mysterious and unknown sin and can be related to the Gothic castle and the crime or injustice committed within its walls.  As (SR) stated in Spring 2003 Final “The veil provides a Gothic mystery about the minister.”

            Emily Dickinson’s poetry is in some ways Gothic.  Although she is not a “Gothic” writer, her poetry does fit some of the elements of Gothic.  For example, her poetry deals with many themes related to the Gothic style such as death, loss, and loneliness.  She also on occasion uses Gothic images.  For instance, as discussed in class,  her poem “I heard a Fly buzz” centers around the theme of death.  She masterfully evokes a Gothic image by introducing the fly that is an insect representative of decay and death.  Although her Gothic elements are not overt, she subtly introduces them into her poetry to make her theme of death more effective and eerie. 

            The Gothic serves many purposes as a literary element.  It evokes feelings of fear and uncertainty that enhance the writers work.  It also takes a reader on a mental journey where they experience themes of death and loss that they may other wise avoid.  However, like in the case of Cooper it served a much more important purpose.  It was a chance to explore the changing American landscape and conventional thinking about race.  In its broadest terms it is applicable to the changes still occurring today. [TP]

 . . . Cooper expounds on this idea of the American landscape as satisfying the gothic, though he by no means stops at the setting.  The Last of the Mohicans was set in the American wilderness which contributes all of what Irving did in his legend. However, Cooper masterfully captures gothic themes in the characters themselves.  Dark skinned natives and savages and white innocence are juxtaposed throughout the novel, yet there is some area in between the two that seem most beautiful, this is found in the person of Cora.  Cooper begins to use the gothic color scheme in reference to race.

            Cooper may have began a trend in American literature that freed future authors to pursue gothic writing without having to stick to color schemes or settings.  Edgar Allen Poe most definitely used the settings of old forests and even older mansions that creak and moan, but Poe was interested in the gothic mindset.  “The black, white and red colors schemes and his creepy imagery, with its often “phantasmagoric” and illusionary effects, threaten the reader’s sense of reality and sensory perception.” (Student final answer 2003)  Poe began to play with one’s sense of reality.  Whether it be a beating heart beneath his floorboard, or laying down with his dead wife, Poe’s characters push the envelope of what could possibly be considered acceptable.  . . . [DD]

The use of the gothic style as a technique to define mood or theme has abounded in literature for centuries. Stylistic elements of the gothic style include red and yellow color scheme, the interplay of dark and light, a memory of a past sin, structural elements of a labyrinth or maze, and frightening or strange sounds. One of the most significant devices in establishing the gothic style is the setting. Historically, the style of the gothic was implemented by European authors who generally set their works in old ruined castles or cathedrals to establish a haunting mood. American authors during the period of the American Renaissance, however, initiated new elements of the gothic style. With the new lands of America lacking any of the ancient architecture often associated with the gothic, American authors successfully substituted the wilds of the forest for the European buildings.

Of the authors we have studied this semester, Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper most prominently represent the American author’s relocation of the gothic setting to the American wilderness. In “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Irving uses Ichabod Crane’s journey through the forest to evoke fear in the reader by describing the forest as a haunting, uncertain territory. A magnificent tree obstructing the path of Ichabod “towered like a giant above all the other trees of the neighborhood, and formed a kind of landmark” (Irving 2108). Irving’s attributing such huge size to the tree mirrors the European gothic convention of large castles or churches as setting. Irving proceeds to describe the tree as bearing limbs that were “gnarled and fantastic, large enough to form trunks for ordinary trees, twisting down almost to the earth, and rising again into the air” (2108). In addition to reiterating how prodigious the tree is, Irving’s use of the word “gnarled” as a description of the tree’s limbs lends a viscous, almost terrifying element to the tree. By referring to the limbs of the tree as “twisting down” and “rising again into the air,” it seems as though Irving intended for them to form a maze, which is another convention of Gothicism. Though he is simply describing a tree by which Ichabod must pass, through his use of the gothic style Irving depicts a gloomy, dangerous environment, which envelopes the entire short story.

Gothic elements are further prevalent throughout Cooper’s The Last of The Mohicans. The American wilderness as gothic abounds with Cooper, as it does with Irving. During their travels, Cora, Heyward, and the others “reached the spot where the Indian stood, pointing into the thicket that fringed the military road, [where] a narrow and blind path, which might, with some little inconvenience, receive one person at a time, became visible” (Cooper 21). The description of the path as “narrow” implies difficulty and danger in traversing the path, and with the word “blind” an element of the unknown is introduced as to what may lay beyond the path. The path itself seems sufficiently resonated with emotion, so as to require little assistance from the characters.

