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(2017
midterm assignment) Sample Student Midterm Answers 2017 #2b: Short Essay (Favorite Term) |
LITR 4328 |
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Rebecca Dyda
The Gothic through the Ages
It’s
no surprise to me that I would decide to discuss gothic in this essay. I have
always been so drawn to the many characteristics of the gothic found in
readings, TV shows, music, and movies. When I came into the class and found out
that the gothic was going to be discussed in our class, I was very excited. I
knew that the gothic genre existed in many of my interests, but I did not know
why many of my readings were considered gothic other than they had a dark, and
scary tone to them. This changed when I came to the course and worked with the
genre first hand.
Our
class site explains that there are many elements of a work that can be
considered gothic. Some of the many features are haunted houses, castles, woods,
mazes, labyrinths, closed doors, secret passages, light and dark interplay with
shades of gray or blood-red colors, fair and dark ladies, twinning, doubling,
and doppelgangers, repressed fears and desires, death and decay, bad-boy Byronic
hero, spectral or grotesque figures, lurid symbols, and creepy or startling
sounds such as creaks, screams, and groans.
When I read this, I realized how big the gothic really is in our current
culture. Some of my favorite examples come from Horror movies and television
shows. For instance, one of my favorite horror movies is the
Evil Dead (1981). Much like
the Blair Witch Project, the movie
takes place in the woods. This is where five friends read from the book of the
dead and become possessed by evil deities. The movie contains a lot of blood and
gore, which is commonly found in more modern interpretations of the gothic
genre. Other examples of more modern movies that feature the gothic are
the Blair Witch Project,
The Exorcist (1973), and
Night of the Living Dead (1968).
There are also modern Television shows that display gothic themes. One example,
which is one of my favorite shows, is
American Horror Story. This show has different themes and characters each
season. Some of the most notable seasons deal with characters such as Vampires,
witches, and clowns.
When
I started the class, I only knew of a few examples of gothic literature such as
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. As the semester has
continued, my knowledge of gothic literature has expanded. Some of my favorite
examples so far are Washington Irving’s Sleepy Hollow and Edgar Allan Poe’s
Ligeia. In
the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, we found
the gothic take over towards the end when Ichabod Crane is riding through the
wooded area. Irving describes how the night grew darker, and how the clouds hid
the stars leaving no light for his travels. Then he mentions the ghost stories
that were told earlier in the night, which also gives this gloomy feel to the
scene. Then he goes on to describe one of the trees in the woods. He described
it as an enormous tulip-tree, which towered like a giant above all the other
trees. He also described how its limbs were gnarled and fantastic, and large
enough to form trunks for ordinary trees, twisting down, almost to the earth and
rising again into the air. This description gave the story a more wilderness
gothic feel to it. Another author who uses the gothic in his work is Edgar Allan
Poe in Ligeia. The gothic is present
in many of his descriptions, but the one that I enjoyed the most was when he
described the abbey he bought in paragraph 14. Poe describes the building with
words such as gloomy, dreary, savage, and decay. This description brought out
the gothic features of the building and gave us an image of a dreadful, dark,
and scary building. This was one of many descriptions in Poe’s
Ligeia that gave it a gothic tone.
After
reading Edgar Allan Poe and Washington Irving, I realized how much I love the
gothic and will continue to love it. It’s gloomy and dark vibes have always
interested me, as well as many others like me. I am glad that I was able to
expand my knowledge in the gothic and realize that I still have so much more to
learn. I can’t wait to learn more about the gothic in our future readings.
