Overall Theme

My idea of reading literature was not a good one. I didn't think that i would like the Gothic Literature but i was mistaken. I grew to really like reading the stories. I was intrigued and constantly found myself flipping through the pages to see what was going to happen next. I like the mystery behind the novels. You should definitely teach this class again. The stories and the movies that you chose for this class were perfect. They fit right into the overall theme of Gothc. One of my favorite readings what "The Castle of Otranto" and "A Good Man is Hard to Find".

A Good Man is Hard to Find

In "A Good Man is Hard to Find" the theme of religion, sin, and repentance plays a perdominant role. It is the classic good versus evil with a twist. The twist being two opposite being linked together, while having two different view points on life. O'Conner brings God's grace into the light out of the dark and eerie situations at the end of the story. The Grandmother is the revised Southern Bell in the story who is almost unable to comprehend her own flaws. The grandmother has a very distinctive personality and demeanor. She feels as if she should share her thoughts and views with everyone. She also believes that her feelings are superiour and believes that she is always right. In several accounts the grandmother is portrayed as only having her self interest in mind. The grandmother cares about the way she percieved by society. She also talks about how society as a whole has lost some of its good nature, and respect for themselves and others. She is seen as a good Christian with a faith in Christ, but she seemingly turns away from her own beliefs. She begs the Misfit to pray with her but she appears to have given up on faith when she mumbles about Jesus possibly not rising from the dead. At the end of "A Good Man is Hard to Find" the grandmother has a moment of clarity and realizes that the Misfit is a lost soul. She, the grandmother, is not a superior to him but rather an equal. The Misfit is the reason for the change in the grandmothers perception of life. He is in a sense a flawed prophet, for the fact that he changed someones view on life in a better way, but did it in a harmful nature. I believe that he is the insane character in this story, however his voice in the story is nonthreatening and his emotions appear to be stable. His words were not harsh but his actions were, and with these actions came no remorse. Within each person there is a flicker of goodness, but within some there is a darkness that overwhelms that light.

Jean-Ah Poquelin

At first the South was described as being low water willow, filled with numerous bushes and marshy. The description in the beginning of the short story gave a feel of dark and gloomy swamp lands. There was water everywhere with aquatic plants and reptiles all around. There is a vast amount of land around each house, keeping everyone seperated from the other. The land and the house reminded me of old, worn down, and unkept scenery. All this portrays the old South. In "The Skeleton Key" the setting shown was just like that of the setting portrayed in "Jean-Ah Poquelin." When reading this story I pictured the scenery from "The Skeleton Key." The small town feeling with a bunch of land around each plantation on the top of the hill is quickly demolished by the coming of modern society. The idea of a city building around the swamps and conforming that area. Suburban areas were starting to be built up around the home of Jean-Ah Poquelin. Streets were also put in place, canals dried up, and paved areas of the swamp. The Gothic is evident with many of the discriptors of gothic being displayed throughout the story. It has evidence of the supernatural, revolving around the house and the ghost that everyone believes to have seen. This also accounts for the horror/terror. When Mr. White is at the house the reader is intrigued by the walking ghost. The reader is intellectually stimulated and it challenges the reasoning of the reader. The sublime and the sense of mystery are also fulfilled with the idea of Jean's haunted house. These qualities just described are elements of the grotesque. You could make an arguement for the hero being Mr. White fighting off the villians of the rest of society. The discriptors of gothic are seen in this short story. The plantation and swampy setting of southern gothic go along with the old castle of gothic literature. The elements of souther gothic are clearly displayed all over this short story.

The Goophered Grapevine

I think that what we talked about today in class about stories appealing to the audience, was a tool that was used in "The Goophered Grapevine". I feel that this story for the time that it was written, was meant for the white middle class. The author uses the idea of a slave being property to appeal to the white audience. Once Mars Dugal realized what he had in his slave, because of the curse Mars Dugal wanted to take advantage. He sold him to other owners during the spring when he was strong and young. Only to have become weak and old in the winter, when he knew the other owners would want to sell him back, so as to not loose all their money from the investment. This went on for many years and this idea of African Americans being a posession would appeal to most of the readers of that time. This was the same idea that we discussed and saw in "Our Nig". I think that it also portrays the African American as being uneducated. When the narrator is speaking in the beginning, he is well spoken and literate. When the African American is telling the story in his voice, it is in broken english.

