Edgar Allan Poe Insanity

Inspiring the famous novels and movies we know today, the Gothic first occurred during the Romantic Period in the early eighteenth century. Before making its appearance in literature, the style was shown through different English architectures, by the work of visionaries such as Horace Walpole. After purchasing Strawberry Hill in 1740, Walpole began remodeling the estate into what he described as “Gothick” manner. Adding towers, battlements, arched doors and windows, the mansion quickly became influential as people came from all over the country to visit and get inspiration on gothicizing their own homes.
The Gothic made its first debut in literature in the publishing of Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764). The short novel included elements …show more content…
This condition created suspense for the reader as it explored aspects of human nature that were not understood at the time. The mystery surrounding the deranged behavior generated the fear of helplessness and danger in the face of the unknown. A writer who commonly exploited mental states in his Gothic tales was American, Edgar Allan Poe. Guided by his fascination of fear, he used many of the original properties of Gothic, such as medieval castles and ancient houses, but turned these into an exploration of psychological states. The Cask of Amontillado is a prominent example of using insanity as the driving force. Poe makes the narrator, Montresor, angry at a careless insult committed at the hands of Fortunato, his long time friend. However, instead of managing his anger, Poe instead causes Montresor to become so infuriated that he will take a snide comment made by Fortunato and avenge himself with a horrible murder. In this story, insanity causes Montresor’s anger to allow him to commit the heinous act he did. Poe therefore uses this element to drive his stories and characters to atrocious endings that represent the epitome of Gothic …show more content…
William Faulkner’s A Rose For Emily (1930) intertwines the topics of romance, horror, and gothic. When a corpse is discovered in a locked room, the realization of horror is created. It is further pronounced when readers discover it is Emily who has not only been keeping her deceased lover in the house, but also sleeping next to him every night. However, it also displays the love and affection she had for him was very deep. Furthermore, she kept her wedding dress, along with his suit, folded up in the belief that he should be with her forever. This odd mentality is also shown when Emily refused to bury her father for three days after his passing, also keeping him in the house. While it is very obvious to see the romantic and horror qualities presented throughout the story, what places it into the Gothic is the darkness that is portrayed. The main character’s psychological state makes the story very bleak. The decaying smell of the corpse throughout the house expresses the Gothic by making readers face the deep fears of the answers to their own curiosity. It also follows along Emily’s journey of finding the love she wanted, but could not have. As twentieth century Gothic tropes evolved, the story can easily be compared to some of the original Gothic novels that came out, when women were seen as fragile and powerless. The evolution of women characters in stories was displayed