Gothic Setting Essay: The Tell Tale Heart |, Exams of Advanced Calculus

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Gothic Setting Essay

Joe Mann

English 2150/DG24B

April 28, 2011

Ms. Towns

Gothic literature has always formed a dark and ominous mood for readers. Gothic literature was designed to excite readers by providing mystery and suspenseful accounts of evil, murder, and the supernatural. In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “Young Goodman Brown,” and “A Rose for Emily,” the respective authors excessively rely on gothic components to develop a gothic setting, but with a miniscule twist. In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the author creates a gothic setting within the main character’s mind. From the opening paragraph we are told that we will soon believe the main character has gone mad, and he begins to tell us his story from his point of view. Instantly, we detect a sense of mystery and suspense, two elements of a gothic story. The main character begins to tell us how he butchered the old man with the “Evil eye (Poe 43).” The character’s mind seems to have the components of a gothic setting; he is schizophrenic, evil, and creepy. Everything that the character begins to depict is being described in a very dark and ominous matter. He calls the bugs on the wall “death watches (Poe 43),” and it makes the story even more disturbing. Also, most of the story takes place in the darkness, and in the midst of the night. The main character says the “room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness (Poe 43).” There is a dark, eerie mood created, and it is full of suspense. He also refers to the hour of his crime as the “dead hour of the night (Poe 44),” which is yet another allusion of death. He refers to hell a few times as well, applying phrases like “the hellish tattoo of the heart (Poe 44)” and “I heard many things in hell (Poe 42).” Once the main character kills the old man the gothic themes of fear take over the story. The main character “dismembered the corpse [and then] cut off the head and the arms and the legs (Poe 45).” He is also scared of himself

the Devil, and attend the midnight meeting in the depths of the forest. This only adds to the gothic setting. There is a slight twist, however, when we find out that Goodman Brown might have been dreaming the entire time. We are not sure if the events of the previous night actually occurred, or if they were simply a bad dream. This leaves us, as well as Goodman Brown, extremely unclear about what had happened. It affected Goodman Brown in such a way that he was never able to resume his normal life after that point in time. Lastly, William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” includes many gothic features. We start the story off with a death. It sets the dark and gloomy mood that lingers around for the rest of the story. The next paragraph comes along and only adds to the gothic trends; it describes Miss Emily’s house, and mentions the cupolas and spires that were decorating the house. These were prevalent in gothic architecture, and this also tells us that we are about to enter a dark story. We can also see how majority of the story takes place in Miss Emily’s gloomy old mansion. It is filled with dust, and the inside barely ever gets to see any sunlight. The first time Miss Emily is described in the story, she is said to have “two small pieces of coal (Faulkner 35)” as her eyes. The coal is black, and symbolizes death. Later in the story Miss Emily is compared to “angels in colored church windows – sort of tragic and serene (Faulkner 37).” Angels are another common aspect of gothic literature. This story takes place mostly at night, or in the dark, just like the other two stories have. This common theme of nighttime, darkness, blackness, and suspense is seen throughout most gothic works. However, the most gothic part of the story is the realization of Homer’s fate, which occurred at the end of the work. We find out that

Homer Barron’s corpse was found in Miss Emily’s house shortly after she had died. This theme of death is one of the most basic elements of gothic works. Throughout the entire story the author mentions the death of Emily’s father, but that doesn't compare to the surprise ending in which Homer’s corpse is found. We realize how Miss Emily was either extremely evil or extremely crazy. The gothic themes in this story are awfully strong, and they help shape the story into the horror story that it is. The gothic elements presented in the three stories are the foundation for which the stories are based on. They are all unusually dark and suspenseful stories, each building their own gratifying finale. The fear, suspense, and mystery presented are usually by way of the main character’s thoughts, and it’s up to the reader to decide whether to believe them or not.