Beliefs of the Gothics

Please use this information to answer the questions about the beliefs of the Gothics on your handout.

Beliefs of the Gothics:

As opposed to the idealistic beliefs of Transcendentalism, the Gothics (also known as the Dark Romantics) emphasized that humans are imperfect and are prone to sin and self-destruction. Furthermore, Gothic writers were more realistic about social reform and believed social changes were difficult or impossible.  

Unlike the hopefulness of writers like Emerson, the Gothics believed humans were more dark and deceitful. The Gothics believed people had the ability to be good, but ultimately the evils of the world would cause people to make poor decisions. Furthermore, Gothics believed the human psyche (the human mind) was filled with mystery and twisted thoughts.

Similar to the Transcendentalists, Gothics believed the government and organized religion were restrictive and ultimately bad for humanity. They felt that strict religious doctrine was too controlling of human thought, and they believed the government was oppressive to the masses. Additionally, the Gothics believed the pursuit of wealth caused people to do evil things to one another.

Also similar to the Transcendentalists, Gothics felt that the individual mind was very powerful and should be celebrated. They wanted people to question the world around them and see things in a new way. The Gothics were very interested in the powers of imagination, and they actively explored the aspects of our world which cannot be explained with facts.  

Elements of Gothicism

Please use this information to record information in the "Elements of Gothicism" portion of your handout.

In looking at American Gothic literature, there are certain common elements that will shine through the text. Below are some of the common elements.

Elements

Psychological overlay is an element that is connected to how characters within an American Gothic novel are affected by things like the night and their surroundings. An example of this would be if a character was in a maze like area and a connection was made to the maze that their minds represented.

Night journeys are a common element seen throughout Gothic literature. They can occur in almost any setting, but in American literature are more commonly seen in the wilderness, forest or any other area that is devoid of people.

Eerie settings are common in Gothic literature. Dark forests, creepy castles, stormy shorelines, and other settings are common backdrops for the stories of Gothicism.

Evil characters are also seen in Gothic literature and especially American Gothic. Depending on the time period that the work is written about, the evil characters could be characters like hunters, trappers, gold miners etc . . .

American Gothic novels also tend to deal with insanity in one or more of the characters and carry that theme throughout the novel. Many Gothic stories follow the main character's decent into madness throughout the plot.

An element of fear is another characteristic of American Gothic literature. This is typically connected to the unknown and is generally seen throughout the course of the entire plot. This can also be connected to the feeling of despair that characters within the novel are overcome by. This element can lead characters to commit heinous crimes. 

Authors of American Gothic Literature

Please use the following information to complete the "Authors of Gothicism" section of your handout:

Authors of Gothicism:

The grotesque, the gloomy, the morbid, the fantastic-the American Dark Romantics embraced all of these illogical elements and shaped them into perhaps the most popular sub-genre of American literature. Unlike the Transcendentalists, the Gothics acknowledged the evil of man and the horror of evil. Ralph Waldo Emerson had ignored the darkness of man, sin and control, but the Gothics wanted to remind the world of the existence of evil. Like the Romantics and Transcendentalists; however, the Dark Romantics valued intuition and emotion over logic and reason and saw symbols, spiritual truths, and signs in nature and everyday events.

The key figures of Dark Romanticism included Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Edgar Allan Poe, the master of the psychological thriller and an American pop-culture icon, wrote such popular works as "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "The Cask of Amontillado." His mystery stories, "The Purloined Letter" and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" paved the way for the modern detective story.

Although Herman Melville was not as popular as Poe, he contributed to Gothicism and the development of the Romantic hero with Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas (1847). Similar works brought him fame and prosperity. However, the publication of Moby Dick in 1851 left many of his readers confused. The tale of the white whale is Melville's greatest work, in which audiences at the time failed to grasp it's complexity and symbolism. Now considered a modern classic, Moby Dick is enjoyed as one of the greatest American novels written. Moby Dick is a tale of good vs. evil, and man vs. nature. As evil prevails in the story, the novel is considered a Dark Romantic work. 

Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote such popular fiction as The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of Seven Gables (1851). The Scarlet Letter is an example of Gothic Romanticism. Its gloomy tone, color imagery, supernatural allusions, use of symbols in nature and in civilization, and nonconformist themes certainly made The Scarlet Letter an important contribution to Dark Romanticism. Two of Hawthorne's short stories-"Young Goodman Brown" and "The Minister's Black Veil"-are both consistent with the Dark Romantic tradition. In both tales, Hawthorne digs deep into the human mind and examines sin and evil. 

Rest of Class

Now, for the rest of class, use this post and the space on your handout to do the following:

• Complete a comparison of Transcendentalism and Gothicism using the chart on your handout.
• Read the poems below and complete the "Poem Identification" section of your handout.
• Look at the artwork below the poems and complete the "Art Identification" section of your handout.

POEM A:

I LEFT my low and humble home,

Far from my Father's fields to roam.

My peaceful cot no more had charms,

My only joy was War's alarms.

I panted for the field of fight,

I gaz'd upon the deathless light,

Which o'er the Hero's grave is shed,

The glorious memory of the dead.

Ambition show'd a distant star,

That shed its radiance bright and far,

And pointed to a path which led

O'er heaps of dying and of dead;

Onward I press'd with eager feet,

And War's dread thunder still would greet

My reckless ears. Where'er I trod,

I saw the green and verdant sod,

Turn red with blood of slaughter'd foes,

And Fury veil'd in smoke arose.

I gain'd the envied height; and there,

I sigh'd for that lone cottage, where

The early hours of life flew by,

On wings of youthful ecstasy.

Too late I found that Glory's ray,

Could never bring one happy day.

POEM B:

O gift of God! O perfect day:
Whereon shall no man work, but play;
Whereon it is enough for me,
Not to be doing, but to be!

Through every fibre of my brain,
Through every nerve, through every vein,
I feel the electric thrill, the touch
Of life, that seems almost too much.

I hear the wind among the trees
Playing celestial symphonies;
I see the branches downward bent,
Like keys of some great instrument.

And over me unrolls on high
The splendid scenery of the sky,
Where though a sapphire sea the sun
Sails like a golden galleon,

Towards yonder cloud-land in the West,
Towards yonder Islands of the Blest,
Whose steep sierra far uplifts
Its craggy summits white with drifts.

Blow, winds! and waft through all the rooms
The snow-flakes of the cherry-blooms!
Blow, winds! and bend within my reach
The fiery blossoms of the peach!

O Life and Love! O happy throng
Of thoughts, whose only speech is song!
O heart of man! canst thou not be
Blithe as the air is, and as free?

Artwork A:

Artwork B: