The Yellow Wallpaper, A Jury of Her Peers, and Fight Club

I find it ironic that in both “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “A Jury of Her Peers” the main character sees themself through something else.  The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” begins to identify herself with the woman in the wallpaper.  In “A Jury of Her Peers,” Minnie Foster sees herself as a canary. Both of these stories are very symbolic. I didn’t really enjoy either of these and I didn’t like that these stories both themed around crazy women because it portrays women poorly. Although the idea of women’s rights hadn’t really been established yet so, I guess it makes sense for the writers to see things this way.

In the movie, Fight Club, the narrator begins to identify with the mysterious Tyler Durden. The narrator meets Tyler on a plan flight and soon after, his perfect little world starts falling apart. He had been going to support groups to help him sleep because they helped him to find his happy place but when he gets back (after meeting Tyler) this lady named Marla Singer starts attending ALL of his meetings. Once she starts appearing, he can’t go to his happy place because he knows that she knows that he is a phony. This movie is dark and keeps up the grotesque as Fight Club keeps the fights pretty gruesome. I found it hard to watch some of the fight scenes just because some of the guys would get beaten so badly.

A Streetcar Named Desire, A Goodman, and Where Have You Been

In the Film, A Streetcar Named Desire, our leading lady, Blanche, is nothing short of crazy. This seems to follow with a theme I’ve noticed in Southern Gothic literature. There are almost no ghosts but the stories seem to revolve around people who are not completely all there, mentally that is. Blanche attempts to pass herself off as a frail woman of upper class but we eventually find out, this is all a façade as she is single and has lost her family’s estate. To society at this time, that is a failure.

In “A Goodman is Hard to Find,” the grandmother uses her perfect Christianity to try and stop a murderer from killing her family. But in the end, she realizes that she is not that much different from the murderer himself and attempts to form a connection with him. She uses a metaphor to describe the murderer (The Misfit) as her son and to further this connection, the murderer puts on her son’s shirt in the end after killing them all.

In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” adventurous Connie finds herself in a heap of trouble as a man named Arnold Friend shows up at her house to take her away.  He threatens to murder her family if she doesn’t agree to come along. She resists at first but eventually finds herself giving in because she has no way out.

I didn’t care for A Streetcar Named Desire but, I really liked “A Goodman is Hard to Find,” and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been.”  To be honest, crazy Blanche just got on my last nerve. The other two stories were so much more interesting and I really liked that there was a sense of danger.

From Faulkner to Woolson

Since I have read some of Faulkner before, I was actually a bit more interested in reading “A Rose for Emily.” It was no surprise that this novel was themed around death as most of his work is dark and as usual, the story wasn’t told through the eyes of Emily, but through the eyes of the town. I think he does this to create more suspense. If I would have known what Emily was thinking the whole time, I wouldn’t have wondered if maybe the town people has suspected right all along.

As for “Old Gardiston,” I found this one a little less interesting. It was set during the civil war and embodied some of the conflict between the north and the south. Although, we were given a glimmer of hope at the end when Gardis marries Captain Newell because this is a picture of the joining of the north and south.

Both of these stories had political elements because they were based around conflicts of the time: old south vs. new south and north vs. the south. Keeping with the Southern Gothic theme, there was of course an aspect of grotesque in these stories, especially in “A Rose for Emily,” when we find that she was keeping the corpse of her dead lover in the house.

Chesnutt and Cable

Southern gothic… where do I start?

Although I like these stories a lot, it is extremely difficult to read some of them when you have to sound out each sentence. The story could be just as effective if it was written in clean English. The hardest one to read was “The Goopherded Grapevine.” When Julius was speaking, the sentences were mostly just vowels and random consonants (maybe that’s a little bit dramatic but nonetheless, still hard to read). I enjoyed the story and liked how Henry’s hair was compared to a grapevine, it was vivid at least. The thing I noticed about all of the readings for this week was that they sort of reminded me of old folktales.