Our Nig

I truly didn't care for any of the mothers in this text. I felt that poor Mag should have tried to do more for her daughter. I also feel that though she thought that she may have been doing a good deed, she should have known the torments Frado would feel at the hands of Mrs. Bellmont. I just can't believe that Mag deserted her daughter. I know Mag was suffering and couldn't do much but I feel she should have taken Frado with her or atleast sent letters. The author doesn't appear to think highly of mothers and feels abandoned as a child. The next mother of the story is Mrs. Bellmont. She is simply a horrible person and very cruel. It is horrendous how badly she treats Frado. Even with her own family she is looked down upon. Her children other than Mary feel sorry and stick up for Frado. Mrs. Bellmont scares her children and abusive, verbally and physically. From this motherly perspective the author is showing mothers as strict and rude. The author paints a picture of mothers as evil and deceitful people. Another mother portreyed in the novel is Frado when she is older. Frado suffers and is sickly for most of the time while she is married. Through all these mothers it seems that the author has a very negative image towards motherhood. The mothers in the story all suffer and are evil in different ways. Honestly just from the description of the mothers in the story and the way children were treated by these mothers, I almost had hoped that there hadn't been a mother figure in the story, like in the other stories we read. There was one mother that was a good mother in the story. Susan the wife of James was portrayed in a decent manner. However she was hardly described throughout the story. She may have been the one exception to the idea of motherhood being horrible.

The Fall of the House of Ushers

No, Madeline is not dead when she is placed into the coffin. I was confused when I first read this story because I couldn't understand how one my confuse someone to be dead. After reading about the it made more sense. Catalepsy is a nervous condition characterized by muscular rigidity and the the stiffening of the body no matter the external stimuli. People who suffer from this disease also have a decreased sensitivity to pain. I could definitely see someone in that time is seems to be mad themselves could mistake this disease for death. This would explain how she didn't move when being mummified. Her lack of pain could explain her strength to open the coffin and break free. Even when she busts into the room where Roderick Usher and the narrator she was covered in blood but it appeared to have no affect on her. I don't know if I would call it ironic or not, that she was buried believed to be dead but was really alive. However you might say it was that her own brother who was very disturbed might fall to her hands, in the manner in which he had dreaded. It was her illness that could have caused the confusion of her death. However Roderick Usher died in the way in which his illness had long since tormented him.

On a side note, I do not think that she was murdered/attempted murder but one could make an argument for it. Roderick Usher told the narrator when he, the narrator, saw Madeline that that would be the last time he see her alive. This seems to have a sinister feel behind it. It was also Roderick that claimed Madeline to be dead, when really she wasn't. Also towards the end of the short story he mumbles how he had heard her but said nothing, how he thought she was living in the tomb, and how he feared for his life now that she was free. These could all be signs to a darker secret, that Roderick was trying to kill Madeline without anyone knowing.

Young Goodman Brown

The role of the guide is to lead him to a particular place. The guide looks similar to young Goodman Brown. In fact I feel it is implied that the guide is an older Goodman Brown. The guide by appearance then can be trusted by young Goodman Brown. However the guide seems a little more devious. When young Goodman Brown first approaches him, he is hidden in darkness and startles young Goodman Brown. I had the feeling of evil surrounding this character from the very beginning, which is what I feel the author wanted. The guide convices young Goodman Brown to continue on this journey. More than once young Goodman Brown wants to stop or rest and the guide convinces him to keep going. The guide is will to offer something so that young Goodman Brown will continue following him. He is being tempted to continue this journey. The first person they come across in the woods in Goody Cloyse. She is a good Christian woman who when young Goodman Brown was a child she taught the catechism. This is someone whom he looks up to and trusts in his faith for she is one who helped him as a child find his beliefs. The next were the minister and Deacon Gookin. These two gentle men of of high religious faith and morals. All the people he comes across in the woods are religious followers. However all of them are heading in the direction of a devil worship. This causes some confusion and inner struggle with young Goodman Brown because these are people whom he trusted and looked up to in his faith and yet appear to be working with the devil.

