Brown, Charles B. "Somnambulism. A Fragment." The Heath Anthology of American Literature Volume 1, edited by Paul Lauter, D.C. Health and Company, 1990, pages 1165-1177.
This short story was written my Charles Brown and published in May of 1805. This story set the precedent for America Gothic short stories. It influenced many Gothic writers one of them being Poe. Like many Goth short stories that followed this story had the death of a beautiful woman. It also had a male protagonist who was distressed because of some type of illness. The short story was about Richard Althorpe who has fallen in love with a woman by the name of Constantia Davis. He had met Constantia the very same day he fell in love with her, it was love at first sight. …show more content…
In Edgar Huntly he was able to see the other characters for what they were, but failed to see his own problems until the end of the story. Brown uses the Gothic genre to make people question if they know exactly to what extent their sub conscious is capable of. Brown is able to use the characters of Edgar Huntly to help you find your equal. There are those who are aware of the problems their subconscious causes like Clithero. Then there are those who see the problem that they have in others but are unable to see it in themselves. Much like how Edgar is able to notice Clithero sleepwalking, but is unknowing of his own. It can be inferred that we know we have problems, but don't know how to address them so we look at the people who have the same problems as us and point them out. Huntly has many gaps between his consciousness. In those gaps there is a lack of thereof. There is the unknown that no man is familiar with. We are all scientists in some way, trying to investigate the reasoning behind every little thing, letting nothing get passed us. However, what do we do with that unknown factor, more importantly how do we control it? This much like other sources are all interrelated, but also brings a new key point to add to my paper. This article points on key things that my other articles missed. It asks the question how do we come to terms with the unknown? To what extent is the known actually
This short story was written my Charles Brown and published in May of 1805. This story set the precedent for America Gothic short stories. It influenced many Gothic writers one of them being Poe. Like many Goth short stories that followed this story had the death of a beautiful woman. It also had a male protagonist who was distressed because of some type of illness. The short story was about Richard Althorpe who has fallen in love with a woman by the name of Constantia Davis. He had met Constantia the very same day he fell in love with her, it was love at first sight. …show more content…
In Edgar Huntly he was able to see the other characters for what they were, but failed to see his own problems until the end of the story. Brown uses the Gothic genre to make people question if they know exactly to what extent their sub conscious is capable of. Brown is able to use the characters of Edgar Huntly to help you find your equal. There are those who are aware of the problems their subconscious causes like Clithero. Then there are those who see the problem that they have in others but are unable to see it in themselves. Much like how Edgar is able to notice Clithero sleepwalking, but is unknowing of his own. It can be inferred that we know we have problems, but don't know how to address them so we look at the people who have the same problems as us and point them out. Huntly has many gaps between his consciousness. In those gaps there is a lack of thereof. There is the unknown that no man is familiar with. We are all scientists in some way, trying to investigate the reasoning behind every little thing, letting nothing get passed us. However, what do we do with that unknown factor, more importantly how do we control it? This much like other sources are all interrelated, but also brings a new key point to add to my paper. This article points on key things that my other articles missed. It asks the question how do we come to terms with the unknown? To what extent is the known actually