“The Sherrif’s Children,” was interesting but I thought it was a little bit long and drawn out. It has been the one story that we read though, where the main character actually kills himself. “Jean-ah Poquelin” was about the same. Both stories showed a lot of dialogue that I didn’t think was all that necessary. Although, the big twist at the end of “Jean-ah Poquelin” where his brother turns out to be a leper and not a ghost was not really what I expected.

All three stories had elements of mystery or legend of a curse. There was a little bit of suspense and all had issues of race intertwined.

Behind a Mask

In “Behind a Mask” our key character, Jean Muir puts on quite the show.  She creates this persona for herself as a governess and loftily charms everyone. As the story unfolds, you find out that she is really an actress pretending to be a governess because she wants to have a better life and get away from being an actress. In the end she gets exactly what she wants but along the way, she unmasks Gerald. Even though they discover each other’s true identity, they agree to continue to keep the charade up to protect their reputations.

I found this story difficult to analyze for gothic elements because its gothic nature is more subtle. The element of suspense is there when trying to figure out who Jean Muir is and there is a slight sense of horror at the end of chapter one when she takes off her hair and teeth.

I also thought it was difficult to like Jean. I really don’t like manipulative people and she is a pro. I can respect that she at least made Gerald a better man but I really don’t like the way she went about doing so. I found myself feeling bad for Lucia.

As much as I hate the nature of manipulation, I feel like this story could be a metaphor for society. Politicians ultimately are not effective unless they are manipulative.  So, just like them, Jean would not have been able to get what she wanted as the mere actress that she was.

The Fall of a Legend

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” was so fun to read. It was timed perfectly with the season as well, with it being close to Halloween and all. When I was a kid, I used to watch the cartoon version of this all time and I loved it. This story never gets old. Brom Bones is your classic Byronic character. He is suave and brawny. He has muscles and is impressive physically, but he is also a jerk and you kind of love/hate him all at the same time. Ichabod Crane is the nerdy character you pity to the point of love. You want him to be able to marry the girl of his dreams but if he did, there wouldn’t be much of a storyline.

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is a perfect example of the gothic novel. It takes place in a swampy, forested, secluded space. There is the element of mystery with the legend of the Headless Horseman. There isn’t a castle but there is a large farmhouse which is compared to a castle. You have the Byronic hero who wins the girl and the element of horror when Ichabod disappears in the end.

 “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a whole other monster to describe. The doppelganger is the house, itself which is given human traits. It’s reflection is different from its actual appearance and in the end, its crumbling is the actually fall of the House of Usher. This is interesting, because it is not Poe’s typical writing style.

The main character is a hypochondriac who believes he is ill. He buries his sister alive and thinks the house is surrounded by a green fog that is going to kill all of its inhabitants. Essentially, as compared to “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” it is also very gothic in nature. There is the sense of mystery, the doppelganger, the curse passed down through generations, and the sense of fear.

Overall, these are two of the better novels we had read and I appreciated that I was able to understand the writing better than I could in “Castle of Otranto” or “Romance of the Forest.”

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde vs. The Mortal Immortal

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is set in the non-traditional setting of London streets, instead of your usual gothic favorite of swamps or forests. There are no castles or abandoned abbeys. Although, I found myself getting very bored with the slow progression of this novel, I found it intriguing that Mr. Stevenson decided to take a new spin on “gothic” and create his own terms of gothic-ness.

I liked that the essential “monster” quality of the tale, is  the mystery behind Mr. Hyde himself. There is no ghost or helmet flying through the air. The mystery and gossip behind Mr. Hyde is what gives him all of his grotesque characteristics. You want to be disgusted with him but you are drawn in because you need to know more.

