Jessie Hou
29
IEP G11
In the gothic literature, the stories mostly reflect the dark side of humanity
such as obstacles, poverty and sorrow. In Poe’s stories, this type of form is well
used. For example, one of his stories, “The Mask of the Red Death”, focuses on the
theme about death. Another work, “The Minister’s Black Veil”, by Nathaniel
Hawthorne, concentrates on sin. A characteristic of Poe’s story is that he uses
unity of effects－a skill which means that the author uses the elements like
character, traits, plot, and setting to create the mood of the story. In contrast,
Hawthorne uses a single item to create the suspense in his story. In each of their
stories, they focus on different elements to create the mood. In “The Mask of the
Red Death”, Poe built suspense by portraying the environment, but in “The
Minister’s Black Veil”, Hawthorne created suspense by using symbolism.
In “The Mask of the Red Death”, Poe put more effort on picturing the image
of the castle. Prince Prospero protects the nobles and knights by having them live
in the castle. In doing so, this prevents the nobles and knights from getting in
contact with the rampaging plague outside, where a mood of depression,
desolation, and fear is created. It formed a nervous and flustering tone similar to
Jessie Hou
29
IEP G11
that brought by the Black Plague during the Middle Ages.
Inside the abbey, “the echoes of the chime die away, they have endured but
an instant, and a light, half-subdued laughter floats after them as they depart”,
describes that chimes of the clock at every hour makes the mood very gruesome.
The echoes of the chimes were just like demon’s laughter, snickering at the people
hiding in the abbey who assumed they could keep away from the Red Death.
Then, among the seven chambers in the abbey, the author focuses more on
the seventh one. He briefly portrayed the colors and the decorations that give the
readers a feeling of dread. Specifically, he mentioned that “the panes were scarlet”,
which represents death because the color is just like blood. At this point, he
successfully created the horrific tone.
The climax of the story is when the masked figure suddenly appeared in the
party. In lines 142 to 143 from the story, “His vesture was dabbled in blood, and
his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet
horror” created a horrifying mood. No one knows who the terrifying-looking
person is and why he is wearing a mask. And then, a drastic conflict started
Jessie Hou
29
IEP G11
between Prince Prospero and the mysterious person. The hasty confrontation
elevated the dreadful mood by this sudden conflict. At the end of the story, all the
people in the abbey died. The moral of the story is that even the rich cannot run
away from death.
Different from “The Mask of the Red Death”, in “The Minister’s Black Veil”,
Hawthorne concentrates solely on one item, the Black Veil. In the story, the
townspeople are talking about the minister. Mr. Hooper’s sudden wearing of a
black veil creates the suspense. According to a man in the story, “something must
surely be amiss with Mr. Hooper’s intellects” means that he thinks there is
something wrong with the minister. People in the Puritan town were guessing
why the minister was wearing the black veil. The biggest problem is that the
minister never told anyone about the black veil, even his fiancé. People started to
get afraid of the minister because of the taciturnity. The nervous tone is create by
the residents in the town themselves while they’re discussing the black veil which
caused perturbation.
In the story, the black veil represents sin, but the characters have different
Jessie Hou
29
IEP G11
point of views.
When the friend shows his inmost heart to his friend; the lover to his
best beloved; when man does not vainly shrink from the eye of his
Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a
monster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die!
The people in the Puritan town were all curious and wondering if the minister has
sin or what his sin is. On the other hand, the minister saw everyone has already
sinned so that he refused to take off his black veil. He suffered under people’s
criticism and confusion. This left the story with suspense. Also, the reader can feel
the morose and sorrowful mood of Mr. Hooper.
Eventually, because of the black veil, people started to be afraid of the
minister. He appeared to have the ability to look into people’s soul.
Covered with his black veil, he stood before the chief magistrate, the
council, and the representatives, and wrought so deep an impression
that the legislative measures of that year were characterized by all the
bloom and piety of our earliest ancestral sway.
Jessie Hou
29
IEP G11
It shows the people’s fear makes them obey and venerate the minister. Their
obedience made the mood conscientious and careful.
The two stories both reflect gothic characteristics. Both Poe and Hawthorne
put the unity of effect to good use and successfully made the stories even more
vivid and colorful. Because of that reason, the gothic stories convulsed the readers.
The most significant aspect of these gothic works is that they used different ways
to display the same form. In “The Mask of the Red Death”, Poe put more effort on
describing the environment to create the suspense. On the other hand, “The
Minister’s Black Veil”, all the suspense is mainly create by a single item, the black
veil. In different ways, they both effectively show the feelings gothic stories
usually give to the readers: fear, terror, and anxiety. Last but not least, the topics of
the stories reflect in people’s daily lives, which allow the readers to make
connections and comprehend with greater ease.