Analysis Of Hurstcote By E. Nesbit

The story featured in this essay is called “The Hurst of Hurstcote” (1893) by E. Nesbit. This story starts off with a narrator, named Bernard, who is very close to the main protagonist in the story, John Hurst. He mentions that his friend is very unlikable due to his quirky, contradictory mindset about science and supernatural elements which set him apart from others. Even so, Hurst marries Kate, whom Bernard actually liked. Later, Hurst sends a letter to his comrade to visit him and come see his place, Hurstcote, an ancient family home, which he plans on renovating to its old glory. Now curious, Bernard visits his friend Hurst and his newly wedded wife and is surprised by how good the old mansion looks after only a few months of work, which …show more content…
This can be seen by details of objects foreshadowing an epic downfall. It is in those seemly meaningless details where the true story lies. The setting in “The Hurst of Hurstcote” is to me a constant play of emotions. It seems that in this literature, if you look for the change of the settings, you find the climax of the story. Grotesque details about haunted houses and the mystery around death is never outright said, it is implied by the selective detail that readers tend to skip and miss. When Kate falls sick, that day, there was a shift in the atmosphere. Everything seemed lifeless and dreary, this can be seen by our narrator’s description of the tableware of that day Bernard described that “the entire room lacked its chief ornament. The sparkling white and silver breakfast accessories were there, but for the deft hands and kindly welcoming blue eyes of the hostess in vain” (290). It can be seen there is a sudden shift in the story just from the details zoned in on. The setting of the story went from warm, renovated mansion to a cold, dreary place. Gothic literature puts the notion that every detail the writer adds has is to enhance understanding of the story as a whole. It can be interpreted without the ‘center’ that Kate is in Hurst’s life and an integral part of the appeal of the ancient home, everything becomes cold. This ancient mansion which was already creepy and left idle for ages, suddenly had life …show more content…
The monsters inside of us being our inner demons and the physical monsters like vampires which are a part of the supernatural. There is a lot of science vs. religion in gothic literature. This story plays an ode to a balance of the two, while Hurst is very “studious” (286) according to the narrator and seems to be a logical person who believes in science rather than unproved beliefs that is however not so. While Hurst seems to be the most logical of any protagonist we read in this class so far, he might be even worse than them. He deeply believes and tries to convince others of supernatural elements like black magic, even reciting an essay about it to his classmates, making him popular for the wrong reasons as everyone is distant from him, except our dear narrator of course. Hurst’s beliefs scares Kate to the point where Hurst has to stop his fascination to keep the woman happy. However, if characters simply followed rules in gothic, there would be no grotesque elements, maybe no gothic at all. Hurst confesses to Bernard that he “hypnotized her, and when she was completely in my control I forbade her soul to leave its body till my time came to die” (293) and this plays a vital case into Hurst’s behavior regarding his wife’s death. While its typical to grieve for a loved one, he just did not believe she could be dead because even if he was not preforming black magic, he still believed