4. Citing at least three authors, review and evaluate some varieties of the Gothic encountered this semester. . . .

Fascination with the Unknown:
Exploring Haunted Spaces of the Romantic American Gothic

            Each Halloween, Gothic-style haunted houses become filled with visitors of all ages who arrive ready to undergo fright, suspense, and sheer terror as they meander through the dark, mysterious corridors and secret dungeon-like rooms of these creepy venues. For some reason, our human nature draws us to these dark and mysterious settings. Lynda Williams, in her 2002 final exam, also echoes this notion: "Our romantic fascination with the mysterious has, through time, become deeply ingrained in our cultural consciousness." Indeed, Williams's "romantic fascination" can be seen time and time again as Romantic authors fill their gothic narratives with haunted spaces, eerie dungeons, hidden sepulchers, and moans and howls emanating from shadowy basements.

            The gothic style stands as one of the most intriguing genres of American Romanticism. But why? Why does the gothic reappear so frequently in American Romantic texts?  And what is this pattern's significance for Romanticism? The answers may lie in the fact that the period from the late 18th to the early 19th century was a time for imagination and fancy. Following the Age of Reason and its logical and empirical thought processes, individuals of the Romantic period were ready to respond, both spiritually and emotionally, to the fantasy and mysticism of gothic realms. Hence, Romantic authors took their readers through a full range of experience, inviting readers to indulge in imaginative creativity as they encountered stories of mystery, intrigue, adventure, and danger. The Romantic period was a period of extremes as readers were led from sublime experiences of the vast wilderness to gothic encounters of the secret and shadowy realms of the occult. In particular, the extremes of the gothic style are showcased in the works of Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne as these writers display their abilities to hold characters, as well as readers, captive with bizarre accounts of mysterious haunted spaces.

In "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," Irving uses language of the gothic to highlight Ichabod Crane's fascination with the mystical and unknown: "His appetite for the marvellous, and his powers of digesting it . . . had been increased by his residence in this spellbound region." Crane enjoys escaping to the woods where he can forget reality and allow his imagination to run free with past accounts of ghosts, eerie spirits, and unexplained elements of the supernatural. “It was often his delight,” writes Irving, “to stretch himself on a bed of clover . . . and con over old Mather’s direful tales. In these “witching hour” escapes, Crane's fancy centers on lofty notions of the occult. Haunted escapades in the “awful woodland” fill his “excited imagination,” and he enjoys a “fearful pleasure” in "pass[ing] long winter evenings with the old Dutch wives . . . and listen[ing] to marvellous tales of ghosts and goblins." And even though these chilling tales are "dearly purchased by the terrors of his subsequent walk homewards," Crane sets aside his fears to participate in these haunted frenzies. Crane's fascination for the mysterious is also echoed among the townspeople as "the whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions." As Crane becomes entranced by his own curiosity about supernatural elements, he is enticed, through vivid gothic images, to engage creative powers and to explore his individual fascination with the mysterious and obscure.

Like Irving, Poe uses gothic imagery in "The Fall of the House of Usher" to depict his narrator's intrigue with the mysterious and bizarre household of Roderick Usher. As the narrator approaches Usher's unnatural abode, he admits that he does not know Usher very well. However, the mystery of "the melancholy House of Usher" compels him to enter this obscure realm. "It was a mystery all insoluble," he admits, "nor could I grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me." As he continues to give in to curiosity, his imagination runs wild with fantastic possibilities: "There grew in my mind a strange fancy . . . I had worked upon my imagination as really to believe that around the whole mansion and domain there hung an atmosphere . . . which had reeked up from the decayed trees, and the gray walls." While the narrator's creative powers continue to fashion bizarre and unnatural prospects, he finally "enter[s] the Gothic archway of the hall" and beholds the "ebon blackness of the floors" and "the phantasmagoric armorial trophies." He, like Crane, becomes so infatuated with supernatural elements that he sets aside his trepidation in order to wend his way "through many dark and intricate passages." Amidst these vivid gothic images of haunted rooms and secret pathways, the narrator explores his fascination with the unexplainable and mysterious in the haunted house of Usher.   

            As Crane and Poe's narrator are drawn to the mystical and supernatural, Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown falls to the temptation of an occult encounter in the shadowy woods near his home. Interestingly, even though Brown enjoys a seemingly perfect relationship with his wife, Faith, an unfulfilled part of his soul desires to explore its hidden passion for the bizarre and supernatural. Taking a "dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest," Brown steps unheeded into the night in pursuit of his macabre quest. The "unseen multitude" through whom he passes calls Brown to discover the mysteries in the "heart of the dark wilderness." Unfortunately, Brown's infatuation with the phantasmal calls him to a point of no return. As he delves deeper into shadowy elements of the occult, he "giv[es] vent to an inspiration of horrid blasphemy," thus transforming himself into a "demoniac." Unlike Crane and Poe's narrator, who seem to retain their personalities while indulging their "romantic fascinations" with the supernatural, Brown is forever changed by his close encounter with the occult. Even so, he stands as an exemplary figure who seeks to satisfy his curiosity with the mysterious and unknown.     

