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Gothic Literature Comparative Essay In the movie ‘Coralline ‘ and the texts ‘The Red Room’, ‘The Yellow Wallpapers and ‘Northerner Abbey, there are many aspects of gothic literature present, gothic literature is used to create mystery and a sense of something odd to come.
Coralline is a movie about a young girl who discovers a parallel universe in the new house she moved into, The Red Room is about a supposedly haunted room, Northerner Abbey is about a girl who is spending some time in an old Abbey, she begins to imagine everything is much more interesting and out of the ordinary than what it actually is, stats The Yellow Wallpaper is the story of a woman locked in the upstairs room of her summerhouse.
Many stories in the Victorian era showed several signs of having used gothic literature. Setting is used to show gothic literature immensely, usually with stormy weather, fog or a dark setting, old objects and haunted houses will usually be present in a gothic story, In The Red Room the house that it is set in, is described as being run down and aged, much like any typical haunted house “l left the door wide open until the candle was well alight, and then shut them in and walked down the chilly, echoing usage. Using the sound of echoes and a cold feeling in the setting is a very common technique found in gothic literature, In Coralline also the apartment that Coralline lives in is not well maintained and is slightly worn away with age. A classic part of the film that shows the house is of gothic nature is when Coralline goes around counting all the doors and windows in the home as well as writing everything down that is blue, during this scene you see the bathroom Is infested with bugs and all the doors are old and creaky.
Secondly there is Usually a strange obsession hon. throughout the text or film, in Coralline the Other mother is shown to be nice and loving, but you later find out her strange obsession with sewing Buttons into eyes, her obsession starts off subtle but gradually builds up over time. In the yellow wall paper the narrator of the story is shown to be in utter awe of the wall paper, imagining it moving ad coming alive, the longer she is in the room the worse her obsession gets “There are things in that wallpaper that nobody knows about but me, or ever will. This marks a turning point in the Narrator’s attitude towards the leaper; she persists in her assertion that the wallpaper is hideous but allows for the possibility that her fascination with it has become a source of enjoyment and comfort in her confinement. An Obsession is also shown in Northerner Abbey, were the female character seems to be obsessed with a simple ordinary chest of draws found in her room. These sorts of obsessions are very commonly found in gothic texts and are used to add a sort of sinister/eerie or creepy feel to the tale.
Lastly there are odd Characters, the best example out of the four gothic pieces I have mentioned is Coralline with many weird and unusual characters in the film, Two of the characters are Mrs.. Spins and Forcible the two old ladies that live in the apartment down stairs from her, they are a little batty and used to work in theater and acrobatics. The two old ladies also have a habit of keeping many dogs; even the ones that have passed away having them dressed in guardian angel clothing, stuffed and hung up on the wall.
Other odd characters can be found in The Red Room, in this text the owners of the home are described as being very old and almost inhuman like “There is, to my mind, something inhuman in senility, something crouching and atavistic; the human qualities seem to drop from old people insensibly day by day. ‘ The narrators opinion is making characters that are being described seem a lot stranger than what they might actually be.
Lastly in Northerner Abbey the female character Catherine is shown to be extremely obsessed with gothic literature “she rejoiced in the happier circumstances attending her entrance within walls so solemn! She had nothing to dread from midnight assassins or drunken gallants. ” she minds herself making what most people would take as normal everyday occurrences and twisting them into a gothic fantasy, that is until reality comes along and pulls her back down to earth.
In conclusion gothic literature is seen throughout all of the texts and the film mentioned and all techniques such as setting, obsessions and strange characters are all typical assets found in most gothic literature. Gothic literature is used to create mystery and to keep the reader interested; it is a very effectively used form of literature used in many old fashioned and modern pieces to add a very distinctive atmosphere to the story told.