In terms of the basic definition, the story ” The Enormous Radio” by John Cheever is a gothic story because the events that happened in the story pushed the boundaries of a normal reality in the story, for example, the family recently got a new radio and while this radio was malfunctioning it started to project the conversations and events happening all around them through the radio and as the story continues the wife becomes invested in hearing all these stories even going as far as locking herself in a room with the radio, towards the end we start to see signs of the central gothic iorny as soon as the husband comes back from fixing the radio the sense of peacefulness and tranquility disappears the radio return to normal and the family begins to have arguments like how an everyday family would they are thrown back into a reality where households are messy and not perfect.
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The Enormous Radio can be considered gothic because instead of listening to normal music from the radio, the Westcotts discover that they are listening to the conversations and arguments of their neighbours. They seem to invade others’ privacy so often, which isn’t very normal or okay. And at the end of the story, Jim reveals that Irene is a thief. And since the radio is working again, Irene is trying so hard to find a station where she can hear the neighbors’ conversations.The radio seems to have become the most important thing in Irene’s life. Irene’s behavior is irrational. Irene also seems to focus on negativity and believes that most people are evil. This kind of behavior and thinking is normal for gothic literature.
One reason why “The Enormous Radio” cannot be called Gothic is because the lack of extreme terror or gory behavior . First of all, the setting is not gothic at all. Jim and Irene live in an apartment in a large building. A story that is labeled gothic is usually set in eerie or sinful places like old houses,,and maybe even a dark room. Nothing tragic happens to any of the main characters, Irene and her husband. There are no unusual events that frightens or enthrall the reader.
I am of the opinion that “The Enormous Radio” qualifies as gothic literature because there is an atmosphere transgressive emotion and action involved with the radio and Irene’s desire to continue to hear the secret lives of others. It is taboo to secretly listen to others conversations. Yet it could be argued that Irene had a passion for hearing what went on behind the closed doors of her neighbors. She was doing the forbidden and went against the norms of polite society by engaging in her listening to what was coming in through the radio. There is also an element of CGI when after the husband has the radio “fixed,” it no longer projects the lives of the neighbors. Irene is even hoping at the end  of the story, when her husband is arguing with her, degrading her with his questions of her mistakes and errors in life, that she can escape her feelings by hearing the pains of others. I think that is very normal in 2021, to look for others pain and misery on social media so that one can feel better about themself.
John Cheever’s “The Enormous Radio” does not fall into the category of Gothic Literature. The story is of a normal husband and wife that do normal activities you would find most couples doing. They enjoy music and going out and sitting listening to the radio together. The husband buys his wife a new radio after the old one breaks. Unfortunately, the new radio has some wiring issues. It starts picking up conversations of other households in the building. Not every apartment comes through the radio and they cannot “tune in” to any specific apartment they want to. I believe that these other apartments must have some form of electrical equipment with a mic that allows for the conversations to be picked up and crossed through the radio waves. We can confirm this being a normal occurrence when the husband has a repairman come and “fix” the radio. After it is fixed it no longer gets its radio waves mixed up and projects the music coming from the stations it is tuned to. Like most couples, these two have good times and bad times, as witnessed at the end of the story when they argue. While the husband is mean and bringing up old items of concern in an effort to put his wife down, this is something that can happen in any couples relationship.
John Cheever’s “The Enormous Radio” can be seen as gothic because of how the radio has supernatural elements incorporated into it, The story starts off with Jim and Irene Wescott both living comfortably in their home in Manhattan with their two kids. As the radio breaks down, they decide to buy a new one. The radio was purchased to provide entertainment for the Westcotts, but they soon discovered that they could hear all of their neighbors’ conversations. Irene becomes so fixated on listening in on her neighbor’s conversations that she loses sight of her own problems. This can be seen as another gothic element called “emotional distress” because of how she starts to become depressed compared to how lighthearted she was at the beginning of the story. Jim then informs her that he has just paid the $400 bill for the radio. He claims that the radio is likely to be the family’s final indulgence for the year, as things at work are slowing down. He expresses financial concern and chastises Irene for failing to pay her clothing bills. Irene urges Jim to lower his voice when he raises his because she is concerned that they will be overheard on the radio. Jim becomes enraged and begins yelling at Irene about her previous transgressions, which include stealing jewelry from her mother, refusing to help her sister, and having an abortion. This made Irene turn on the radio for comfort, only to hear the news playing.
Although John Cheever’s “The Enormous Radio” does include some gothic elements, it can also not be seen as one due to how the story doesn’t feature a dark and gritty setting and atmosphere like most gothic literature as the story starts off in a joyful setting with both of them living in a building. It also lacks common gothic elements like showing nightmares, curses, mystery, or paranormal activity.
The story “The Enormous Radio” by John Cheever can be considered gothic for many reasons. This story has many gothic actions. For example, it includes acting irrational when Irene chooses to continue to listen in on peoples conversations even though it’s causing her to become in sort “crazy” and is morally wrong. This can also be considered dwelling in negativity because Irene keeps on listening to the radio even though it is just arguments between couples and eventually puts a strain on her marraige to Jim. Gothic emotions are also shown in this story such as cruelty, violence, and shock. These emotions are shown, for example, when Irene hears the couple that is arguing and hears the husband hutting his wife. Also in the end when Jim and Irene are arguing and Jim talks about Irene having an abortion and acting like she didn’t care. That would be considered cruel and shocking. At the end of the story we have a return to normalcy when Irene and Jim began to argue and this is also very ironic because througout the story Irene listens in on all these other couples arguing and thinks her marriage is perfect but in the end her marriage is shown to not be perfect at all and she has many of the issues these other people had.
