Sample Student Research Project, spring 2006
LITR
4232: American Renaissance
Sample Student Research Project, spring 2006
Elena
Trevino
April
18, 2006
The Gothic and Sublime Centuries
When
I think of the gothic and sublime aspects of literature, I tend to focus on
scary movies, haunted forests or castles, and creepy feelings you get when you
see or read scary stories. The gothic and sublime aspects of literature show
that creepy side of nature and more. The gothic can be identified by dark and
light colors, and the look and
style of structures. The sublime is something massive, fearsome, and something
that exceeds normal action. There are many authors such as Cooper, Poe, Irving,
and Hawthorne who show gothic and sublime aspects so vividly that you get a
chilling feeling. So how has the gothic/sublime aspect changed over time? It has
been around for centuries and it is inadvertently used today in recent novels,
but the classic of sublime and gothic feelings are from early literature such as
popular authors as Poe and Hawthorne.
In Cooper’s Last
of the Mohicans, there is definitely a gothic and sublime aspect to the
story. It doesn’t seem as clearly shown as in a horror novel or a novel like
Rip Van Winkle, thus you have to really analyze the novel to find gothic and
sublime aspects. The first thing that jumps out is the white, black and red
characters that represent these gothic schemes, and how the red brings out the
white and black. Alice as the white person being represented, and Unca as the
Native American being represented and Cora as the black person being
represented. Another aspect that is clearly shown of the gothic in Last
of The Mohicans would be how the story is set in the forest. The creepy
forest is that of a gothic aspect .As seen in this description; “Glancing his
eyes around, with a vain effort to pierce the gloom that was thickening beneath
the leafy arches of the forest” (Cooper 45). The sublime is shown with this
larger than life image, “The fragment of some fallen tree, into human forms,
and twenty times he fancied he could distinguish the horrid visages of his
lurking foes” (Cooper 45).Finally, the light/dark contrast shows the sublime
aspect, “The tresses of this lady were shining and black, like the plumage of
the raven, Her complexion was not brown, but it rather appeared charged with the
colour of the rich blood” (Cooper 19)
In Irving’s Rip Van Winkle and Legend of
Sleepy Hollow, the obvious titles tells the reader it is going to be a
gothic novel. The forest is a gothic aspect in Legend of Sleepy Hollow; Irving makes the forest seem sublime with
the larger than life aspect of the color schemes. The creepy castle in Legend
of Sleepy Hollow also points out the gothic part of literature. The
architecture in these novels is also what helps you get the gothic sense of why
it is gothic. When you read these novels you get chills. These stories emerge in
the 20th century in different types of settings, but in these older
novels, the castle, creepy forest, or creepy haunted houses are what you get to
describe the gothic aspect of literature. The light/dark color theme is also
something that has changed over the years, although you still get the blood or
red that draws the reader into the novel, and shows you it is gothic. Sublime
aspects from these stories are also created in bigger context in recent novels.
With these novels as background authors
are able to elaborate on these themes and make them grander than before.
Then you have Poe with Ligea
and The Fall House of Usher. Poe
is popular for his gothic writings and seems to do so easily. Poe is considered
a Byronic hero, which symbolizes the light/dark gothic look. The Byronic hero is
usually a rebel against society who breaks the norms. One who has that image
today could be Johnny Depp, such as in Edward
Scissors Hands. That image was that of the Byronic image.