Cooper does, however, incorporate gothic elements into the characters themselves, in addition to constantly creating a gothic atmosphere. Cora’s tresses are described as “shining and black” while she bears “a row of teeth that would have shamed the purest ivory” (Cooper 19). Here, Cooper introduces the gothic element of interplay between light and dark, as Cora’s hair is shiny black in contrast to her stark, white teeth. Cooper further alludes to the gothic color scheme in a description of Cora’s complexion as “charged with the colour of the rich blood, that seemed ready to burst its bounds” (19). Through his description of Cora, Cooper uses the gothic color scheme to explore issues of race and purity. Cora, in contrast to Alice, who exemplifies purity with her pale skin and light hair, embodies ethnic diversity with dark hair and red blood, yet is also elevated due to her differences. As DD comments in a 2003 final exam, “Cora, with her darker features and unconventional heritage, breaks away from the expected traditional female stereotype. She, not Alice is the heroine of the novel…” (final exam Spring ’03). Cooper aligns the dark, light, and red of the gothic with the dark, light, and red of race, and successfully relates racial dynamics to gothic conventions.

Poe, in contrast to Irving and Cooper, returns to the traditional gothic element of dilapidated European architecture as setting. In “Ligeia,” an abbey is purchased “in one of the wildest and least frequented portions of fair England. The gloomy grandeur of the building, the almost savage aspect of the domain” (Poe 2395) is referred to and evokes sentiments of isolation and sadness, often associated with the gothic. The “savage aspect of the domain” creates a mood of terror and uncertainty of what may possibly happen in such a place. Poe’s “domain” so “savage” in itself becomes something we fear, more so than any character or occurrence in “Ligea.”

The gothic exploration of a maze-like structure can also be associated with Poe. In “The Fall of the House of Usher” the vault where the tomb is placed is an adventure within itself as it was “small, damp, and entirely without means of admission for light; lying, at great depth, immediately beneath…my own sleeping apartment…and the whole interior of a long archway through which we reached it [was] carefully sheathed with copper. The door…caused an unusually sharp grating sound, as it moved upon its hinges” (Poe 2409). Poe’s description of the vault as an intricate passageway transforms the vault into a personal quest, which often occurs with the gothic, and can be seen as a psychological journey for all who dare to take the ride, including the reader.

Hawthorne, unlike Poe, uses the gothic style as a “moral gothic,” often associating the gothic with the past, guilt, and sin. The style of gothic as utilized by Hawthorne in “The Minister’s Black Veil” is gothic both in the conventional sense of haunting or eerie settings, the interplay of light and dark, as well as in the memory of a past sin or crime. Focusing on the “moral gothic,” or the conflict between good and evil, sin and virtue, Hawthorne provides a description of the black veil, which conveys Mr. Hooper’s probable perception of his congregation:

On a nearer view, it seemed to consist of two folds of crape, which entirely concealed his features, except the mouth and chin, but probably did not intercept his sight, farther than to give a darkened aspect to all living and inanimate things. With this gloomy shade before him, good Mr. Hooper walked onward… (Hawthorne 2196)

The gothic convention of darkness is used to show the effects of the veil on Mr. Hooper. The veil has given a “darkened aspect” to everyone and everything that Mr. Hooper sees. It is a “gloomy shade” before him, constantly painting a dark and grim picture of those in his congregation. In the way that Mr. Hooper perceives his congregation, there are also elements of the “moral gothic.” Because Hooper’s veil now actually makes all that he views physically dark, it also seems to make his congregation spiritually or emotionally dark to him. This plays into the conflict between sin and virtue.

The congregation’s view of Mr. Hooper also seems to be changed by the black veil, as one member comments, “The black veil, though it covers only our pastors face, throws its influence over his whole person, and makes him ghost-like from head to foot” (Hawthorne 2197). The term “ghost-like” is extremely indicative of the gothic style, as images of ghosts or demons suggest darkness and death. Mr. Hooper has come to be seen by his congregation as someone almost evil due to the black veil, as opposed to someone virtuous, as we would presume a minister to be.

