American Literature: Romanticism Sample Final Exams 2013 final exam assignment Question 4: the Gothic

Matt Martin

The Gothic’s Maze of Origins

            Much like Romanticism always seems to be woven into contemporary texts, the Gothic is yet another element of Romanticism that is always alive and well. Because of the popularity of Edgar Allan Poe, the gothic has retained its unwavering staying power for the last two centuries. Modern writers like Stephen King have breathed new life into the form by creating memorable scenes of classic gothic literature (hedge mazes, haunted labyrinths, dark areas of woods containing unknown creatures). The class meeting discussing the gothic was one of my favorites of the semester (and I can assume it was my fellow classmates' favorite as well because of the amount of discussion generated) for one reason: sometimes I love being scared and so do other people. Poe's stories have been archetypes for gothic and frightening situations and the ever-looming sense of psychological turmoil and insanity. However, the popularity of the gothic does not rest on Poe's shoulders alone. While he was the author we studied who worked in a gothic mindset, there were other authors who continued the tradition and used elements of the gothic to narrate their own stories, many with effective results.

            Though coming almost a century before Poe, Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" contains elements of what we would now consider cornerstones of the gothic: fearful imagery, the sense of powerlessness against something unknown and greater than oneself, and a sense of doom and gloom. This sermon, written and delivered in 1741, has become a standard for "fire and brimstone" preachers, and an example of the religious sentiments of Puritan ideology. Essentially, the human being is a sinful creature that only allows to exist because it is God's will. The sermon is full of famous phrases and images, such as "There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God...Men's hands cannot be strong when God rises up. The strongest have no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of his hands" (paragraph 7) The images Edwards uses are gothic because there is a darkness that surrounds the souls of men, a characteristic Poe would form into classic gothic elements. Since man is powerless against God, the fear of the unknown moment of banishment into hell reflects the much later fear of the dark forest--the people have no idea what exists beyond the tree line. However, Edwards preaches what he believes is waiting for all wicked men: "The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow" (paragraph 11). Since men are predestined to evil deeds, the step from Edwards' sermon to the gothic of the 19th century was not unfathomable. Edwards' most famous line ushered in the era of authors that could focus on mankind's hopelessness: "The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire..." (paragraph 26). There are fewer scenes that offer a sense of hopeless damnation than that. The gothic thrives on the fear that Edward invokes in his sermon.

            Washington Irving is another early Romantic writer who blended in elements of the gothic in to his writings, most famously in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." The tale of the headless horseman is evidence of future gothic characteristics: supernatural and fantastic elements, the darkness of the woods, and even Ichabod Crane being well read in elements of witchcraft and the supernatural. The horseman's description is very much gothic: "...the floating facts concerning this specter, allege that the body of the trooper, having been buried in the churchyard, the ghost rides forth to the scene of the battle in nightly quest of his head; and that the rushing speed with which he sometimes passes along the Hollow, like a midnight blast, is owing to his being belated, and in a hurry to get back to the churchyard before daybreak" (paragraph 4). The horseman only appears at night and disappears before the day returns, and the town itself is somewhat isolated. After Ichabod is involved with Katrina and Brom Bones and the incident with the "headless horseman," he disappears from town and Irving inserts more gothic into the story: "...Ichabod was spirited away by supernatural means; and it is a favorite story often told about the neighborhood round the winter evening fire...The school-house, being deserted, soon fell to decay, and was reported to be haunted by the ghost of the unfortunate pedagogue; and the ploughboy...has often fancied his voice at a distance, chanting a melancholy psalm tune among the tranquil solitudes of Sleepy Hollow" (paragraph 69). The gothic deals with the unknown and mysterious, and Crane's disappearance after the incident fed into the legend of the town. In this story, the gothic is a distinguishing characteristic, though it is not overpowering. It merely adds to the mystery of the story and is not the majority of the focus. Further gothic style writers would certainly use the elements Irving and Edwards used. Though it would be obvious to cite Poe as the next gothic writer, there was a contemporary of Poe's who I feel is an underrated and often overlooked gothic writer: Nathaniel Hawthorne.

            Hawthorne focused on the Puritan era of religious thinking, much like Edward did and this became a distinguishing characteristic in his stories, importantly in "The Minister's Black Veil." Reverend Hooper appears before his congregation one day with a piece of crape hiding his face. He never reveals his reasons why, and he wears it for the rest of his life and into his grave. The congregation is mortified and begins discussing why he must wear it. Hooper's fiancé tries to remove it but when he will not, she leaves him to let him lead a guilty life. The color of the veil is obviously gothic because it is black and usually stands for evil or mourning, but the fact that Hooper will not reveal his reasons for wearing it adds to the mystry of the gothic. Since he is a holy man, the fact that Hooper would sin against God ties back into what Edwards called "the very nature of carnal man, a foundation for the torments of hell" (paragraph 13). However the ambiguity of Hawthorne's language further adds to the mystery of the veil. Perhaps it wasn't what Hooper did to wear the veil, but rather what everyone else did. Hawthorne subtly suggests this in an early description of the town first seeing the veil. It was not completely opaque because Hooper could still see, but dark enough to "give a darkened aspect to all living and inanimate things" (paragraph 6). Hooper may in fact be bearing the consequences of the sins of his congregation. But since Hawthorne leaves the interpretation open to imagination, we are left in perpetual mystery of the veil's purpose. The most we learn of its purpose is that it is a symbol to an unknown sin. The ending leave us with a grisly image of the corpse decayed and the headstone covered with moss, but the veil still remains unchanged. It still covers the sin. The gothic elements in the story were certainly tied to the imagery that Edwards used in his sermon. The human being is evil and can sometimes be the most gothic element of all.

            The gothic still appeals to readers today, but it can also be a confining category for a writer to be placed in. For example, we will always view Poe as a gothic writer because he knew that was what appealed to his readers and what was selling. The same applies to Stephen King today. A writer who makes his name by being gothic can have a difficult time appealing to other audiences with future works. The gothic was only a small thread of Romanticism and can be a popular category, but may get bland after several readings of texts in its genres. Gothic works always seem a worthy choice when it comes to the right circumstances and mood. Since humans always have the capacity to do evil, the gothic will always live on in storytelling. Poe was the most well known during the Romantic era when it came to the gothic, but other authors paved the way for the genre and kept it going after his passing.