Supernatural Elements In The Romance Of Certain Old Clothes
During this semester while studying American Gothic Literature many new themes were introduced. I became most connected with and interested in the supernatural theme in the texts and found myself looking for it in outside books, movies, television and popular culture. The supernatural is characterized as events considered being of supernatural origins such as ghosts or some force beyond scientific understanding or laws of nature. The occurrence of the supernatural made each story more captivating and enjoyable. The supernatural theme was the most influential and prominent theme that we worked with during this course. While reading The Romance of Certain Old Clothes, I couldn't understand why it was included in the American Gothic Literature unit that I would be studying for the semester. But as I read the story a second time to understand it fully, I realized the story had major themes like betrayal, jealousy, and the supernatural. "Before the chest, on her knees, the young man saw with amazement
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and horror the figure of his wife" (James 120). The quote shows that an outside force of some sort had entered the home and taken back what was rightfully hers. Perdita is assumed to be a ghost and killing Voila is seen as justified because of betrayal in marrying her husband moving into her home and attempt of taking her valuables destined for Perdita's daughter. It seems as though Voila is trying to take over Perdita's old life. It is supernatural because you are not sure what exactly happened, but you can assume Pedrita killed her sister. With the sight of the Perdita's ghost killing her sister, it is obvious that the story would be considered supernatural. After reading this story, I was captured by the supernatural and hoped for more stories like the one I had just read. Like in The Romance of Certain Old Clothes, the story Allal shows uncertainty. It came off as a sad story more than scary or gothic in the beginning because the author describes and talks about how Allal is all alone to raise himself and how he is made fun of in town and made out to be an outcast. He is ridiculed to the point where he feels as though he has to escape the town, so he moves away and actually isolates himself even more. He then steals a snake; I believed he was fascinated and lonely so he took it, as a companion even though he knew it was dangerous. When the snake and Allal switch bodies, it takes on a supernatural role. You can understand that it may come across as gothic once the villagers kill the snake with Allal's spirit inside and seem to take Allal's body with the snake's sense to a hospital of some sort, and plays into the supernatural because you have to imagine that there is no possible return for Allal and that the villagers killed him without knowing it. There is no true understanding to as how a snake and a human can switch bodies or minds which made it a perfect example of a story with a supernatural theme. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a supernatural story where the main character Ichabod Crane is frightened of his own shadow and believes in the supernatural and old tales.
Ichabod is a schoolteacher who thinks all pranks are done by ghosts and goes from house to house telling the housewives these lies and eats their food. As a school, teacher one would think he would be more intelligent and not be the one to spread fear amongst the townspeople. The tendency to overlook the headless horseman as a principal character in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is credited to the accepted and predictable reading of the story in that the headless horseman is not real at all but is in fact Brom Bones in disguise, acting out a favorite local ghost story in order to scare out of town schoolmaster Ichabod, Brom's romantic rival for the hand of Katrina Van Tassel. The story is left in the way that you can decipher what has happened which plays into the supernatural theme being
unexplainable. American gothic literature is an interesting and captivating style of writing, something that makes you wonder about what is going to happen next which plays into the theme of the uncanny. This story portrays the American Gothic well because it includes the unnatural and elements of surprise and horror. I think this a crucial category of literature and should be talked about because it is a large part of history and even things in our present life. It has shaped ideas for TV shows and movies today that we find interesting and captivating, all originated from American Gothic Literature.
and horror the figure of his wife" (James 120). The quote shows that an outside force of some sort had entered the home and taken back what was rightfully hers. Perdita is assumed to be a ghost and killing Voila is seen as justified because of betrayal in marrying her husband moving into her home and attempt of taking her valuables destined for Perdita's daughter. It seems as though Voila is trying to take over Perdita's old life. It is supernatural because you are not sure what exactly happened, but you can assume Pedrita killed her sister. With the sight of the Perdita's ghost killing her sister, it is obvious that the story would be considered supernatural. After reading this story, I was captured by the supernatural and hoped for more stories like the one I had just read. Like in The Romance of Certain Old Clothes, the story Allal shows uncertainty. It came off as a sad story more than scary or gothic in the beginning because the author describes and talks about how Allal is all alone to raise himself and how he is made fun of in town and made out to be an outcast. He is ridiculed to the point where he feels as though he has to escape the town, so he moves away and actually isolates himself even more. He then steals a snake; I believed he was fascinated and lonely so he took it, as a companion even though he knew it was dangerous. When the snake and Allal switch bodies, it takes on a supernatural role. You can understand that it may come across as gothic once the villagers kill the snake with Allal's spirit inside and seem to take Allal's body with the snake's sense to a hospital of some sort, and plays into the supernatural because you have to imagine that there is no possible return for Allal and that the villagers killed him without knowing it. There is no true understanding to as how a snake and a human can switch bodies or minds which made it a perfect example of a story with a supernatural theme. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a supernatural story where the main character Ichabod Crane is frightened of his own shadow and believes in the supernatural and old tales.
Ichabod is a schoolteacher who thinks all pranks are done by ghosts and goes from house to house telling the housewives these lies and eats their food. As a school, teacher one would think he would be more intelligent and not be the one to spread fear amongst the townspeople. The tendency to overlook the headless horseman as a principal character in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is credited to the accepted and predictable reading of the story in that the headless horseman is not real at all but is in fact Brom Bones in disguise, acting out a favorite local ghost story in order to scare out of town schoolmaster Ichabod, Brom's romantic rival for the hand of Katrina Van Tassel. The story is left in the way that you can decipher what has happened which plays into the supernatural theme being
unexplainable. American gothic literature is an interesting and captivating style of writing, something that makes you wonder about what is going to happen next which plays into the theme of the uncanny. This story portrays the American Gothic well because it includes the unnatural and elements of surprise and horror. I think this a crucial category of literature and should be talked about because it is a large part of history and even things in our present life. It has shaped ideas for TV shows and movies today that we find interesting and captivating, all originated from American Gothic Literature.