            Through the stories of Irving, Poe, and Hawthorne, we can see how infatuation with the bizarre and obscure hold Romantic characters captive with the gothic elements of haunted spaces, eerie passages, and secret dungeons. We can also understand how these authors used the language and images of the gothic to portray their ghostly specters and to entertain and divert the minds of their audiences. Since the American Romantic period was a time of imagination and "fancy," elements such as the gothic allowed for a full range of emotional response, and it allowed readers to use creative mental powers to imagine a full range of physical, as well as spiritual, possibilities. In this "post-Reason" era, individuals of the Romantic period were ready to respond to the gothic. They were drawn to stories of unknown realms, and, like us, they held a "romantic fascination" for the mysterious and unknown. [SL]

The Gothic in Edwards, Irving, Cullen, and Hurston

Although the gothic style of writing originated in Europe, American authors, especially of the Romantic tradition, have adapted it quite well to fit their purposes.  American authors, such as Edwards, Irving, Cullen, and Hurston, use the gothic in each of their very different styles of writing.  The gothic originates with humanity’s fascination with death, darkness, haunted spaces, and the unknown.  Initially, the gothic was centered in the castles of Europe: dark passageways, hidden secret rooms, graveyards on the grounds.  American authors refocused the gothic into the wilderness, haunted mental spaces, with various plays on light and dark.  Although American Romantic authors use this style, it is prevalent in pre-romantic, romantic, and post-romantic writings. 

Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is an example of pre-romantic use of the gothic by an American writer.  Edwards locates the gothic in the fear of divine punishment.  He uses images of hell and demons to facilitate a feeling of darkness, both physically and mentally, by focusing on sin, death, and punishment.  Edwards uses the play of light and dark, religiously, to represent good and bad: light being good and dark being bad.  This darkness is represented in imagery of an angry God; “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; He looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire” (213).  In their 2005 midterm, DC notes that “Edward’s gothic style pulls from the stark images of hell and damnation.”  These constant references to fire, hell, and barely restrained fury evokes an emotion of fear in the reader.  Edwards uses this imagery to preach repentance to his congregation.

Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” uses the gothic style very differently.  Irving’s gothic is located in the wilderness outside of town.  Although the description of the wilderness is gothic, the effect on the reader is purely mental.  When Icabod is exposed to ghost stories around the fire and subsequently has to walk home alone, he is terrified; Irving states, “All these, however, were mere terrors of the night, phantoms of the mind that walk in darkness” (PP# 20).  Irving has relocated the gothic to mental spaces as well as physical.  Irving’s description of the surrounding landscape plays with the idea of light and dark.  This works well because every reader can picture a dark and foreboding place, and then transfer that image to expand in their imagination.  Irving states, “The night grew darker and darker; the stars seem to sink deeper in the sky, and driving clouds occasionally hid them from his sight.  He had never felt so lonely and dismal. . . In the centre of the road stood an enormous tulip-tree, . . . Its limbs were gnarled, and fantastic, large enough to form trunks for ordinary trees, twisting down almost to the earth, and rising again into the air” (PP #59).  Irving uses this descriptive, gothic language to evoke feelings of fear and haunting in the reader.  Irving is located in the romantic period.

The post-romantic period includes writers such as Cullen and Hurston.  Cullen and Hurston use the gothic differently than Edwards and Irving.  Cullen and Huston play with the idea of light and dark, referring to race.  Traditionally, light has represented good and dark has represented bad.  Cullen and Hurston flip this perspective in their writings.  In “Heritage,” Cullen presents a vision of Jesus Christ as black.  Christ, the ultimate good, traditionally seen as white, is transformed into black.  Cullen states, “Lord, I fashion dark gods, too, /Daring even to give You/Dark despairing features where, /Crowned with dark rebellious hair” (2249).  By flipping this perspective, Cullen is able to represent black as good.  Hurston also represents black in a much more positive light.  Hurston represents black as strong, good, and true; “Among the thousand white persons, I am a dark rock surged upon, and overswept, but through it all, I remain myself.  When covered by the waters, I am; and the ebb but reveals me again” (2099).  This representation of black is not bad and hidden but strong and revealing.

The gothic is represented in many ways and continues to be popular today.  Its strength is in its ability to appeal to readers and it will continue to popular because of humanity’s fascination with death and haunted spaces.  Although the gothic is popular, it has its limits.  One prevalent limitation is the play between light and dark.  Cullen and Hurston work to overturn this context of light=good and dark=bad.  Traditionally, this context can encourage racism if not done carefully.  Writers such as Cullen, Hurston, and even Stowe turn this traditional context on its head.  These writers, ranging from pre-romantic, to romantic, to post-romantic, all use the gothic in different ways.  Each appeals to the readers in their own style. [LAM]