Transcript American Gothic The Dark Side of Individualism

American Gothic
The Dark Side of
Individualism
Gothic Literature
Characteristics:
• Grotesque characters
• Bizarre situations
• Violent events
“The door opened, and a figure
glided in. The portmanteau
dropped from my arms, and my
heart’s blood was chilled. If
an apparition of the dead
could not deny, this was such
an apparition. A hue, yellowish
and livid; bones, uncovered
with flesh: eyes, ghastly,
hollow, woe-begone, and fixed
in an agony of wonder upon
me; and locks, matted and
negligent, constituted the
image which I now beheld.”
“The death. . . Of a
beautiful woman is,
unquestionably, the
most poetical topic in
the world-and equally
is it beyond doubt that
the lips best suited for
such topic are those of
a bereaved lover.”
“The oldest and
strongest emotion of
mankind is fear, and the
oldest and strongest
kind of fear is fear of
the unknown.”
Gothic literature
• Begin in 1765 with The
Castle of Otranto
• Most beloved
characters include
Frankenstein and
Dracula
• Currently, most wellknow author is Anne
Rice
What inspired
Gothic Literature
• Cathedrals and
gargoyles
• Romantic movement in
literature
–developed as a reaction
to the age of reason
–let imagination wander to
the dark side
Romantics vs. Gothic
• See hope
in
individuals
• Beauties of
nature
• See potential
evil in
individuals
• Darkness of
the
supernatural
Master of GothicEdgar Allen Poe
Elements of Gothic Poe uses:
• Dark, medieval castles or decaying
estates
• Insane male narrators
• Dead or dying beautiful female
characters
• Extreme plots (murder, live burial,
physical and mental torture, retribution
from beyond the grave)
Poe believed that only in extreme situations
would people show their true nature
Poe’s literary
contributions
• Poetry
–should be musical, expressive
of beauty and composed
logically
–felt they were his greatest
work
• Short Story
–First to insist that the story
create a single effect
• Detective story
–Invented it
Hawthorne
• Hawthorne used gothic
elements, like Poe, to express
what he felt were important
truths.
• Unlike Poe’s look at the mind,
he looked at the human heart
under condition of
– fear
– greed
– vanity
– mistrust
– betrayal
Gothic’s end and
rebirth
• Popularity with Gothic
literature ended with
the Civil War.
• Realism begin (like
Crane and Bierce)
• Reborn in the 20th
century
Poe to Faulkner
• Crumbling
medieval
castle
• Ghostly
figures
• Southern
plantation
• Ghost of
the past
Hawthorne to O’Connor
• Human
heart and
potential
for evil
• Crumbling
person
• Human heart
and
potential
for evil
• Crumbling
morals
• Ghosts
and
goblins
• Criminal,
con men and
fools
Where is Gothic
today?
Characteristics: • Name it in:
– Anne Rice
• Grotesque
– Stephen
characters
King
• Bizarre
situations
• Violent events