Hawthorne’s use of haunting or eerie settings in “The Minister’s Black Veil” can be illustrated through the setting of a cemetery, which is a standard gothic feature. Hawthorne elaborates on Hooper’s visits to the cemetery: “The impertinence of the latter class compelled him to give up his customary walk, at sunset, to the burial ground: for when he leaned pensively over the gate, there would always be faces behind the grave-stones, peeping at his black veil.” The use of the “burial ground” as a setting for Mr. Hooper’s walks is extremely gothic. A cemetery obviously creates “gothic” notions of death and darkness, as do the actual “grave stones” behind which people wait to see Mr. Hooper and his black veil. So, while Hawthorne strays from the traditional application of the gothic style with his “moral gothic,” he still maintains a significant conventional gothic element with his setting of a burial ground.

While the authors of the American Renaissance do not always completely conform to the traditional conventions of gothic literature, they are constantly inventing new and abstract ways in which to fuse the gothic into their art. In addition to merely reflecting Gothicism in their work, American Renaissance authors such as Emily Dickinson can be viewed as living gothic lives themselves. Dickinson’s life was extremely isolated and mysterious. She existed closed off in her house for years and we are left to ponder whether she herself may have written out of some secret; maybe a past love or sin? No matter the author, however, Gothicism was historically and continues to be a central component of literature, especially that of the American Renaissance, adding to the elements of style, theme, mood, and tone of various works. The gothic style appears less prominently in some works than others, but is one of those elements that once you become aware of, seem to abound everywhere. [RB]

 . . . In “Rip Van Winkle,” Irving takes his readers into a hidden world deep in the forest. This is mysterious because the wilderness of the forest is uncharted territory, and anything could be going on in there. Irving brings a gothic feel to it by his descriptions of the forest. “On the other side he looked down into a deep mountain glen, wild, lonely, and shagged, the bottom filled with fragments from the impending cliffs, and scarcely lighted by the reflected rays of the setting sun” (2085). This passage feels very gothic because it has a creepy feel to it with a hint of danger from the “bottom filled with fragments” and the “impending cliffs.” Also, the light from the “reflected rays of the setting sun” bring in a light/dark contrast that makes the forest seem very gothic. Although the cliffs are “scarcely lighted,” there is still enough light for Rip to see how scary the cliffs look, so this makes them gothic. . . .

Like Irving, Cooper brings danger and mystery into his forest. In Last of the Mohicans, the characters are trapped in a very gothic-like forest full of danger and mystery. In one part of the book, Cooper describes a small house found by the characters in the forest. “This rude and neglected building was one of those deserted works, which, having been thrown up on an emergency, had been abandoned with the disappearance of danger, and was now quietly crumbling in the solitude of the forest, neglected, and nearly forgotten, like the circumstances which had caused it to be reared” (125). By placing a house in the forest, I see it as Cooper kind of mixing the traditional European gothic with the American gothic. It may not be an old castle or a mansion, but it has a secret, which makes it gothic. The reason it was built is “nearly forgotten” and so is mysterious. But unlike the traditional European gothic, the house is not haunted. It is actually a safe house, which is the reason it was originally built and what the characters are now going to use it for. The danger comes from the forest—not from the house. The idea of the “disappearance of danger” makes this particular passage gothic because the danger is now back. It is like this forest is so full of danger that once you think you are safe, it suddenly reemerges. The characters also know that they are not the only ones who have been in danger in this forest. Plus, “the solitude of the forest” sounds very gothic because it makes the forest seem alone and mysterious, and it makes the reader feel like anything could happen, just like it was in Irving’s forest in “Rip Van Winkle.” Irving and Cooper both fill their forests with danger and mystery, which makes them gothic.

            Irving and Cooper seem to keep the gothic in the forest, but it is all over the place in Poe’s and Hawthorne’s stories. . . . [NC]

 . . . The best thing about the gothic is that this idea grasps so much more than just scary. Better adjectives such as dark, eerie, or spooky can be used to describe different texts and their elements of gothic. The gothic can also be found in other elements such as color schemes and environments. Black, gray, brown, or any other dark colors set a tone that can emphasize a gothic scene or haunting occurrence. Setting the stage for the gothic or an obvious contrast in color schemes are the many ways authors we have studied captured this element of the gothic. In my opinion, the most fantastic way of experiencing the gothic is reading a text so disturbing I feel a bit unsettled in the end. When an author, (Poe), can ignite this unsettling feeling within a reader their element of the gothic hits right on target. [BN]