In Ligeia even the word gothic
is shown in the text, so there is no misunderstanding of what Poe is showing,
“The ceiling, of gloomy-looking oak, was excessively lofty, vaulted, and
elaborately fretted with the wildest and most grotesque specimen of a
semi-gothic, semi-druidical device” (Poe 997). In Ligeia
a lot of color schemes are presented as well to represent the gothic. Such
as, “Brilliant and ruby colored fluid” (Poe 998). The way Poe talks of her
eyes definitely hits you with a gothic sense, “these are the full and the
black and wild eyes-of my lost love” (pg 1001). Poe also shows the sublime
aspect in Ligeia by bringing out the larger than life aspect clearly by this
statement, “ I saw not then what I now clearly perceive, that the acquisitions
of Ligeia were gigantic, were
astounding; yet I was sufficiently aware of her infinite supremacy of resign
myself” (Poe 994). In the Fall House of
Usher, the gothic is also clearly shown. Poe uses a lot of vivid gothic
images of this horrid house. “ I looked upon the scene before me-upon the mere
house and the simple landscape features of the domain-upon the bleak walls-upon
the vacant eye-like windows-upon a few rank sedges-and upon a few white trunks
of decayed trees” (Poe 1001). In this description, Poe gives you an incredible
image of what this house look like, and puts a description of his horrible
haunted house in your head. It is of the traditional haunted houses, with the
darkness and decayed trees, and the bleak walls. He also uses the weird gothic
in his writings to make sure you know what he is intending when he writes, “I
entered the Gothic archway of the hall “(Poe 1003). The color schemes are also
shown in his work with the use of red. “There was blood upon her white robe”
(Poe1013) and also “and blood-red moon, which now shone vividly through that
one barely discernible figure” (Poe 1014). The color scheme is described two
different ways but obviously jumps out to you either way. The color schemes of
Poe’s novels are still used today. Blood is always a contrast to mix black and
white and, blood or red as a symbolism of the gothic.
Poe makes it clear to find the gothic and
sublime aspects. In Pym he has done it
again with his style of gothic writing. This novel The
Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, dated back to 1838, shows how long gothic
and sublime has been in the literature world. It is said in an article that
“In fact Pym may be said to take the sublime’s equivocal quality to the
extreme, both endorsing and undermining the conventions of the Gothic Sublime”
(Marita 374). In Pym, the descriptions
he uses are so intense, you know they are that larger than life aspect. “The
stomach was swollen immensely, like that of a man who has been drowned and lain
under water for many weeks” (Marita 795-795). You can actually picture those
images which makes it a valid gothic/ sublime concept. It is said that Pym’s
narrative exemplifies the experience of “sublime alienation” (Marita
379). The article linked Poe from one of Poe’s novels to the other as a sense
of him, always writing in gothic styles. “The in Congress effect of a smile on
a corpse is sure to be a source of horror. Poe must have been well aware of it,
since he used it again in The Fall House
of Usher(1839) ” ( Marita 810).This is also seen in, “ The analyses of
Pym’s sublime aspects show that he is constructed within the pervasive
influence of sublime” (Marita 386). There is no question when you read any of
Poe’s works that he has a sublime and gothic feeling he wants to get across.
Hawthorne is another author who uses dark and
light images to show the gothic theme. In Young Goodman Brown the sublime and gothic images are shown vividly.
The feelings you get when you read these passages is that of the gothic and
sublime. “ He has taken a dreary road, dark ended by all the gloomiest trees
of the forest, which purely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through,
and closed immediately behind” (Hawthorne 968). The reader too takes herself
through this narrow path to get the feeling. The sublime is imbedded in the
supernatural that is shown in the text. “ But the only thing about him, that
could be fixed upon as remarkable, was his stuff, which bore the likeness of a
great black snake, so curiously wrought, that it might almost be seen to twist
and wriggle itself, like a living serpent” (Hawthorne 969). In Ministers
Black Veil the children with bright faces is a gothic element describing
them. When Hawthorne describes the pale congregation and how the fire was a
feared sight to the minister with a black veil, the black itself is a gothic
image. Having a pale face underneath a black veil is the gothic theme and
contrast of light and dark. He uses many more descriptions such as a death
like-pale that gives you the image of her being white as a ghost. The shades of
gray are also a part of Hawthorne’s writings and show the gothic.
