Ambiguity of American Gothic Fiction - 1765 Words

Julie Fallows 6423747 Sean Moreland November 27, 2012 Ambiguity of American Gothic Anxieties Since the 19h century, American Gothic fiction started to exist independently from the British type. In fact, the latter was marked by its use of fantastic, externalized and metaphysical elements as opposed to the boundaries of American Gothic fiction in which were expressed by historical, internalized, racial and psychological characteristics. (Edwards, XVII) In Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, Fall of the House of Usher and The Tell-tale heart and The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym and in Charles Broken Brown’s Edgar Huntly expresses a transformation of certain gothic conventions to an American setting which are the result of 19th century†¦show more content†¦In many gothic fictions, Native Americans are the villains of the story, as â€Å"white American writers have projected their sense of evil upon the native inhabitants.†(Crow 137) This negative image towards this group is the reality of the 19th century anxiety of miscegenation, and the fear of wild erness. A shadowed forest, the possibility of an Indian lurking in the dark ready to attack and the unknown are features of the wilderness in which created boundaries from the civilized town to the savage forest, from consciousness and waking to unconscious and dreaming. In Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown, the feeling of dread and the unknown draws itself into Brown’s mind as he journeys into the gloomy forest. Brown, like most Americans, drew negative images of Native Americans and their land of wilderness as he spoke: â€Å"There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree.† (Hawthorne, 606) Moreover, when Brown reaches the witch meeting, he sees Indians or powwow priests interacting in the evil ritual with people who follow puritan beliefs. The hypocritical aspect of Goodman Brown’s community is still seen as less demonic than that of the Indians, as they are always portrayed as the â€Å"lesser-breed†. Goodman Brown attest that the natives â₠¬Å"who had often scared their native forest with more hideous incantations than any known to English witchcraft† (Hawthorne 612). Conveyed as demonic and adversary creatures, Indians were a commonShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of House Of The Seven Gables Essay1617 Words   |  7 PagesEvil within the Portraits The traditional Gothic taste for â€Å"portraits† is frequent in many novels and short stories that follow the conventions of literary mode making it present in these both texts; House of the Seven Gables by Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe’s The Oval Portrait. Often the characters in such Gothic romances are haunted by the tyranny of the past, which make it inescapable. It often leads to the destruction of their loved ones. Others motive of escape is often pulled back by a curseRead MoreThe Picture of Dorian Gray and the Turn of the Screw in the Gothic Genre4189 Words   |  17 PagesPicture of Dorian Gray and Henry James The Turn Of the Screw are key examples of the way in which gothic texts use and adapt the conventions of the genre. These changes occur due to the authors own personal context and values. 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