Gothic literature shares many of the same themes to show a sense of fear, horror, mental state, and paranoia through supernatural beings along with literal and psychological entrapment. This set of themes is exemplified by authors Richard Matheson, Washington Irving, and the forefather of gothic literature Edgar Allan Poe in their gothic short stories.
From these stories the theme of supernatural beings is prevalent to provide an indication of fear and horror. Poe deliberately uses this to show fear in his story “The Black Cat”, “I had walled the monster up within the tomb”(Poe 5). Then Poe uses this again in “The Raven” to illustrate that supernatural fear of the unknown by “so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door… I opened wide …show more content…
This theme is very clear in Matheson's story “Prey” in which the doll she had bought for her boyfriend had a strange object “There's a golden chain around it to prevent the spirit from escaping I guess,”(Matheson 2). Where the doll had the spirit of a warrior whose name was “this is he who kills”(Matheson 1). This theme was also displayed by Poe in his story “The Raven” where the main character is racked with grief for his wife who passed away and this is shown greatly by “Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning”(Poe 438). As the unknown force induces fear in him to turn away and back into the chamber. The entrapment is then occasionally metaphoric like Irving uses in “The Devil and Tom Walker” to depict the emotional state of the character like “The house and its inmates had altogether a bad name.”(Irving 322). Which deliberately says what Tom and his wife's emotional state looks like at this moment. The examples above have shown this sense of emotional state and entrapment in Gothic literature along with some of the other themes of Gothic
From these stories the theme of supernatural beings is prevalent to provide an indication of fear and horror. Poe deliberately uses this to show fear in his story “The Black Cat”, “I had walled the monster up within the tomb”(Poe 5). Then Poe uses this again in “The Raven” to illustrate that supernatural fear of the unknown by “so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door… I opened wide …show more content…
This theme is very clear in Matheson's story “Prey” in which the doll she had bought for her boyfriend had a strange object “There's a golden chain around it to prevent the spirit from escaping I guess,”(Matheson 2). Where the doll had the spirit of a warrior whose name was “this is he who kills”(Matheson 1). This theme was also displayed by Poe in his story “The Raven” where the main character is racked with grief for his wife who passed away and this is shown greatly by “Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning”(Poe 438). As the unknown force induces fear in him to turn away and back into the chamber. The entrapment is then occasionally metaphoric like Irving uses in “The Devil and Tom Walker” to depict the emotional state of the character like “The house and its inmates had altogether a bad name.”(Irving 322). Which deliberately says what Tom and his wife's emotional state looks like at this moment. The examples above have shown this sense of emotional state and entrapment in Gothic literature along with some of the other themes of Gothic