Nineteenth Century Short Stories and the Gothic Genre Essay

Nineteenth Century Short Stories and the Gothic Genre The three short stories that I have chosen to compare and contrast are: The Signalman by Charles Dickens, An Arrest by Ambrose Bearcy and Napoleon and the Spectre by Charlotte Brontà «. All these stories were completed by the mid to late eighteenth hundreds. The Signalman is set by a railway in Britain, along a lonely stretch of a railway line in a steep cutting. An Arrest is set in America and for the most part in a forest. Napoleon and the Spectre is set in Paris. Gothic genre was one of the leading and most used genres of the nineteenth century and this genre is very prevalent in all three of the stories that I have chosen. The gothic genre originated from South†¦show more content†¦The darkness also gives a sense of mystery to the authors writing. In the glow of an angry sunset, the stranger re-visits the line to see the signalman. The word angry is far from comfortable or romantic. This line also gives an eerie feel to the fading light and gives a feel that suggests that something is must and is about to happen that is dark and evil. An Arrest by Ambrose Bearcy is a story of a murderer who was awaiting his trial, escaped by knocking down his jailer with an iron bar, and went into the forest. It was night and the forest in to which, he entered was renowned for being wild and unsafe. He goes for many a mile and some how manages to exit the forest and finds an old road and on the road there stood the figure of a man, motionless in the gloom. The gothic style protrudes from this line of the novel very clearly and adds to the sense of suspense and fear that is plaguing this scene. The fugitive is almost face to face with the figure of a man, and feels he cannot turn his back for fear of being filled with buckshot, so he stood there like a tree. The fugitive is hoping that if he stands still enough he will become a tree and escape this horror. Until the moon sailed into a patch of unclouded sky, the haunted man saw the visible embodiment of law lift an arm and point significantly beyond him. At which heShow MoreRelatedEssay on The Develoment of the Horror Genre1076 Words   |  5 Page s The term Gothic is significant for the understanding of the origins and development of the horror genre. Both of these genres differ, whilst Gothic literature is the text that explores the frightening extremes in mankind, horror focuses more on the unknown. The Gothic horror genre has changed over time and retains importance because it is the antecedent of the horror genre. Factors such as the definition of the word Gothic, the archetypes of the genre, and its social and historical contexts, haveRead MoreAnalysis Of Edgar Allan Poe s The Tell Tale Heart 1291 Words   |  6 PagesWhat honestly makes a novel gothic? Is it the madness, the horror or the secrets hidden in the story line that does it? 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