The Jury of Her Peers & The Yellow Wallpaper

The Jury of Her Peers

The role of the woman in this story is one of not much power. At the beginning Mrs. Martha Hale is dragged out of her own kitched by her husband, Lewis Hale. Irony is a major theme in this story. Even though the men constanstly mock and belittle them, the woman unravel the true story of what happened. That is the key gothic element that I felt shaped this entire story.

The Yellow Wallpaper

Imprisonment is symbolized as a gothic element in this story and is shown through many parts of the story. The bars of the nursery windows serves as one of the main examples and gives the narrator a sense of imprisonment. Personification is also a key element with the Yellow Wallpaper that seem to come alive! Overall this was a GREAT short story and kept me attentive the entire time while reading it.

A Good Man is Hard to Find & Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been

A Good Man Is Hard To Find

Man gothic elements are portrayed in this short story and most of them come from the Grandmother. The main one I believe is forshadowing. Death is forshadowed many times, and the most important, in my point of view, is where the car that the killers drive is viewed as "Hurse-like." The Grandmother of this story is very self-centered and doesn't truely show the good in her until a gun is pointed in her face.That in itself shaped the entire statement that O'conner was trying to make

Where Are Young Going, Where Have You Been

Connie sets herself up in this story, in my opinion. It is really disturbing that she is so helpless when Arnold Friend is threatening her. She has always been a flirt and is finnally came back to bite her in the butt when the worse case scenerio actually became reality. The power that Arnold has is unmatchable in this short story due to the fact that Connie is powerless with noone to come to her rescue. Overall I felt Oates did a great job of the creating the horror and terror in this film because there are very few feelings that are as horrific of the one that Connie must have undergone.

Old Gardiston & A Rose For Emily

Old Gardiston

The South vs the North is definitely pointed out in this short story. The big house was a definite gothic element that I felt really was mentioned alot. Stubbornness was a trait that Miss Duke presented in this story with her decline of the love two men in the story held out to her. This is where the South vs North comes into play. She turned them down because they were Northerners. This was what really connected with me. I can see how the traditions from the South are much different from the North. In all honesty, there was a girl that really liked me that was from the North, and I didn't like her because alot of the traditions and manners she possessed because they were much different from mine.

A Rose For Emily

Emily was an old stubborn woman who also believed in the traditions from the south, including the tax agreement her father had left her with that evidently expired. Judge Stevens is the judge that also believed in southern traditions and to not embarrass Emily about the smell her house possessed. This was a key gothic element in itsself with the house's atmosphere, disgusting smell, and eerie environment. Most of Emily's life reflects the Old South and I believe what really stuck out to me was that it seemed that all of her father's achievements and the way he raised her really shaped her Character. Overall it was easy to point out that this was a true Southern Gothic story.

The Sheriff's Children, Jean-ah-Poquelin & The Goophered Grapevine

The Sheriff's Children

"The Sheriff's Children" was a very emotional story. Whenever a family relationship is involved in the decision making process it is always hard to make choices that go against your family, especially when it deals with your job. I felt that the young black boy in the story symbolized race and independence. The fact that he didn't feel he belonged in his body, and with his face really impacted the reader's emotion, because to be honest, I felt bad for him. The father had abandoned him and he basically came back to rub it in his face that he survived. He was never grown up with the opportunities that he would've if his own father wouldn't have abandoned him. It was very hard to find gothic elements in this film. Most of the elements of this short story were originated from southern goth in my opinion

Jean-ah-Poquelin

Jean-ah-Poquelin was a great short story about an old French man that ended up getting stories told about him and his haunted house that was very spooky and gave off a very gothic atmosphere with its gloomy swamp and decaying look. I felt that in the end it is hard to tell how long he had been dead and where the "ghost" was originated. Many gothic elements were portayed in this story and were easy to spot. The old house was the easiest with everything it possessed.

The Goophered Grapevine

This short story was confusing and made my mind wander in different directions. Henry was one of the main characters and brought slavery into play which was an issue during this time period. The setting of this story was a great portrayal of Southern Gothic. Poverty, slavery, grotesque, and voodooism were all examples of elements of gothic. Overall, the story was a bit dull, but I believe the color of this story was distributed evenly throughout.