I feel like it is the same sort of thing with “The Mortal Immortal.” The story’s monstrous quality stems from something that the character does to himself. In both stories, the main character creates the mystery and suspense and the grotesque by making himself something that the reader despises.  In “The Mortal Immortal,” you feel so bad for him and his wife, that you actually wish him to be dead too, just so that he could have his happy ending. In “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” you love Dr. Jekyll so much that you want to stop Hyde from benefitting from anything until you realize the he is actually Dr. Jekyll himself.

There are gothic qualities to both of these tales but the qualities were not quite as obvious in “The Mortal Immortal” as they have been in past novels. Both stories were alright, but I didn’t particularly enjoy either one of them. Northanger Abbey was way better.

Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey is brilliant. Jane Austen did a wonderful job in creating a novel where the character’s naiveté is what makes the gothic tendencies occur. As a the young seventeen year old Catherine is introduced into the well-to-do society of Bath, she is also pushed into the social and gossip scene as she makes instant friends with Isabella Thorpe.

One of the major scenes in the book that helps to carry this as a gothic novel occurs when Catherine horribly embarrasses herself in front of Henry. When Catherine mischievously goes snooping around in Mrs. Tilney’s room she is disappointed to find that nothing unusual is there. Even worse is that she is caught red handed by her love interest Henry (surprisingly not Theodore) and now he knows that she thought his father (General Tilney) killed his mother (Mrs. Tilney) and was trying to cover it up.

 

This novel being placed in the gothic genre is entirely through the ironic thoughts of Catherine. While her imagination starts to run wild, she finds herself eager to open a chest that is sure to have something incriminating but sadly, it only turns out to have old laundry lists encased.  Henry and Catherine’s banter on how her first night in the abbey will go is entirely mocking. They feed off each other’s recollections of the countless numbers of books they have each read. Of course, her first night goes nothing as they depict, but nonetheless, it’s still entertaining.

It’s interesting to me that Catherine is well read and yet still unable to read people. A variety of things pass completely over her head the entire novel.  Another thing that I didn’t realize until after I finished reading was that Fredrick (Captain Tilney) was leaving to go and help the Anti-Napoleon efforts.

Romance of the Forest Pt.2

The second half of Romance of the Forest Adeline finds herself back at the abbey with La’Motte, whom she deeply distrusts now and her love Theodore has been wounded and arrested.  The upset Marquis tells La’Motte to kill Adeline, and he intends too but suddenly feels pity and sends her off with his trusty servant Peter.  

She falls ill again, since that is one of her many talents and she wakes up in a nice place near the lake. She has been taken in by La Luc who has a daughter that can heal people. Clara, La Luc’s daughter, and Adeline become quick friends and Adeline begins to mesh into their family.  Upon a rather grim diagnosis, La Luc’s doctor advises him to vacation. Upon their travels, they run into Louis La’Motte (La’Motte’s son) who tells Adeline that he has been sent to tell Theodore’s father that he has been sentenced to death.

As it turns out La Luc is Theodore’s father and whole family goes to visit Theodore in prison.  After a high drama trial occurs and many secrets are reveales, Theodore is pardoned from his sentence, the Marquis’s reputation has been destroyed as we find that he is actually Adeline’s Uncle and that he had killed Adeline’s father,  La Luc recovers fully, and La’Motte is exiled.  The Marquis kills himself and leaves his money to Adeline. Then her and Clara get married in a double wedding and everyone ends up happily ever after.

I found it strange that the love interest in both Castle of Otranto and Romance of the Forest had the name of Theodore. So, I did a little bit of research on the name. The name Theodore is of Greek origin and it has two roots, theos (meaning god) and doron (meaning gift). Theodore literally means God's Gift, which may be the reason that both Walpole and Radcliffe used that name for the hero character. Although Romance of the Forest is a bit wordy overall, this book was much better than Castle of Otranto.

