LITR 4232 American Renaissance 2010 final exam—Answers to Question B1

Brittany Fletcher

My Gothic is Your Gothic

          It was cold and dark outside that night, darker than usual. Why did I agree to babysit that night? I was beginning to wonder the same question myself. The clock struck 10:37 and still, Eddie’s parents had not arrived home from their dinner outing. The storm was rolling in and it reminded me of the one night that I was alone at home. I remembered that I had watched The Exorcist the night that my parents went out of town. That night was awful. Suddenly, I had the image of a young demonic girl crawling down the stairs with her head spinning! I started to see shadows on the wall and I could have sworn I heard noises coming from the bathroom. The thunder rolled and the rain screamed like a shrill voice from afar. Then Bam! The front door opened, only to unveil the shadows of Eddie’s parents laughing at the bad joke that Mr. Cooper had told at dinner. Silly me.

          The gothic is used in numerous ways to help build suspense or convey the author’s intent in a dark tone. Many authors over time have written masterpieces while using the gothic in different ways to illustrate their work to the fullest extent. Edgar Allan Poe uses the gothic as a metaphor for the inner mind. Washington Irving’s horseman collects heads in Sleepy Hollow. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s minister keeps a dark veil over his face to hide from the world. The previous paragraph of the stormy babysitting night illustrates that the gothic can be used in many forms to better a piece of literature. Authors have various purposes for the gothic in order to build their work in different unique ways.

          The gothic mind can be a scary place. One talented person at teasing their readers with this mind monster was the famous Edgar Allan Poe. Poe used the gothic to steer his readers to see the haunted space of the mind. In “The Fall of the House of Usher” Roderick Usher is being haunted by the loss of his blood line. He is decaying inside his body and the house around him is crumbling as well. The house is used as a metaphor of Roderick’s mind. As the narrator approaches the house he states “. . . but with a shudder even more thrilling than before-upon the remodeled and inverted images of the gray sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows.” Poe’s use of gothic language is to relate the “eye-like windows” to Roderick’s. The feeling that the narrator feels when he views the house makes him shudder, it is eerie. Roderick seems to be figuratively watching the narrator approach the house. The tree stems are ghastly and appalling as Roderick is sickly. Poe sets up his use of the gothic of the mind in the beginning so that the metaphor develops to the fullest in the end of the text.

          Authors can treat the gothic in numerous ways to shape their text. Another way to use the gothic is to frighten and awake the senses. Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a veteran of an example of this terrifying gothic. The idea of a headless horsemen galloping around a dark village for his head collection at home can awaken senses! Irving uses the correspondence of the gothic well to make the character of Ichabod Crane fear what lies ahead in the woods. The fear creeps up in Ichabod’s mind before seeing the horsemen and it is from his own thoughts that this fear is born; “All the stories of ghosts and goblins that he had heard in the afternoon now came crowding upon his recollection. The night grew darker and darker; the stars seemed to sink deeper in the sky, and driving clouds occasionally hid them from his sight. He had never felt so lonely and dismal.” As Ichabod walks into the woods he remembers frightening stories that cause him to become anxious and scared. Irving’s use of the gothic helps the reader prepare for the appearance of the horsemen descending upon Ichabod because as he remembers the stories, the reader does as well, which helps the text to become effectively horrifying yet captivating.

          Gothic language can serve many purposes to authors depending on the message within the text. The text can differ as well as the gothic use. Correspondence can be used in the gothic style to stir up frightening images but the gothic can also impact in a subtle way. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Minister’s Black Veil is subtle in the way that the story unfolds. There is mystery behind the reasoning of why the minister wears a black veil to conceal himself and it is that secrecy that causes the reader to keep turning the page. Before the minister sinks into death he states his reasoning behind the dark veil when he says “. . . loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a monster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die! I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil!” The use of the black veil is to portray original sin in the way that we are born sinners. All of us wear masks in a way to cover up how we may seem on the inside. The minister pointed out before he died that all people wear “veils” in a sense. Everyone has a secret and that secret is kept in some form for a reason. Hawthorne’s use of the gothic is indeed subtle but effective in the way that the minister leaves behind a remark that affects many.

          The gothic can be used for many purposes whether the use is to scare or touch us beyond the text. Authors use the gothic to develop their work to the fullest extent. One author’s use may be totally different from another author but they all share the gothic style in literature itself.