Gothic Elements In Gothic Stories

Gothicism is a genre of fiction that has been developed over its long history, beginning around 1764 by Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, whose story contained almost every element of what is viewed today as a Gothic Tale. Most stories that are classified under the subgenre of gothic fiction involve many elements that create a sense of suspense or mystery, with features that develop a dark feeling or unsettling atmosphere and sometimes even overwrought emotion. Through the analysis of short stories written by Gothic authors such as, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and “Young Goodman Brown,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, you can see the traits of gothic tales
There is often a tyrannical or influential male that overpowers a woman, setting up a story for the helpless damsel in distress. In the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Are You Now?” Oates composes Arnold Fiend, the middle-aged stalker who is making unwanted advances on Connie, the 15 year old, main character. Arnold Fiend makes heinous remarks such as, “I’ll hold you so tight you won’t think you have to try to get away or pretend because you’ll know you can’t,” (Oates 210) and invokes terror in the reader through the fright that is illustrated as Connie’s “noisy sorrowful wailing rose all about her.” (Oates 212) While in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator’s husband, John may not be distinctly grotesque, he still creates an undeniable control over his wife, where she wanders to and what she does. The narrator writes in her forbidden diary, “The fact is, I am getting a little afraid of John.” (Gilman
This is seen in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” when the narrator is following the pattern of the wallpaper and “they suddenly commit suicide- plunge off at outrageous angles, destroying themselves in unheard-of contradictions.” (Gilman 364) With this statement, early on in the story, Gilman foreshadows the mental prison the room will eventually put the narrator in. As the story progresses, the darkness of the woman’s mental illness and the darkness of the night align, “worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern and the woman behind it are as plain as can be.” (Gilman 369) Giving life to an object is also seen in “Young Goodman Brown,” when the elderly traveler’s staff “might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent.” (Hawthorn 451) The serpent staff and its use by the characters in the story create a biblical representation of the demonic background of the snake and the devil, which the elderly traveler