What Gothic elements can be found in the story “The Black Cat”? What Gothic elements can be found in the story “Berenice”? How are the two stories similar and how are they different from one another?

Answer + Explanation:

What Gothic elements can be found in the story “The Black Cat”?

“The Black Cat” has a damsel in distress, played by the narrator’s, wife, who becomes the damsel when the narrator deliberately spaces himself from her, isolating her, and eventually causing fatal harm to her. Another element that makes this story Gothic is the fact that the narrator himself is a solitary madman with an alcohol addiction!  This is a Gothic element because the character of a madman was a very popular and commonly used aspect of Gothic literature. Another aspect that makes this story Gothic is the author’s use of a hidden room. After the narrator kills his wife, he pulls down a small section of the basement and hides his wife’s corpse inside. Then, he quickly relayed all the bricks and put down a new layer of plaster to conceal her!  A different common aspect of Gothic literature was the idea of having very grotesque and gory descriptions or happenings throughout the story. The author utilizes this idea in two different ways such as the thoughts of the narrator when he was thinking of how to dispose of the body and also of the body itself when it was later recovered.

What Gothic elements can be found in the story “Berenice”?

Edgar Allan Poe is known for his gothic style of writing and this story has obvious gothic elements. The setting itself is very gothic. Egaeus lives in a large mansion described as gloomy and grey. The character of Egaeus is very gothic in that he lives in his mind and is very disconnected from the world. He was born in the library and is preoccupied with books and studying. This keeps him isolated from the rest of the world. Berenice is a common gothic character as well. She starts out healthy but deteriorates quickly. Her frame becomes emaciated and her beauty fades. Her character becomes a haunting figure in the life of Egaeus. The themes of the story are also very gothic. For example, mental illness is prevalent throughout the story. Egaeus suffers from monomania, which is characterized by excessive concentration on a particular object. This seems to cause him great distress throughout the story. One of the most gothic moments of the story is Egaeus’s obsession with Berenice’s teeth, which leads him to dig up her body and extract them from her mouth while she is still alive. The death of a beautiful woman is also very gothic as is the idea of being buried alive.

How are the two stories similar and how are they different from one another?

The two stories are similar since they both have gothic elements in their story and the two are both different since they both are dealing with separate storylines.

[You can elaborate on that yourself from the other two questions and such.]

Side Note:

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