Gothic literature changes from age to age to reflect the current socio-cultural situation of the time. Stories such as The Italian, The Monk, Vathek and writers such as Poe, Carter, Radcliffe and Shelleyt have presented facets of the Gothic. The Gothic is the representation of the darker side of awareness, a realm of neurosis and morbidity whereby it is a fantasy world that reveals secrets of the human personality.
In this excerpt of The Italian, there are typical Gothic conventions of its age. From the setting, there is the idea of the Sublime in which it is a reflection of a situation of vastness in an imaginative, fantastical visual experience. The "grandeur" and the "proportions" in the "memorial" invoked Ellena's awe and excess of emotions due to its majestic, grand and infinite characteristics that seems to overpower and pervade the environment for "everywhere prevailed". From the imagery of infinite "proportions" and "mass", man is seen as insignificant. The idea of the......
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Approximate Word Count: 1430
Approximate Pages: 6 (260 words per double-spaced page) |