In the 20th century, authors such as Poe and
Hawthorne have made it easier for authors of today to create the gothic and
sublime in their novels. Today’s authors, such as Ann Rice and Stephen King,
have made gothic into more of a reality. There are a lot of images of Byronic
heroes that represent gothic images, such as Dracula and Frankenstein. Vampires
also show the white face and black hair with blood in the face and mouth. These
three colors of white, black and red are what make up Byronic looks. Gothic is
an image of past and present centuries. Dracula can even be described as a
“mock gothic” (Ward 2 ). The darkness of Dracula’s hair and pale face
symbolize the light/dark color schemes. It is shown that, “In vas resources
available seemingly disparate texts such as Dracula, Frankenstein and Jane Erye
which the modern audience would distinguish as being Gothic.” (Ward 105).
Ann Rice’s creation of vampires shows the
gothic image of today. In The Official
Guide to Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles (1993) she is influenced by
authors such as Poe and Hawthorne. Movies such as The
Blade have come into this century with the gothic style in mind. “Unlike
most characters in Dracula , there in Blade’s world who seek powers of the
vampire and immorality ‘wannabe’ vampires and interestingly, Blade the
African- American, has ‘blue-blood’, so to speak”(Dixon 108) . This shows
how the blood or red image is still used today but changed a bit.
Who
can have a gothic topic with out Stephen King? He is the father of gothic for
the 20th century. “Stephen King is not merely the best-known
practioner of finde ie ke like American Gothic, he is American gothic”(Hand
3). He created many novels and
movies with the gothic and sublime in mind. “Carrie in 1974, he re-created the
genre for the late century by tapping into a deeper stratum” It also shows,
“American literature, gothic or otherwise, has served to explicate our
sins”. He creates these gothic movies that give you chills similar to Poe’s
writings. In another gothic classic The
Lottery he uses fire and witches to present the gothic theme. These are
commonly used today in gothic novels. King loves the reader/viewer to loose
their mind when watching his movies or reading his novels and get lost in it.
“I will try to terrorize the reader, but if I find I cannot terrify him/her, I
will try to horrify; and if I find I cannot horrify, I’ll go for the
gross-out” (Hand 7). He uses his
grotesque gothic images to do so. “But the gross-out is not what satisfies the
ultimate goal of the gothic impulse-that visionary experience of the sublime the
moment when beauty and terror ring out simultaneously” ( Hand 8). Stephen King
clearly knows what kind of feeling he wants his readers and viewers to get. Just
as Poe, wants to reach out and get the reader into the gothic and sublime, so
does King. “Stephen King ultimately succeeds at remaking himself and gaining
the critical attention he deserves, not just his own career but the entire
gothic genre will not be redeemed”( Hand 11) .To recreate all that is known in
the gothic and sublime world from his works would be what he would want. To
relive those feelings of sublime and gothic and not loose that aspect of
literature is why Stephen King writes and uses gothic in novels and screenplays
Poe, Hawthorne and other classical authors,
were responsible for setting up what we have today. Today’s gothic is more
real and gives you and even a bigger feeling of the sublime. When you read or
see today’s gothic novels or movies, these classic authors have paved the way
for people such as Ann Rice and Stephen King to get a feel for gothic ,and to
know what boundaries they can achieve and what it takes to have a great gothic
novel. The styles of these modern day authors have alterations that make them
even better, but you will always want to read the classic novels of Poe and
Hawthorne to gain a better understanding of the genre.
Work
Citied
Hand,
Elizabeth. The Metamorphosis of Stephen King
September 1999
Marita,
Nadal.”Beyond the Gothic Sublime: Poe’s Pym or the Journal of Equivocal
Emotions” Mississippi
Quarterly 2000 Summer; 53 373-88
Ward,
Kyla Tabula Rasa 1994 www.tabula-rasa.info/Dark
Ages/GothicsPart1.html
Dixon,
Melpomene September 2003 Modern Gothic Narratives
