Motifs And Conventions In Gothic Literature

ENG1002
17 March 2014
Research Paper: Gothic literature is always heartless.

All gothic stories evoke us a gloomy feeling: the authors- such as Mary Shelley in Frankenstein or William Faulkner in “A Rose for Emily”- are installing a strange and curious atmosphere that makes us feel uncomfortable. All gothic authors used a particular type of settings that makes us feel in the story and so in the narrator’s emotions. Another point that makes the Gothic literature so different from the other literary styles is the problem of isolation that appears in all stories and the importance of an anti-hero’s presence that is downgraded by the world. Indeed, through all these settings and manning points that are discussed in all those stories, a dark,
In this paper we shall argue that those main settings are the most important points in Gothic literature. The basic purpose of this paper is to show that gothic literature has specific rules in order for the reader to be in this typical type of atmosphere. We intend to demonstrate that through the themes of isolation, the sorrowful atmosphere and the egocentric characters – there are the entire element to create a heartless story.
To demonstrate that gothic literature is always heartless in every story, this paper will discuss three main arguments: First of all, this paper will describe and develop the gothic motifs and conventions. Secondly, it will analyze the importance of isolation that leads to insanity in most of gothic stories. Finally, we will show that gothic literature draws an ironical image of romantics’
In fact, the thing that disturbs our narrator is the fact that the painting looks real and the long descriptions of the painting was not made randomly by our author. Poe did this huge description to transcend mortality and immortality; he gave the painter’s wife a second life through the painting. Reading this make us feel fear which is the second Gothic motif: the presence of the sense of fear in the stories. Indeed, in Frankenstein, the Doctor felt anxiety seeing the result of his creation. He ran away from his creature: “I escaped, and rushed down stairs.” (Shelley 1) and is so frightened by the monster that he does not want to face him: “I dreaded to behold this monster” (Shelley 3). Moreover, the link between fear and the creature is that Victor Frankenstein should have thought of this problem and finally it brings up the next Gothic motif: the Faust motif meaning the forbidden knowledge that Victor Frankenstein faced. He decided to create from a dead body a human and this can be taken as the forbidden experiment. Indeed, it is impossible to create something from a dead body and it is very disturbing to think that Victor did it – he played with