Preview

Gothic Literature Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
834 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Gothic Literature Essay
Gothic Literature Comparative Essay

In the movie ‘Coraline ‘ and the texts ‘The Red Room’, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper”’ and ‘Northanger Abbey’, there are many aspects of gothic literature present, gothic literature is used to create mystery and a sense of something odd to come. Coraline is a movie about a young girl who discovers a parallel universe in the new house she moved into, The Red Room is about a supposedly haunted room, Northanger Abbey is about a girl who is spending some time in an old Abbey, she begins to imagine everything is much more interesting and out of the ordinary than what it actually is, lastly The Yellow Wallpaper is the story of a woman locked in the upstairs room of her summerhouse. Many stories in the Victorian era showed several signs of having used gothic literature.

Setting is used to show gothic literature immensely, usually with stormy weather, fog or a dark setting, old objects and haunted houses will usually be present in a gothic story, In The Red Room the house that it is set in, is described as being run down and aged, much like any typical haunted house “I left the door wide open until the candle was well alight, and then I
shut them in and walked down the chilly, echoing passage.” Using the sound of echoes and a cold feeling in the setting is a very common technique found in gothic literature, In Coraline also the apartment that Coraline lives in is not well maintained and is slightly worn away with age. A classic part of the film that shows the house is of gothic nature is when Coraline goes around counting all the doors and windows in the home as well as writing everything down that is blue, during this scene you see the bathroom Is infested with bugs and all the doors are old and creaky.
Secondly there is Usually a strange obsession shown throughout the text or film, in Coraline the Other mother is shown to be nice and loving, but you later find out her strange obsession with sewing Buttons into eyes, her obsession

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Gothic literature is a type of writing that is characterized by the elements of fear, death, and gloom. Edgar Allan Poe's “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a good example of Gothic Lit because it uses the factors of a spooky home, the weather is bad, and there is a ghost or a monster. “He suffered from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most insipid food was alone endurable.(18)” This sentence is tied to gothic literature because he is in a old house and he is going crazy. Therefore…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    gothic story gcse

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A chilling breath of wind assaulted her deadened cheeks for it was a rough night and the stars had cowardly hid away behind the dull, mute clouds. The predatory moon, bright and full; crept behind the cloudy sky stalking me as prey. Her voiceless shadow stumbled drunkenly as she battled through the hawkish rain to find shelter for the night. Her car had broken down a mile or so back. It had been hours since the sunlight faded to dark; hours since she'd been stranded in this deserted place. She was miles away from her home, she was very frightened. She just stood there, crying; wishing someone could help when, suddenly, a small old lady seemed to appear from no-where. She was extremely short with long, obsidian hair and a narrow, cadaverous face. "Please help me," the young girl begged, her teeth chattering loudly.…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gothic Literature is a unique form of writing that encompasses: fiction, horror, death, and romance. This type of writing uses the idea of the supernatural as well as the capacity for evil in a human being which ultimately thickens and intensifies the plots of the stories and makes them more intriguing. In the following three works: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, “The Raven”, and “The Black Cat”, there are many unique elements of gothic literature, however the most prominent are: psychological issues, ambiguity, the color black, spirits/demons, and violence.…

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Gothic writing warns of the dangers of aspiring beyond our limitations” How far do you agree?…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The house was big. It’s the typical, “seventies style” home on one of the most, “selected streets.” The house use to be, “white (1)” after the death of Emily’s father the house slowly began to fall apart. Emily’s house was the only original house left from the seventies and it had started to decay. It is a tad ironic that the outside of the house is decaying as in the room upstairs a man’s body is also decaying, this is an example as well for the Gothic setting. The fact that the author states the house used to be “white” is important due to the time period the house was built. When Emily’s father was a live the house was well kept and maintained once he passed away the house began to fall apart. As time goes on the house just begins to decay more. The “white” house is no longer “white”, the balcony is falling part. This also helps paint the picture of a Gothic setting because the house is now scary looking. The house is beginning to look “abandoned”, there is a smell of dust and “disuse- a close, dank smell (1)”. The fact that the house has a distinct smell also gives off the Gothic feel. These are examples of the Gothic setting because of the darkness created by the eeriness of the decaying structure of the building. It makes the house look like something out of a horror or supernatural…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and William Faulkner have presented gothic literature throughout their writing during the 18th and 19th centuries. Gothic literature is defined as a "distinct modern development in which the characteristic theme is the stranglehold of the past upon the present"(294 Drabble and Stringer).Therefore, to deliver this theme to their readers they used gothic elements to create a "dark" sensation especially in the area of setting. All three authors in their literature portray accursed or decaying settings that are associated to violence, poverty, and human behavior. It appears authors like Poe, Hawthorne, and Faulkner were drawn to this elements of Gothicism for what it revealed about human psychology…

