Dr. Heidegger's Experiment Gothic Elements

Gothic literature was first introduced in the United States in the nineteenth century. During this time there was a war and people had quite a hectic life. The gothic elements of death, psychological issues, and fascination with the past are present in the novel Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs and in the short stories “Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, and “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
In the novel Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and in the short story “Black Cat” death is a gothic element which is used in both stories. In “Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator kills his wife. He hit his wife with an axe and “she fell dead upon the spot,
without a groan”(Poe 4). In Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, the grandfather of the narrator dies when he was talking to him with his last breaths “then he seemed to disappear into himself, his gaze drifting me to the sky, bristling now with the stars”(Riggs 37). These two stories relate because not only is there a person that dies in both stories, in both stories the person that dies is a family member of the narrator. Even though the way they died was completely different from each other, they are similar because in both stories there is a person that dies and that is related to the narrator. The writer Edgar Allan Poe explored the human capacity for evil in his stories which this one is an example of. He wrote this story in 1843 which was around the time that the Industrial Revolution ended.
In the novel Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and in the short story “A Rose for Emily” both stories have the gothic element of psychological issues in them. In “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, Emily sleeps next to the dead body of her father and her boyfriend which are dead and “The man himself lay in the bed”(Faulkner 1074). Which shows that she put their dead bodies in the bed and she was sleeping next to those dead bodies. In In the novel Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, the narrator thinks that his grandpa’s stories were true and says that “It was grandpa Portman’s stories that had planted the creature in my mind”(Riggs 43). He has to go to go to Dr. Golan which is a doctor which is helping the narrator with his issues. These two stories relate because both the narrators have psychological issues with family members. One is unable to let go of her father’s death and her boyfriend. While the other has acute stress reactions and nightmares because of the stories that his grandfather has told him.
In the novel Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and in the short story “Dr.
Heidegger’s Experiment” both stories use the gothic element fascination with the past. In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” by Nathaniel Hawthorne the Dr. Heidegger has a drink from the mythical Fountain of Youth which can make older people young for a moment. The people loved being young again, “We are young! They cried”(Hawthorne 3). In Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs the narrator goes to the old home for peculiar children and sees the people that were there in 1940 around the time his grandfather was there. It was very unique to be able to meet the people that were there many years ago, also the headmistress of the home “This was Miss Peregrine”(Riggs 146). There are several similarities in the two stories because in “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” the people are able to feel and look young again while in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children the narrator is able to talk to the people that were at the home for peculiar children years ago. There is a difference in the way that they were in the past because one was able to change to the way that they looked years ago, when the other was able to talk to people that were at the home for peculiar children years ago when they looked the same way as they did at that time as well. The writer Nathaniel Hawthorne writes about the elements of fantasy in his stories which “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” is an example
of. In the nineteenth century people had a hectic life and used gothic literature to write about the human capacity for evil and elements of fantasy.