Ligeia

Edgar Allen Poe does a great job of combining the gothic grotesque with a love story in this short story. Many parts of this story were similar to Poe's short story, "The Fall of the House of Usher." The rise of the dead and the existence of a mysterious illness were both key parts of each short story. Personification was frequently used with the description of Lady Ligeia's "black eyes and their brilliancy," and Rowena's "fear that the gold tapestries were alive."  The description of Lady Ligeia's beauty was so in depth and precise that it was hard to imagine an existing flaw that she might carry.  Health seemed to be a reoccurring issue in this short story, considering the mysterious illness that arose in each of the narrator's two wives. What I felt really spoke to me in this story was the difference in the love that the narrator had for each of his wives. Lady Ligeia obviously stole the narrator's heart causing him to continuously think and dream about memories of them. The love that the narrator had for his second wife was much different. The passion was not there. The love and emotion in the second marriage was obviously not mutually consistent. In the end it was Lady Ligeia who overtook Rowena's corpse and was found standing in the bridal chamber. In my opinion, the narrator and his addiction to opium had a great affect on the outcome. I personally believe that the narrator longed for the presence of Lady Ligeia so much that it was only an imagined sight of her standing in the bridal chamber, nothing more.

Behind A Mask & The Fall of the House of Usher

Behind A MaskIt came to my attention that Louisa May Alcott was, in my opinion, trying to make a statement with her book "Behind A Mask." Jean Muir was a rebellious governess that was on a quest for comfort, or what I would call security, in the male dominated world that she was living in. She was deceiving at times making others believe she was nothing but an innocent nineteen year old girl with no family, and was from Scotch decent. We soon found out that those were all lies. I believe that her actions created an important irony between her and the other characters because there is most definitely a difference between what seems to be true and what is true in Jean's identity. It may even be situational irony in some sense, due to the fact that    her actions symbolize a paradigm shift in the role expectations of a female of her age and status. At first, I didn't want to pick this book up because of how thick it is, but after reading it, my opinion has changed.

The Fall of the House of Usher

Edgar Allen Poe starts this short story out with a very gloomy mood with his description of the decaying trees and swamp-like ponds surrounding an old house in which the narrator, who remains unnamed, is approaching. The old house belonged to Roderick Usher, who later dies of fear when his twin sister comes back from the dead to attack her twin brother. Many gothic elements were, of course, easily identifiable. The dreary landscape, the house's evil atmosphere, and the fact that the house was obviously haunted were all easy for me to identify as gothic elements in this short story. What I felt really caught my attention and spoke to me was that the house, to me, seemed alive. It's evil essense and the many gothic elements that filled its description sparked the fear of both the reader and the characters within the story. At the end of the story the house crumbles when the narrator escapes, and it was almost as if it was waiting to fall at that very second for a reason. In my opinion, Roderick and his twin sister were the same person. They live together and they die together. Madeline made sure that Roderick would suffer the same pain that she did. In theory, I believe that the house represented madeline. If she was going down, her twin brother would go down with her. The house took them both down together as a result.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow & Young Goodman Brown

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Washington Irving did a fantastic job with this story and his display of the many literary elements. Ichabod Crane was a money hungry, food loving, self centered individual who created the situational irony in the story with his plan to win the affections of Katrina Van Tassel, and get all of her family's fortune, land, and food. This portrayed an action that was completely unexpected, due to the fact that he was the school teacher and Katrina was his student. Irving used a number of metaphors and similies to give the story its design. My favorite part of the entire story was how Ichabod was tricked by his own self in his master plan of winning Katrina which also symbolized situational irony. Ichabod thought he was in the clear and was closing in on his attempt to win Katrina but finds out that she was only using him to make Brom Bones jealous. Overall I felt that this story was very interesting and was a great example of true Gothic Literature.

Young Goodman Brown

Hawthorne has pointed out what he sees to be problematic in society and public morality in "Young Goodman Brown." In my own point of view, I felt that Goodman Brown was very indecisive with his heart and what he believed in. Faith in this story represented the good in Goodman Brown's wife trying to keep him from leaving. Her pink ribbons were an important symbol in this story that respresented the good and innocence in life, in my opinion. They could also respresent the reminder of a higher power considering Goodman Brown saw a pink ribbon floating down from the heavens. What I found to be the most interesting part of the story was when Goodman Brown decided to go into the forest and meet with the Devil himself. I found it interesting because he seemed to be of innocent nature and wouldn't ordinarilly do something like this. This is situational irony in my opinion, considering this is an event that is unexpected. I'm convinced that it the fall of the ones closest to him had an impact on this. Overall I think Hawthorne did a great job of this story, and the plot that was laid out.