Gothic Elements In The Short Story 'Adams' By G. Wells

Princeton University scholar, Matthew M. Reeves, claims that “…the Gothic is an allusion to or characteristic of the Middle Ages, or, more obliquely, the ‘mediæval’ or ‘romantic,’ both of which are positioned as opposites to the classical” (Reeves 233). However, in today’s modern culture, gothic fiction can be described in simpler terms as a genre in literature which emphasizes and illuminates the darkness “of terror and death and violence” (Fiedler 9). This literary movement allows authors to better portray and relate the more so real aspects of everyday lives to their readers as gothic elements such as death, isolation, and darkness are common occurrences in people’s lives. From Reeves’s claim that gothic culture tends to oppose classical …show more content…
This aspect surfaces later in the story after Roger is haunted by Adams’s look of hate. Roger’s thoughts take a dark turn as he thinks, “…if I had that hate level…I would sneak into the house of my enemy and stab him and his family in their sleep. Or shoot them. I would. You would have to. It is human nature” (Saunders). The author compares these awful thoughts of murder to human nature as if people just stab others and their families in their sleep as a normal occurrence. Roger continues with his out of the ordinary train of thought by thinking, “if I was him and has lost all my guns and knives, I would definitely use [a heavy paperweight] to bash in the head of my enemy in his sleep, as well as the heads of his family” (Saunders). Roger’s thoughts seem to be psychopathic to say the least. The average person typically does not think about the various manners in which to end the life of another human being especially to the extreme that Roger allows his thoughts to wander because thoughts such as these induce feelings of guilty and remorse. In a study about the emotional attributes in psychopaths, psychology researcher R. Blair and others also agrees that a “psychopath has a specific problem attributing guilt” (Blair 435). This makes sense when it is considered how people may be uncomfortable with having thoughts and feeling such as Roger’s. However, it is …show more content…
As one reads through the graphic novel, death is something that is very apparent and happens continually throughout the story as Dream and Delirium journey to find their elder brother, Destruction. It seemed that for almost every person that could have potentially helped the two Endless in their difficult search, many were met with uncertain and sudden death. It is in these deaths that the reader is exposed to the more grotesque aspects of Brief Lives. The first person on Delirium’s list of people who last spoke with Destruction was the lawyer, Bernard Capax. At the end of chapter two and beginning of chapter three, his fifteen-thousand-year life came to a quick end as he was crushed by a building being demolished (Gaiman 2). With images of his lifeless body under large blocks of cement, the reader sees the image of Death herself as Bernard realizes his life has come to an end (Gaiman 2). These images stimulate a fear that many individuals have towards death with the fear of realizing death and the end. The second unexpected death to occur is the death of Ruby, the escort of Delirium and Dream. In chapter four, there is the haunting image of Ruby as she was found burnt to an unrecognizable state after supposedly falling asleep with a lite cigarette in her mouth (Gaiman 23). There is also the death of Ishtar, Destruction’s past lover, as she