The Goophered Grapevine and The Sheriff's Children

We have now entered the Southern Gothic portion of the course, and I was surprised by the similarities, but also the differences in Southern Gothic compared to the traditional American and British Gothic stories.  The Goophered Grapevine by Charles Chesnutt was one of the first Southern Gothic stories, written in 1887, and was a difficult read.  The story talks about the history of a grapevine plantation and how it was "goophered."One of the slaves, Henry, and been goophered because of magic and his body was like the life cycle of the grapes.  When the vines were healthy during the spring and summer, he was strong, but by winter he would be weak and old.  His owner would always sell him for a high price and get him back for a low price.  The story had many elements of the Southern Gothic, including the plantation, decay, and slaves.  The plantation is the heart of the story, and is described as "decayed" with "broken-down arbors."  Like the South declined after the Civil War, so does the plantation, a relic of the past.  However, the story was written as written from an old black man's point of view, and he speech was downright impossible to understand.  I'm not sure if that is how they really talked, or if it is a form of condescension.

The Sheriff's Children was an excellent story, with an ending that represents how many blacks and people of color felt in the South, even after they were "freed."  The story is set in North Carolina in the village of Troy, where apparently a "negro" killed Captain Walker.  The townspeople decide to try to lynch the man, but the Sheriff tries to protect him.  It is not out of kindness, but out of duty.  However, he later learns that he is the father of the mulatto man, and sold his mother and his son.  The man escapes and tries to kill the Sheriff, but his daughter comes in the nick of time and injures the mulatto man.  He man is left in the jail cell overnight and dies in the morning because he tore his bandage off and bled to death.  This story most directly looks at racial barriers and interracial sex.  I was completely thrown off when I found out that the man in jail was the son of the Sheriff.  This relationship is used to directly talk about colored people's rights.  For instance, the mulatto man says, "I learned to feel no degree of learning or wisdom will change the color of my skin and that I shall always wear what in my own country is a badge of degradation."  The ending is almost shocking has the man decides to bleed to death, demonstrating that he, like many others in his position, feel hopeless and would rather die than face the consequences of being black in what was and partially still is a white man's world.

Edgar Allen Poe and Behind a Mask

Edgar Allen Poe is one of my favorite authors.  Ever since I read his stories for the first time in sixth grade, I became engrossed by his vivid, rich detail and grotesque, but intriguing stories.  "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "Ligeia" were the two short stories we read.  "The Fall of the House of Usher" is about how the narrator visits his old friend Usher, and stays with him because he is very sick.  Usher ends up burying his sister, Madeline alive.  Madeline escapes to fall into Usher's arms where he dies and the house begins to split in two and crumble as the narrator escapes.  "The Fall of the House of Usher" has many Gothic elements.  First, the house can be considered a doppelganger.  The house is mirrored in the water, so there are two houses, and when the house splits, the "blood-red" moon shines through, demonstrating how death prevails over life.  Edgar Allen Poe vividly personifies the furniture in the room, giving it lifelike qualities.  The House itself is almost described as a person, and is very spiritual.  Where traditional Gothic has supernatural elements, Poe concentrates on the psychology of the mind, and Usher's begins to whither away at the beginning and is totally destroyed by the end.  The Fall of the family, or the death of Usher and his sister at the end, signify the fall of the family because there is no one left to carry the line.

Ligeia is a longer story that is centered around Edgar Allen Poe's love interest, who dies.  Ligeia dies in the book, and the narrator continues his fantasies about her even though he remarries.  His addiction to opium makes him an unreliable narrator.  For example, when his second wife is poisoned, he believes that the poison appeared magically in the wine he served her, but in reality, he most likely poured it in himself.  His obsession of Ligeia mirrors Poe's obsession over his lover in real life.  Behind a Mask by Louisa May Alcott is so far the most interesting book we have read in my opinion.  The character development of Jean Muir is extraordinary and she is cunning, deceitful, but so clever that she is instantly likable.  Her performance to the family in order to gain their trust and manipulate them is very entertaining and I cannot wait to finish the book.

Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Young Goodman Brown

The Legend of Sleep Hollow and Young Goodman Brown were both relatively short, enjoyable reads.  The Legend of Sleep Hollow was one of the first American Gothic novels, and had many of the Gothic elements found in Gothic novels.  First, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a Gothic counterfeit, as it is set in a time period way before it was actually written and pretends to be like an old manuscript.  Second, Washington Irving writes under a secret name.  The setting is in a Dutch farming town, which has had supernatural incidents over the years.  Ichabod Crane comes into the town of Sleepy Hollow, hoping to educate the farm folks.  He is definitely the "anti-hero" as he is described as scrawny with a "flat head."  He teaches and helps people with singing lessons.  However, like Adeline, he is fascinated by the story of the Headless Horseman, but tries to one-up the town by creating his own ghost stories from back in Connecticut.  Brom on the other hand, would be the typical hero, except he is the villian, who bullies Ichabod to the point that he leaves Sleepy Hollow forever.  Katrina uses Ichabod to make Brom jealous, which demonstrates her power of men in the "novella."  The most comic part of the novel, is when the Headless Horseman, or Brom Bones, scares poor Ichabod and then throws his "head" at Ichabod, knowing Ichabod off his horse.  It turns out that the "head" was actually a pumpkin, and because of embarrassment, Ichabod leaves Sleepy Hollow forever.  Since the supernatural is explained, Sleep Hollow can be considered a literature of terror.

Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne was a short story about faith and sin.  I read the story in high school.  Goodman Brown is married to a woman named Faith, which is an allegory and is used in double voice discourse (DVD).  The setting is dark and mysterious, with the fog and the forest intensifying the scene.  The presence of the devil, who appears in the form of Goodman Brown's father or grandfather is another Gothic element.  Goodman Brown ends up losing his Faith, both literally and figuratively.  Dark romanticism is seen throughout the story, as the idea of sin and guilt as an inherent trait of mankind is said to Goodman Brown when he meets with the devil.  Where the other characters understand that they sin and can grow from it, Goodman Brown cannot get over the fact that sin is an inherit quality of mankind and therefore never really grows from the experience.  He instead is disgusted by everyone in his community, and basically becomes a depressed loner.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has been a fast and relatively easy read so far.  The descriptions of characters continues to become more rich as we read books that are more recent in age.  In addition, speakers have separate paragraphs, which was not seen in Northanger Abbey or Romance of the Forest.  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde reminds me of a traditional Gothic novel, with a spooky setting and supernatural elements.  Robert Louis Stevenson sets London as a very dark, creepy, and dangerous place.  It seems that the characters are in the upper-crust of society, as Dr. Jekyll has two houses and very nice paintings in his house.  Mr. Utterson also seems to be quite wealthy and very curious about Dr. Jekyll and his behavior.  Mr. Hyde is described similarly by all characters as, "dwarfish and an impression of deformity without nameable malformation" and has an "unknown disgust and loathing" (Stevenson 73).  Throughout the novel, Stevenson plays on this duality of nature, the good and the evil, the beautiful and the horrific, and the calm and salvage, by showing the two sides of Dr. Jekyll and his counter self Mr. Hyde.  Mr. Hyde is brutal, ugly, horrific and has no sense of right and wrong, as he trampled over a child and beat a man to death in the street. 

It is interesting to note that there have been no mention of women, which is a common theme in Stevenson novels.  Also, there seems to be no hero, more of just a man who is torn between two people, that up to this point he can't control when and where it happens.  One motif that has been recurring is violence against the innocent, as the child is trampled and the man is cruelly beat to death.  Mr. Lanyon dies from something that has happened to him regarding Mr. Hyde.  I am excited to finish the novel and see what happens, and I am hoping for a happy ending.

A clip from the 1912 movie of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqkeemU7fyk