    • 1549 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Gothic Literature is concerned with the breaking of normal moral and social codes” Discuss (40 marks).…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gothic literature demonstrates the consequences of disrupting the natural order of things. Consider the texts you have read in the light of this comment.…

    • 701 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the two gothic tales, “the red room” and “the tell tale heart”, there are various similarities and differences. Both were written in the Victorian era as at the time many people believed in such things as ghosts and curses. In this essay I will explore and identify the different ways that the author implies fear and suspense, linking to gothic conventions.…

    • 1012 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Coraline

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In terms of mise-en-scene. In reality Coraline's house is very dim, it is portrayed with dull shades of white, grey and brown exacerbated by low-key lighting. The Kitchen seems barren of food and the bedroom features very few home comforts such as a photo of friends and a string of birds around Coraline's bed. Her father’s office is full of unpacked boxes and a dated computer on which her father is droning away with bags under his eyes to show how tired he is. All of these contribute to the very dim outlook on their life. As night time arrives the rooms become very dark using chiaroscuro lighting. To show the connection between the real house and the 'other house' Coraline goes through a tunnel consisting of entrancing purple and blue lighting, almost as if to show that something magic is happening.…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Changes are not easily made in life. To be able to change, one must be able to handle and accept the consequences that going to happen because it not only affects the person that is willing to change, but it also affects the people that surround them. Common themes that are seen to advance Southern Gothic Literature short stories are the usage of “tradition” and “interiority” as a means of getting the readers to feel sympathy for the characters that have no control of changing their fate. From gender roles to society rules, people have an appetite for control and traditions are one aspect of life that people can and will control. Traditions are beliefs/procedures that are made from one point in time and then continued and done routinely. When traditions are being challenge to change or are in the process of being changed, the ones that are accustomed the most to certain traditions being to fear of losing control of what is theirs. In the short stories by Alice Munro and Shirley Jackson, both authors show that some traditions are found to be helpful and advantageous while others are poor and…

    • 1132 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gothic literature, which is sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre that links horror and romance into one tale of ‘transgressing the boundaries’. Gothicism was unheard of until the late 1700’s, this movement into a new genre of literature. This was pioneered by the English author Horace Walpole, in his famous fictional book ‘The Castle of Otranto’, or as Walpole alternatively titled it ‘a Gothic story’. Horace Walpole himself had transgressed the boundaries slightly; by introducing this new style of writing he had added a whole new genre into literature. Walpole’s style of writing was unique and captivated the readers mind and imagination to let he or she share the act of transgression, or as Robert Kidd, a renowned critic put it, “The Gothic has somehow seduced the reader so that he or she is complicit in engaging in whatever he or she might encounter”. This is what kept Gothicism alive, the author’s ability to intrigue the reader and give them a thirst to read more gothic literature.…

    • 1187 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Gothic Art History Essay

    • 1863 Words
    • 8 Pages

    - By the 12th and 13th centuries there was a massive shift in population in Europe.…

    • 1863 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    American Gothic as a distinctive American literature provides substantive insights into the history and culture of the United States. Its roots trace back to 18th century when in 1781 a highly religious farmer ritually murdered his wife and four kids after religious voices told him to. Beyond comprehension and strange story caught the attention of a lawyer Charles Brockden Brown, who later used motives of this bloody murder in his book Wieland (1798). The book is a story of conversion of mature and responsible man into a murderous monster. The horrific and irrational sins of the father haunt his son Theodore, who despite the illusions of liberty, finds himself in a tragic fate leading to repetition of the past. He drowns himself in the state of melancholy and due to father‘s strange death seeks for peace in religion. Ultimately, he begins to hear voices in his head that provokes him to do horrific things to his familiy. The role of the Gothic in this book is to metaphorically implement the horrible tendency within a generation, when son realizes his transformation to his father. Moreover, in order to highlight the picture, unnatural voices and mysterious events are added. Today, Charles Brockden Brown is generally regarded as the first American Gothic novelist, who created a work of gothic genre with explained supernatural occurences. According to Punter, American Gothic is a refraction of English. It means, that European Gothic has a connection with past, while American deals with present and the Gothic picture that Europe has created. The new writers were deeply influenced by the narrative settings, conflicts and motifs established by the writers of the other side of Atlantic. However, early American literature had peculiarities of their own which covered atmospheric gloom, the imminence of violence, mystery and classical Gothic places where the events took place (haunted hauses, tombs, castles). American writers not only based their writings on plots and…

    • 435 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Gothic novel is a new kind of fiction that flourished in literature at the end of the 18th century in Great Britain. It represents a reaction against both Defoe's and Richardson's "rationalistic" novels and Enlightenment, which gave rise to industrialization. They were seen as a form of exploitation, which didn't bear in mind the individual’s feelings.…

    • 2440 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays