Gothic Romanticism: Hawthorne, Poe and Baudelaire

In "The Fall of the House of Usher" many believe that Usher's weakness and nervousness is due to the fact that Madeline Usher is a vampire. Although I don't agree with this, I can see where they get this idea. In the beginning of the story the narrator states, " I learned that the glimpse I had obtained of her person would thus probably be the last I should obtain—that the lady, at least while living, would be seen by me no more." (Poe 7). This suggests that the Lady Madeline doesn't like to be seen by other people so she shuts herself away from all people, including her brother, much like a vampire would do. At the end of the story Madeline comes back to life and starts to come after her brother, Usher. The narrator explains that Madeline, "fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse" (Poe 13). Because the author does not say that there is a weapon being used, we can assume that she must have killed her brother on her own, and some people believe that she did this by sucking all his blood that he had left. Another reason people believe that Madeline was a vampire is because the narrator says, "The
radiance was that of the full, setting, and blood-red moon which now shone vividly through that once
barely-discernible fissure" (Poe 13). According to the lore, the blood-red moon is a time for vampires to feed on their victims. Madeline chose that specific day to attack her brother and kill him, so many people say she is a vampire for doing so.

Gothic fiction writers often indirectly criticize human nature. They do this by showing how people react to certain predicaments through their characters. Edgar Allen Poe often has his characters react by killing people or animals. Nathaniel Hawthorne often has his characters go crazy after they experience certain situations. Each of these Gothic fiction writers express that humans all have a dark side to their personalities. They criticize how humans react when put under pressure. In Poe's story "Black Cat" his main character gets angry with his cat and ends up killing his wife. Although the character wasn't mad at the wife he still ended up killing her, that's just how he reacted when he was put into that situation. In Hawthorne's story "Young Goodman Brown" his main character started to go crazy because he thought that the people in his town were making deals with the devil. Although "Young Goodman Brown" isn't really a Gothic fiction story, Hawthorne still shows that our human nature is flawed because of the way we react under pressure.

Southern Gothic Romanticism

Southern Gothic Romanticism is a sub-genre of Gothic writing. It includes unusual, supernatural, or ironic events that add to the plot. It is "southern" because the plot focuses on the American South. In "The Life You Save May Be Your Own"the first line of the story states, "The old woman and her daughter were sitting on their porch when Mr. Shiftlet came up their road for the first time. The old woman slid to the edge of her chair and leaned forward, shading her eyes from the piercing sunset with her hand."(O'Connor). This shows the traits of Southern Gothic Romanticism because it talks about them sitting in rocking chairs on the front porch, which is most commonly associated with the south. In "A Rose For Emily" the author says, "And now Miss Emily had gone to join the representatives of those august names where they lay in the cedar-bemused cemetery among the ranked and anonymous graves of Union and Confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson." (Faulkner 1). This shows Southern Gothic Romanticism because The Battle of Jefferson that it talks about took place in Columbia, Missouri during the Civil War. It is Gothic because it says that she was going to be buried in this cemetery when she died. Both of these stories compare to Romanticism because they each use a lot of emotion in their stories. In "A Rose For Emily" the author expresses how the town felt sorrowful for Miss Emily by saying," At last they could pity Miss Emily." (Faulkner 4). This shows that the whole town wanted to pity her before but now that her father had died they could actually show their emotion on the outside. These stories show Gothic Romanticism because in both stories there is something dark of awful that happens. In "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" it says, "'Give it to her when she wakes up," Mr. Shiftlet said. "I'll pay for it now.'...'Hitch‑hiker," Mr. Shiftlet explained. "I can't wait. I got to make Tuscaloosa.'"(O'Connor). Mr. Shftlet just leaves Lucynell in the diner, he doesn't care about how she is doing to feel when she wakes up, he just wants to get rid of her. But then, after he leaves he starts to feel guilty for what he did and he asks God to "'Break forth and wash the slime from this earth!'"(O'Connor). 

In "A Rose For Emily", Emily's crime goes undetected until she dies because everyone in the town feels sorrow for her. When Emily's house starts to smell the the officer says, "'I'd be the last one in the world to bother Miss Emily, but we've got to do something.'"(Faulkner 3). The officer did not want to bother Miss Emily because he knew that he could upset her and he didn't want to do that because she had already been through enough in her life. Another reason why the town felt sorrow for her was because of how she reacted when her father died. "We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that."(Faulkner 4). Miss Emily resorted to denial after her father died. She kept saying that her father wasn't dead. But when the town was about to get the law involved Miss Emily finally let them take her father. But even though the town wanted to say that she was crazy they came up with excuses just because they felt sorry for her. "Later we said "Poor Emily" behind the jalousies as they passed on Sunday afternoon in the glittering buggy,"(Faulkner 5). The town always resulted to saying "Poor Emily" when they felt sorry for her, which was quite often. This is just one more example of the town feeling sorry for Miss Emily, which is why her crime went undetected until after her death.

In "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" the hitchhiker ties together the whole story because it begins to show how Mr. Shiftlet really feels about his life. He says, "'Break forth and wash the slime from this earth!'"(O'Connor). He shows that he feels sorry for what he has done and wants God to wash him from this earth. Mr. Shiftlet believes that he is the slime of the earth because of what he has done to Lucynell, her mother, and the hitchhiker. His sorrow is also represented through the colors shown in the story. The gray storm clouds and the gray hat of the hitchhiker, representing sorrow and depression. 

Socratic Questions

• Close-Ended Question: Where did the author find the cat after he killed his wife?
• Open-Ended Question: Why did the author kill his first cat?
• World Connection Question:  How do people in today's society react differently when presented with anger and hatred?
• Universal Theme/Core Question:Why is is necessary for some people to take their anger out on other people that they are not mad with?
• Literary Analysis Question: Why does the author put another cat into the story?

    In "The Black Cat" the author finds the cat in the walls of the cellar where he buried his wife. "Upon its head, with red extended mouth and solitary eye of fire, sat the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder, and whose informing voice had consigned me to the hangman. I had walled the monster up within the tomb."(Poe 14).

 The author had killed his first cat in the story because he became a drunkard and basically went crazy. The author became sick of the cat constantly being around him and following him everywhere he went. The author decided to kill the cat just for the sake of killing it, because he knew it was wrong but wanted to do it anyways. "hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and because I felt it had given me no reason of offence;—hung it because I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin." (Poe 6).

 In "The Black Cat", when presented with anger and hatred the author reacts with violence and cruelty. First he kills his cat and then he kills his wife, all because he hated his cats. In today's society we may not react so extremely, but we still react with violence and cruelty. It may just be by getting in a fight of yelling at someone, but we still have the same type of reactions.

  In this story the author takes out his anger on his wife instead of on the cat. Although, he wasn't mad at his wife at all, he was just mad at the cat."Goaded by the interference into a rage more than demoniacal, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain" (Poe 11). Although the author was not mad at the wife at all, he still ended up killing her just because she interfered with him killing the cat. People who are in a rage don't really think clearly about what they are doing. They act first then think later.

In "The Black Cat" the author puts the second cat into the story to give the speaker another chance to atone for the sins he committed with the first cat. Although the speaker doesn't end up atoning for the sins he committed, he is still given the chance to do so.

Romanticism

Legends Of Sleepy Hollow 
The story of Sleep Hollow captures our imagination by allowing us to use our own ideas to end the story.  At the end of "Legends Of Sleepy Hollow" the author leaves out what actually happened to Ichabod Crane after he encounters the Headless Horseman. The author does put in the thoughts and ideas of the community but he never actually states the true events of what happened to Ichabod. The author wants your imagination to run free. He wants you to decide what actually happened to Ichabod Crane. "The mysterious event caused much speculation at the church on the following Sunday."(Irving 13). This quote makes you think that there are many ideas about what truly happened to Ichabod Crane.





Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
The song "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is about escaping the physical conditions of slavery because is says, "But still I know I'm heavenly bound." The song takes the slaves' mind off of slavery and it makes them think about their Heavenly home. The song makes them stop thinking about how horrible their life is now and makes them think about how wonderful their life will be once they get to their true home. This song is reflective of it's time period because back then, just about everyone was religious; especially the slaves. But in today's society not as many people are religious, even if you live in the Bible Belt. But, this song is applicable to today's society because it still shows that no matter what you are going through there is always a bright side to your situation and there is always someone who has it worse than you.