Southern Gothic

amount of governmental and religious complexes, the Greeks and Romans often built temples in honor of different gods that they might believe protected them or looked over them. The change in purpose can be seen when comparing Gothic architecture to modern architecture. Gothic buildings were often grandeur complexes that did not always optimize the building materials, characteristics include a large size and many columns that took up space and other adornments. Compared to modern architecture,…

The mind has inspired many writers throughout history. Psychology and psychological disorders in particular seem to be a hot topic among many authors. Giving a character a psychological disorder seems to add more depth and makes for a more interesting story. Psychological writing gives society a glimpse into the dark side of human nature. To many people, it is thrilling to read about protagonists who struggle with their own minds. Although there are countless disorders of the mind, only a few…

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad details the horrific and gruesome effects of colonialism in Africa. As an employee for a Belgian ivory trading company, Charlie Marlow experiences these grisly conditions of the Congo; they help to create the dark atmosphere of the novella. The story achieves this effect in part by its use of grotesque imagery throughout the story, which is aided by the first person point of view of Marlow’s story. This horrid imagery aids in creating the inescapable…

Each house in Charles Dickens’ novel Great Expectations is made to be like the character that lives within it, to emphasize the personalities and characteristics of each person. When Pip first meets Miss Havisham, he thinks of her as weak and grotesque just like her house. He believes that she is just “a skeleton in ashes of a rich dress” (56); when he tours Satis House he is confronted by a house covered in “a great many iron bars” (53) and on the inside it’s filled with “ominous passages” (55)…

In the letter, “The Whistle”, by Benjamin Franklin that was written to his friend, he expresses his ideals in life. The central theme of the letter is that people should stay on a middle path when it comes to luxuries. Mr. Franklin then uses symbolism to bring out this point of not going overboard with luxuries. In the letter, the author tells a tale about a whistle he purchased when he was younger, he uses this as a symbol for all luxuries in life. Using symbolism, the author brings out the…

The gothic is a very complex and multilayered genre, that is also a very broad stroke, which seems to make it more of an aesthetic or style to a story, rather than a hard set genre. At it’s core though, all gothics are trying to invoke a certain emotion, which is that of unease. This can be as simple as a general uncomfortable feeling, to a full fledged fear, but they all have that aspect of the strange intertwined into the plot or setting. The common method to attain this feeling is using the…

Subconscious Scares Many of us like to experience fear on purpose. We enjoy watching horror movies and sometimes a good scary book. People are fond of the rush of adrenaline they come in contact with. If their brain processes that there is no real harm, then then they experience the event as enjoyable. I will prove that the quote, " People love scary stories. There's fascination with fear themes, and we want to face those things in a weird subconscious way." by Mel Gibson, is true. In The…

One interpretation of “The Fall of the House of Usher” is that Poe based it on lucid dreaming. A lucid dream is a conscious state of dreaming. You are awake yet you can see and feel your dreams happening. Lucid dreaming is a very difficult thing for a lot of people to achieve. The house itself seemed to have an air that was dark and gloomy that projected on everything on the land. It had decaying trees, a small still pond, and a grey bleak wall. The house had a crack running from the top to the…

Sinning Isn’t Winning The Picture of Dorian Gray: A novel that shows the drastic influence of a sinful person on a youthful, loving individual. Dorian Gray starts out as a young and innocent character, but over time, with the influential push of Lord Henry Wotton, develops an ugly soul with a still-youthful face. Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland on October 16, 1854. He wrote many fairy tales along with other works. Some of these include The Soul of Man, Lady…

Throughout Poe’s stories he relentlessly creates an intriguing atmosphere of fear and horror through the symbolic use of details, an evil narrator, and the proficient ability to draw the reader in to the point where they could fall into the paper. Poe’s readers are drawn into the story on account of his use of the reader’s feelings for the victims and an engaging storyline to vividly paint a portrait of the narrator’s thoughts. Poe’s stories contain numerous bold details that retain the…