Lois the Witch

There is definitely a Cinderella formula in that a female is forced to go live with her extended family that treat her, Lois, horribly. There are also some other similarities, in that in "Cinderella" and "Lois the Witch" there are two girls living in the home and there is a girl whom is rejected by the family and there is no father figure living in the house. In "Lois the Witch" her Uncle passes away early on so the feeling of a male father is missing. The are also similar in that there is a damsel in distress. There is a prince in both movies that has to save the heroine. However in "Lois the Witch" the prince is to late and the heroine dies. In Cinderella the prince is late at saving here at the ball but she ends up saved.

I feel that the women writers having the idea of women being passive is a negative thing. Lois waiting for someone to come save her and yet no one comes to her rescue. Sometimes you have to help yourself. I think that the author does not want women to be helpless creatures waiting for the male hero. I feel that from the writing that the author writes of beauty of being a downfall. I feel that the beauty of Lois caused problems with Faith, possibly her one friend. Faith feels that Lois is stealing the man that she loves. Faith might have stood up for Lois when her younger sister claims Lois was a witch. Her beauty also got her into trouble with the older brother. He is drawn to her and i believe that he hears voices because he is attracted to her.

Value of Novel Reading

I think that there is a lot of value in reading novels. I feel that from reading novels we can broaden our vocabulary and our diction. I think that from reading in general there is a lot to gain. We can get a sense of the authors views and the society of the era the novel was written and ideas of society as a whole. This is very true even from the novels we have read, "The Castle of Otranto" and "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". The authors display the views of society and I definitely feel that this gives them the opportunity to show flaws in society. Novels are also good in expanding your imagination and helping the reader determine his own views on right and wrong. As we discussed about "Northanger Abbey" reading can expand our imagination but it is up to us to keep things in perspective. As in other novels that have a struggle with good and evil, right and wrong, with moral dilemmas, we as readers can see for ourselves how we would handle similar dilemmas. As in "Hamlet" when they talk about someone revealing something evil that has happened from watching a play, I feel that if a story truely strikes home with the reader that this same feeling can happen. Since I am not a big reader of novels i cannot think of one in particular that has changed me.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

In the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde I definitely feel that the idea of Mr. Utterson as a detective was a precursor to the "detective novels" genre that was to come. In the beginning when Mr. Enfield and Mr. Utterson are talking about the the house of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Enfield tells the story of the girl being trampled, already Mr. Utterson questions the whole truth. He shows his, Mr. Utterson, curiousity about his old friend Dr. Jekyll and later that night opens the will that has been given to him. He is intriqued at why Dr. Jekyll would leave everything to this mysterious Mr. Hyde. As the reader already I can feel like there is a mystery to solve and I don't even know the whole story. Later in the story he confides in a friend to see if the signiture is the same and the one Mr. Hyde presented. Mr. Utterson also stalks and spies on the house of Dr. Jekyll and after the murder he helps the police to the hideout of Mr. Hyde. Throughout the story clues keep coming into Mr. Utterson's possession to find the truth behind Mr. Hyde. Mr. Utterson displays the features of a detective and digs deeper and deeper until he has solved the mystery of Mr. Hyde. Even though this is a Gothic novel, I can't help but feel that this is also the beginnings of the detective genre.

I would also have loved to had this story shown through the eyes of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Actually it would have been very interesting to have the story written in the eyes of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde seperately. Now that i know the story and know all the details I think that the portrayal of events would have been excellent shown through the eyes of the struggling scientist or the deminted Mr. Hyde.

The Castle of Otranto

With the conculsion of the novel I felt as if the author didn't want any of the main characters to be happy. The idea of marriage throughout the novel seemed to be something that was forced and that no one benefited from. Isabella and Matilda were going to have to suffer through a marriage neither of them wanted. Even with the hatred between the two fathers they were willing to quickly forget thier differences to fill the lust they had for eachothers daughters'. This could probably be accounted for the time that the novel was to have taken place and the idea that women had arranged marriages by thier fathers. The one relationship that showed any promise was between Matilda and Theodore but the author managed to end the relationship. By the conclusion of the novel everyone was suffering in their relationships. The author suffered through a harsh relationship with his father and this may be the reason the marriages/relationships ended with so much pain.

About Me

My name is Spencer M. and I am a senior TCU student. I am a Mechanical Engineering major and I will be graduating in the fall. I am a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. I am from Houston and grew up there my whole life. I do not know anything about Gothic literature and I don't read that often. I hope that from this class I will learn more about Gothic literature and even gain an interest in this form of literature.

I have read, understood, and agree to the terms of the course syllabus.