Edgar Allan Poe : The Thematic Elements Of Gothic Literature

“Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.” Poe believed that a story had to have the reality of horror with in. All of his stories had gothic horror in them. Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories, “The Black Cat” and “The Masque of the Red Death” are good examples of gothic literature because they involve paranormal activity, insane characters, and terrifying deaths.

Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe are considered masters of American gothic fiction. They used similar gothic elements in their writing and used it to build up a sense of impending doom. Even today numerous readers enjoy, study, and discuss the gothic elements both utilized in their work. Gothic writing is a style that is concerned with the dark side of society, an evil that lies within the self. Poe and Hawthorne contributed stories which contained dark struggles between characters and society with its rules of order of the time. Gothic writing is fantasy meant to entertain despite the fact that it depicts the political and social problems

Gothic literature was a popular writing tradition of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and is still used today. Gothic literature explores the wicked, perverse and dark desires. Gothic conventions can include burial alive, ghosts, hysteria, ruined bodies, tales within tales, undead characters, underground spaces, and more. Gothic themes are guilt, sex, violence, death, and cosmic struggle. Gothic stories or poems should inspire terror or horror. Edgar Allen Poe was one of the many well-known Gothic writers. In his stories he uses a variety of themes to carry out the gothic theme.

Gothic literature usually brings to mind Edgar Allen Poe and dark foggy London streets but that's not all gothic literature is. Gothic literature usually has themes of mystery and eerie settings or characters. Themes such as physical and mental decay and isolation, abandonment, and entrapment are very prominent in Prey by Richard Matheson, The Feather Pillow by Horacio Quiroga and The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe.

In normal life, people will sometimes suffer from depression or sickness caused by the loss of a loved one in a romantic or family relationship. This has been a part of life for hundreds of years and it is a way that authors like Edgar Allan Poe, William Faulkner and Horacio Quiroga connect with people all throughout the world. Using exaggerated scenarios, these authors communicate how much of an impact isolation or abandonment can have on a person physically or mentally decaying.

Gothic literature has been criticized as being a dreary, dark, and death-involving subset of Romanticism (a literary movement accentuating human individuality, imagination, and subjectivity). In addition, gothic lit incorporates several themes- not all about deathly acts - but includes some emotional and surprising themes such as dreams, nightmares, or hallucinations, and grotesque or bizarre occurrences. Two short stories, both written by Edgar Allan Poe, entitled “The Raven,” and “The Black Cat,” as well as the novel The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern, all encompass these gothic elements, found throughout each story.

In all of Gothic Literature, many strategies are used to give the reader chills during his or her downtime. Themes like Entrapment and supernatural forces are displayed throughout this genre of writing to further portray an overlaying message. Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving and Horacio Quiroga use Entrapment and Supernatural powers to provide an intense feeling in the reader involving scenarios beyond conventional limitations.

Riggs, Quidora, Poe, and Faulkner use gothic elements in their short stories such as monsters, grotesqueness, and death to protray their stories theme.

Gothic literature writers Poe, Irving, and Morgenstern wrote “The Raven”, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Devil and Tom Walker”, and Night Circus. Morgenstern’s Night Circus shares one common gothic element of the supernatural, pain, or violence with each piece of gothic literature.

“The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe is a fantastic short story, but how does it fit into literature? The story uses elements and techniques that delve into the gothic genre and allows the reader to be introduced to a darker reality. In “The Tell Tale Heart”, gothic elements reveal themselves in the short story through the use of setting and also through the use of characterization. These two elements are key components which demonstrate gothic features and help to classify this story as gothic literature. Murder and the supernatural elements also show that this text can be considered within the gothic genre of literature.

Gothicism can be referred to as a style of writing and is described as grotesque, gloomy, fearful, and death-like. While the majority of gothic tales give a dark vibe, it is possible that they can also have a romantic twist, in which the reader will have to closely identify. This style of writing originated in the late 18th century and flourished in the 19th century. Authors like Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Joyce Carol Oates have each written gothic tales that depict the dark side of human nature in creative ways. Each of these writers have written about strange characters who have odd appearances, unsettling thoughts, and display abnormal behavior.

Production of Gothic Effects Through the Use of Formal Elements in Poe’s The Black Cat

Often times, authors use specific instances from their lives to produce ideas for stories and incorporate them into his or her works. In the gothic times, dark, threatening, horrific, morbid, depressing, bizarre, bewildering, death and insane are just some words that best describe the popular type of literature at that time. One man’s name can summarize these words, Edgar Allan Poe. He is considered to be one of the greatest obscure American authors/poets whom many literary scholars still try to make heads or tails of. People throughout the history often wondered why Poe’s writings are so fantastically diverse and unusual, why his literary style is dark, and why he has so many supernatural connotations in each of his writings. He displays

In the world of literature, there are several genres that pique the varied interests of readers of any age. One genre in particular that seems to gain wide acclaim is fiction. Under this genre there are several classifications, and one can find writers that are classified as mystery writers and/or gothic writers. One in particular that has not only been influential in this area, but has also brought other elements in from other genres, is Edgar Allan Poe. Although many critics may argue that the mystery genre and gothic genre should never coincide, Edgar Allan Poe defied the odds and brought these two genres together in some of his works. He also received acclaim for works that have elements of solely mystery and gothic characteristics in

Gothic literature has been popular since the 19th century and has given readers the opportunity to look at romantic movement that focuses on a darker horror like imagination. Some of these involve a combination of extreme landscapes, icy wastes, and extreme weather, horrifying events or the threat of such happenings, as well as supernatural manifestations, and presenting evil. Gothic literature gives us a way of looking more depth into a hero whose identity is identified at the end of a novel (Mullan). Some novels that have given us a chance to look more in depth with gothic literature just like Frankenstein. These novels include Horace Walpole’s Otranto