“At its heart, Gothic Fiction is the introvert's "Hero's Journey" where heroes and
heroines must navigate the uncharted territory of the mind in order to solve the
mystery of their life's adventure.” is a quote by Barrymore Tebbs, which describes
about Gothic Literature. There are several elements in Gothic Literature, which create
feelings of mysterious, bizarre, and gloom. During the Gothic Literature,
Psychological overlay is a typical element in Gothic Literature which usually
describes that how characters are affected by their surroundings and their inner
thoughts. For instance, in the story “the Birthmark”, in which the main character,
Alymer, deeply believe in human perfection, therefore he tried to prove this by
erasing his wife’s birthmark, and in the story “Ligeia”, in which the narrator displays
an unceasing love towards his defunct wife, Ligeia, we could see the Gothic elements
that reflect the psychological overlay affected by their inner thoughts.
The Birthmark written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a significant gothic novel. The
gothic elements in it can be seen by looking at the main character, Alymer, who
deeply believed and advocated in science. Alymer symbolizes of the men of science,
he was greatly influenced by his thoughts of that perfection can be created by humans.
In the beginning of the story, the dream that Alymer had, which is the removal of the
birthmark will be an utter failure and also, by experiencing so much failures from the
removal surgeries have foreshadowed that at last, Alymer is still not going to succeed.
But Alymer did not care because he truly devoted himself into science and believe in
it completely. “[W]ith her whole spirit she prayed that, for a single moment, she might
satisfy his highest and deepest conception. Longer than one moment she well knew it
could not be; for his spirit was ever on the march, ever ascending . . . [requiring]
something that was beyond the scope of the instant before.” This quote from the story
has showed that Alymer’s wife, Georgiana, already knows that true perfection will
never exist, but because of Alymer’s dementedly pursuing flawless which is to
remove his wife’s birthmark, his wife died at last. “Thus ever does the gross fatality
of earth exult in its invariable triumph over the immortal essence which, in this dim
sphere of half development, demands the completeness of a higher state. Yet, had
Alymer reached a profounder wisdom, he need not thus have flung away the
happiness which would have woven his mortal life of the selfsame texture with the
celestial.” But surprisingly, as we can see from the quote, he was laughing while
Georgiana is about to die. Because he’s enjoying in the transitory that while
Georgiana is dying, after all these experiments, she is finally perfect.
In addition, in Gothic Literature, the setting of the story is also an essential
implication of the elements in Gothic literature. The setting of the Birthmark is in the
laboratory where Aylmer worked and did all of the experiments, and also the boudoir
for Georgiana. “Around the room were retorts, tubes, cylinders, crucibles, and other
apparatus of chemical research. An electrical machine stood ready for immediate use.
The atmosphere felt oppressively close, and was tainted with gaseous odors that had
been tormented forth by the processes of science. The severe and homely simplicity of
the apartment, with its naked walls and brick pavement, looked strange, accustomed
as Georgiana had become to the fantastic elegance of her boudoir.” This is how the
author describes the surrounding of the laboratory, which uses plenty of gothic
description in it. Gothic Literature’s surrounding is mostly in somewhere dark and
bizarre, for instance, in this quote, it describes the atmosphere as oppressively close,
and was tarnished with gaseous effluvium. It also describes the surrounding with
naked walls and brick pavement, and it was looking strange. By this we could see
what the setting of Gothic Literature is about, the extremely bizarre and gloomy
surroundings.
“The boundaries which divide life from death are at best shadowy and vague.
Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?” Edgar Allan Poe
clearly shows the relationship between live and death. In his significant Gothic work
Ligeia, the theme is overwhelmingly surrounded by the circumstance of love and
obsession towards death. The narrator sees Ligeia as the representative of perfection,
therefore after her death, he still cannot let go of his love towards her. “bridal couch--of an Indian model, and low, and sculptured of solid ebony, with a pall-- like canopy
above. In each of the angles of the champer stood on end a gigantic sarcophagus of
black granite, from the tombs of the kings over against Luxor, with their aged lids full
of immemorial sculpture.” From this we could see how he sees Ligeia, he describes
her as an Indian model and said that there are angels around her.
The setting of the story Ligeia also reveals the Gothic element, in which how the
narrator describes the window of the bridal chamber: “whole southern face of the
pentagon was the sole window—an immense sheet of unbroken glass from Venice—a
single pane, and tinted of a leaden hue, so that the rays of either the sun or moon,
passing through it, fell with a ghastly lustre on the objects within.” The narrator uses
the adjectives that vividly demonstrate the odd shape and symbolization of the
pentagon. It displays the fundamental of the Gothic elements.
Among this two works of Gothic Literature, in my opinion, the story the
Birthmark put the Gothic tradition into more meaningful use. During the Birthmark,
because of Aylmer’s insistence on perfection therefore causes the death of his wife.
This has taught us that we cannot change the imperfection that has go along with us
since the day we were born. Edagar Allan Poe once said, “I have no faith in human
perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon
humanity. Man is now only more active- not more happy-nor more wise, than he was
6000 years ago.” I think that the Birthmark wanted to tell us that imperfection is the
truly beauty, sin is what that everyone has. There’s no need to be perfect because
flawless never exists.
Bibliography:
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on The Birthmark.” SparkNotes.com.
SparkNotes LLC. 2007. Web. 26 Nov. 2013.
<http://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/the-birthmark/quotes.html>
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Poe’s Short Stories.”
SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002. Web. 26 Nov. 2013
<http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/poestories/section2.rhtml>