Part one of term paper
The term Gothic conjures up images of frightened women, graveyards, and haunted castles in the mist, popular settings for horror films. But is this what Gothic means? The Oxford Companion to English Literature defines Gothic as, “Tales of the macabre, fantastic, and supernatural, usually set amid haunted castles, graveyards, ruins and ...

Part two of term paper
... type of story and atmospheric surrounding. In so doing, it establishes a contrast between darkness and light, which evokes a sinister irony. In such tales, darkness often prevails, and according to literary scholars, elevated these horror stories into “Gothic sublime” (Bernstein 333). Specifically, the Gothic sublime symbolizes a “black hole which finally absorbs history into its own emptiness” (Bernstein 333). Gothic fiction is, quite simply, man taking a “walk on ...