Romance of the Forest Pt.1

In the first half of Romance of the Forest, I wasn’t surprised to find that one of the first action scenes takes place in a forest.  Adeline, our damsel in distress makes her first debut in a cabin with some criminals who pawn her off on La’Motte, who of course is fleeing from debt collectors. It’s only fitting for a damsel to quickly fall ill and be so charming that the whole lot of characters instantly fall in love with her. As the plot makes haste, La’Motte, Peter, Annette, and the rest of the crew find themselves in an old abandoned abbey in the forest.

In the absence of his money, La’Motte robs the Marquis and hides his newly acquired booty in the forest. As the lot becomes comfortable in the abbey, Adeline makes frequent walks through the forest where she breaks out into spontaneous poetry. Go figure.  Because La’Motte and Adeline venture into the forest often, Madam La’Motte soon begins to suspect a love affair.

As the suitors begin to pile up for the fair Adeline, she finds herself amidst the Marquis who miraculously survived La'Motte's attack during the robbery. The Marquis promised not to press charges against La'Motte as long as he was given full sexual access to Adeline. To her horror, the Marquis is pursuing her despite the fact that he has a wife. After Adeline’s refusal, the Marquis decides to do the logical thing and abduct her to his chateau. In his scheme, she meets a boy in service to the Marquis named Theodore, and they fall in love.

As I read this half, I began to be able to pick out every theme that merits gothic literature. We had skeletons in the closet, old abandoned mansions, mystery, suspense, high emotion, and women in distress.  This novel is a classic example of gothic literature at its core.

What I think is interesting is that during the early 17^th century, most people would have been running from the plague and seeking seclusion from disease, but La’Motte is running from money and seclusion from debt collectors.

Castle of Otranto

Dear Horace Walpole,

I am writing to tell you how I respectfully dislike your work, Castle of Otranto.  Upon my curiosity of gothic novels, your book ended up in my hands. My first impression was one of intrigue.  Your catching my attention in the beginning with a murder, was clever, I’ll give you that.  I was enthralled to keep reading.  However, can I ask what a helmet is?  Although mysterious and slightly vague, I resent being left to imagine what thing crushed poor Conrad.

                          

I found the chase for Isabella disgusting and demeaning. Although Isabella’s lack of interest for Conrad was apparent, it was a nasty thought to sick Manfred, the father of her fiancé, on her trail.  In the terms of this book, that is incest and then to develop a whole plot line on how to subdue young Isabella is repulsive.  I find it demeaning that you assume that the women in this book are so distractible as well.  Offering up jewelry for secrets is low and to write that assumption of women into the plot is disappointing. 

I recognize that fears of marriage and male dominance where prevalent issues at the time of this novel’s creation however, I felt like this story is a not-so-different tale of the life of King Henry and his many wives and mistresses.  Manfred’s quest for Isabella and Manfred’s disinterest in his own daughter for lack of her ability to take on the thrown sounds like King Henry’s mistresses and his dislike for his daughters who also couldn’t carry the title.  Also, the declaration of a false marriage based on the fruitlessness of the wife is a painful comparison to King Henry’s denial of one of his own marriages based on that very same thing.

I recognize that fears of marriage and male patriarchy were dominant issues at the time, so I can understand why you worked those issues into your novel but I found the story too familiar and bland. However, I commend you on your ability to pioneer the thought of gothic novels into society.

Sincerely,

Stephanie Spencer

Introduction

Hi, my name is Stephanie S. I am from Fort Worth and am a junior 1 Nursing Major. At this point I plan to go into a specialty in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit post graduation. After that, I am considering going through the Nurse Anesthesia Program and becoming a CRNA.

In the past, Gothic Literature has never been an interest of mine. I typically tend to like a good mystery thriller or historical fiction but am open to seeing what I think about Gothic Literature. I know that Gothic Literature tends to be more on the dark side and usually contains a mythical element but that is about all I knew of this genre before the beginning of this course. I hope to gain a good understanding of the basics of Gothic Literature and to hopefully find at least one book that I like throughout this course.