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

Melissa King

Things that go Boom in the Night

          As humans, we all want a good scare. The feeling of being on the edge of your seat and waiting to see what is going to happen during a suspenseful scene of a movie or page of a book entices the viewer/reader and creates a feeling of excitement. How do directors or authors create this suspense? They use gothic elements. Authors use the gothic to set up the setting and create that bone chilling essence that we all know and love.

          What is the gothic really? The gothic can be expressed in many ways. One way in which we see the gothic is through colors. Dark and deep colors such as black, grey, and red are a hint that the gothic is taking shape. When dealing with the gothic one man stands out like a beacon of light. That man is Edgar Allan Poe. His writings seem to embody the gothic and this is perhaps why his writings have become so popular during and much after his time. Poe has a unique way of subtly pulling in gothic elements and making all of his readers a part of the story as they become frightened and chilled right along with the characters. Gothic colors make their presence known in such of Poe’s writings as Ligeia when the narrator is describing the horrific events of Rowena’s death and his viewing, unknown if it is imagined or real, of her being poisoned. Poe writes “I was, or may have dreamed that I saw, fall within the goblet, as if from some invisible spring in the atmosphere of the room, three or four large drops of a brilliant and ruby colored fluid.” The drops were not yellow or orange, colors associated with light and happiness, but red and dark. According to Dr. White’s handout over the gothic “light and dark interplay with shades of gray or blood-red colors.” By coloring the drops of poison red, Poe is using the gothic to associate the drops with death and blood, thus foreshadowing the effects that the drops might have on Rowena.

          Although colors create a portal into the gothic, they may not be an element that one typically associates with suspense or thrill. However, the presence of haunted castles or houses and decrepit trees or fences will key the reader onto the idea that the scene is headed for a terrifying twist. European gothic is typically characterized by the image of the haunted castle. American Renaissance made a shift from the castles and turned more towards wilderness gothic. We see this in such writings as James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans as the wilderness setting around the characters proves to be “haunted” by the Indians that pursue them. In a 2004 final exam essay over the gothic the author states

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?”  (BP).

The mysterious characteristics of the cave create a sense of wonder while at the same time a sense of terror for both the characters in the story and the reader. The sense of mystery associated with the forest creates a sense of urgency in the readers as they long for the characters to get out safely. We read and are stuck to the page like glue, waiting to see the outcome. Cooper’s use of the gothic to describe the cave and all of its secrets makes the writing much more interesting and appealing to read.

          While wilderness gothic is popular in American Renaissance writings, we see the gothic in other settings as well. The gothic can take any normal item or setting in which one might associate happiness or beauty and transform it to be dark and terrifying. For example, take a pond that was once surrounded by flowers and covered in lily pads and frogs on a warm, sunshiny day; wilt the flowers, put holes eaten by insects in the lily pads, turn off the sun and replace it with darkness and a full moon, and place one solitary frog sitting beside the pond cricketing a morose tune. This pond no longer has the cheering effect it once did, but is enshrouded with the gothic.

A similar transformation takes place in Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow as we see a familiar, everyday path transformed by the gothic. Ichabod Crane states “It was the very witching time of night that Ichabod, heavy hearted and crest-fallen, pursued his travels homewards, along the sides of the lofty hills which rise above Tarry Town, and which he had traversed so cheerily in the afternoon. The hour was as dismal as himself.” Although he had traveled down the path during the day with light-hearted thoughts and a cheerful demeanor, with the presence of night and the “lofty hills” being brought forth, the path becomes gloomy and depressing. The gothic here works as correspondence between the setting and the characters inner feelings.

          “Ahhhhhhhh,” “CCCRRRREEEEAAAAKKKKK,” “Hooooo Hoooooo.” These are sounds that are sometimes associated with a terrifying scene. Sounds can create just as much of a gothic element as ruby-red poison or a beat up house. When sitting alone in the dark at night, we create sounds in our heads that we believe we hear and become terrified. Screams in the night or creaks of the wood in a house make the hairs stand up on our arms and send a chill straight to our spine. The use of creepy and startling sounds is very apparent in The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe, and adds to the mystery and secrets of the house. After the death of Lady Madeline, Usher persists that the body be preserved for the night so the men place her dead corpse in a vault. The narrator describes the sounds issued forth from the door and states that “Its immense weight caused an unusually sharp, grating sound, as it moved upon its hinges.” Just by adding the sound effect to the door, the door becomes transformed into this gothic and frightening piece in the story. It is not just a door that closes and opens and lets you come and go as you please, it is the door that encases the dead body of Lady Madeline, the door that separates the living from the dead. Later in the story, the narrator hears “most unusual screaming or grating sound.” Here, the sound that is associated with the door is heard again. The use of the gothic noise here creates much mystery and skepticism, as the reader and the narrator wonder simultaneously if the dead has opened the door and destroying the separation from the living. We see the use of gothic again as a creator of mystery.

          Gothic is a captivating writing style that authors return to again and again. It can completely transform a piece of writing from dull to exciting in a one word. It can be a very easy style of writing if one knows what he/she is doing. The gothic does more than just create entertainment however. It creates a sense of correspondence between reader and character and places the reader inside the story. Through the thorough description of gothic elements throughout the story, the reader can visualize the setting and it is as if they are right there with Ichabod Crane riding past the terrifying tree and chasing the headless horseman or sitting inside an eerie house listening to the awakening of the dead. Through the use of the gothic, both character and reader can become one.