Gothic Horror, Week of Aug 21



“… the Gothic was conceived have revealed a host of ironies regarding its frequent condemnation from the pulpit.” (Frank)
The cursing of gothic styles and themes by the churches and it’s followers is confusing to me. The gothic shows the moral in between and the punishment of people who stray into the realms of evil. Making a character this way, often in first person, requires a draw from the immoral. A seduction and lure by the devil himself.
The Bible has shown the devil and demon this way too. I think that the gothic style may be extreme catholic in this way. The protagonist dipping into evil and being engulfed by it.
Edgar Allen Poe is a master of the gothic short story. Everyone knows the moral ground of The Tale-Tell Heart (Poe). A little known story is his The Black Cat. In The Black Cat, a man who murders in driven mad by a black cat who follows him. It may be understandable that the cat is not but, the cat ends up making him confess (Poe).
A gothic story without the traditional setting is The Pearl by John Steinbeck (I don’t like The Pearl). It is about a poor man who falls into greed through a pearl. Greed being a sin and the pearl representing his seduction into a sinful life. His pure hearted wife and innocent son are affected by his greed as well. The Pearl is a gothic story that is not set as one. Catholics like the way The Pearl handles entrantment of sin (Steinbeck). Without it’s eery looks maybe gothic stories are the embodiment of morals pleading.This is the heart of gothic more so then it’s skin.

Cited Works

Frank, Frederick S., Gothic Writers: A Critical and Bibliographical Guide, Greenwood Publishing Group,Incorporated, 2001.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Tell-Tale Heart. Penguin Classics, 2015.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Black Cat. Penguin Classics, 2015.

Steinbeck, John. The Pearl. Penguin Books, 2017.

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