Psychological Issues In Gothic Literature Essay

The Psychological Obstacles in Gothic Literature and life
Gothic literature is not just a bunch of vile stories about ghosts and spirits, they are about the deep adversities in everyday life. The works of Edgar Allen Poe (One of the most famous gothic writers) talk about death, psychological issues, and unsightly examples of pain in the minds of some of the most disturbed characters. Examples of his notorious works include “The Raven” and the “Black Cat”. More recently, some of the gothic authors include Ransom Riggs who wrote Miss. Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children where the main character is faced with mental disabilities and the struggle of learning the bleak history of his family. Authors of gothic literature depict the somewhat strange and psychotic lives of disturbed people to address the real issues that affect personal lives every day.
The narrator of the story is a psychopath who is not shaken by the murder of all of his pets along with putting an axe in his wife’s head. After his close affliction with his beloved cat, he becomes disoriented and distant with his previous self. Therefore he is constantly fighting with his own mind for what is normal and what is the projection of his imagination. After the hanging of his cat, he is paranoid when “the fury of a demon instantly possessed me” (Poe), and the ‘evil thoughts became my sole intimates” (Poe) while he finally succumbs to his own tragic mind and eradicates his wife. The narrator illustrates the actions of someone who has a paranoid personality disorder; when someone has paranoid personality disorder, they are suspicious of others and their motives that they interpret as either violent or destructive. Although the “Black Cat” tells the illustrious story of a mentally ill person, things like that happen in the real world and however fabricated it may sound this is a real problem for many