“The Enormous Radio” can also be considered not gothic. One reason i would say this story can be considered not gothic is because of the setting. A story that is gothic is usually set somewhere more eerie or sinsiter like old houses, castles, and dark spaces. But this story is set in a normal apartment building that has nothing uncanny about it. It is a normal building full of families and couples.
The story “The Enormous Radio” can be viewed as gothic for a couple of reasons. The main reasons is how there are some gothic actions and emotions throughout the story. Irene realizes that the radio her husband Jim bought her can actually hear into other peoples apartments. Throughout the story she starts eves dropping more and more into the other neighbors apartments. She does it so often that it starts making her more and more sad and depressed. Even though she knows she shouldn’t and that’s it’s wrong to listen in on other peoples lives without permission, she still does it even after her husband told her not to. The radio itself can even be viewed as a sort of plot point, the point being that it’s a trap. Ever since the radio came into their lives, it’s caused more problems between the two. Later on in the story we find out that one of their neighbors, Mr. Osborn was beating his wife and can be heard through the radio. That whole scene was quite suspenseful as it happened quite suddenly. Not only that but it’s based off of a real sensitive topic, domestic violence. The biggest shock in my opinion is when Jim completely loses it and goes off on Irene at the end. It came as a surprise and the whole ending was quite suspenseful and chaotic. Not only that but he was completely degrading her by bringing up all the horrible things she’s done in the past. From not giving her own sister part of their mother’s will to even having an abortion. Trying to prove that she’s not as nice and innocent as she thinks she is. With all of these gothic elements, actions and emotions, I think this story can very well be classified as gothic.
Although this story can be seen as gothic, it can also be argued that it’s not. For starters, the setting isn’t close to being gothic at all. Jim and Irene live in an apartment of a big building. And although their described as average people it’s safe they’re good with money since they have a maid and handyman. Nothing in the apartment gives off any cryptic or unsettling vibes. There’s also not a lot of super strong gothic emotions like terror, extreme fear, nightmares, death, madness. Someone could read this story and not think much of it or feel any of these emotions at all. It’s only until the very end when we start getting some emotions from the characters.
In the short story The Enormous Radio, It can be evident that it is a gothic piece in literature for a number of reasons. For starters, the wife Irene Westcott stumbles upon something uncanny when her husband Jim Westcott Purchases a new radio for her as a gift but notices the seemingly peculiar detail that she can hear everything her neighbors are saying, doing and experiencing. To the person in this situation it might seem as if the events unfolding are supernatural but in reality it could be something completely scientific like the interception of radio waves through other electrical appliances. This is also a common theme amongst gothic literature, the occurrence of events that seem unnatural but have a completely logical explanation unknownst to the characters presented to us. Another example that this text might be an example of gothic literature is when Irene has invested her time into listening to the conflicts of the other tenants in the building and their relationships through the radio and has a conflicting thought when her husband comes home that he is unsatisfied. She begins to break down in tears and questions the stability of her relationship to her husband which is a prime example of the gothic emotions of romance and passion.
On the other hand the story can be a simple work of fiction because of the missing elements and actions of gothic literature. Besides the unnatural occurrence there isn’t really a dark or unsettling nature to the characters or setting of the environment. There is also no sign of a hero or villain complex throughout the story. There is also no example of extreme shock, fear, or violence. The only event of violence that takes place is when Irene hears one of her other neighbors experiencing events of domestic violence but neither death or serious injury takes place in order to cause a truly effective change to the overall plot of the story.
John Cheever’s “The Enormous Radio” can be considered gothic because of its excessive dwelling in negativity. This is shown in the story when Irene Westcott keeps on listening to the radio throughout the day and learning about people’s secrets. The radio exposes a lot of people’s problems and abuse of others which was disturbing to Irene. These secrets were shocking to her but she keeps on listening even though it was upsetting and ruining her relationship with her husband (Jim Westcott). At the end of the story, Irene was in denial of her own wrongdoings and wanted to help others which made Jim angry. This leads to more negativity as Jim exposes their financial problems and Irene’s past of hurting others with no remorse. Irene could have stopped using the radio to stop the negativity/problem but chose to keep listening.
One reason why “The Enormous Radio” can’t be considered gothic is the lack of extremes. What happened throughout the story was very tame compared to other gothic stories and there wasn’t anything unexpected. The problems people have in the story are very normal and Irene Westcott is too delusional to stop herself from overreacting. Â
The Enormous Radio can be considered Gothic because of the radio that Jim brought hime for his wife Irene. There was Gothic actions such as dwelling in the negativity. The radio wasn’t just a regular radio that played random music, instead it was invading every neighbor’s personal life, their privacy. Irene, always turned on the radio and started hearing either a man or a lady talking. She was always listening to it whenever she got a chance that everything she heard about her neighbors started affecting her mind, it started to get her a bit traumatized. On the radio she heard that one of her neighbor’s couldn’t pay the medical bill due to financial problems. Another one, that Mr. Osborn had been abusing his wife. It all left her depressed, thinking about her own life with Jim that she started asking questions to Jim for reassurance that they aren’t living that sad life. But, towards the end of the story, you see the actual life they’re both living, seems similar to their neighbors. Jim starts exposing Irene’s sins over money issues. You see that Irene is now addicted to listening to other people’s personal life, invading privacy.
The Enormous Radio can also be considered not Gothic because of the setting. In Gothic literature, the setting is more of a dark space, castle, church, graves, etc. But, the setting to this story was at home. It was a regular day at home. Also, there was no death scene that happened in the story, no terror either. Nothing really happened to Jim nor his wife Irene.
The Enormous Radio can be considered gothic because instead of listening to normal music from the radio, the Westcotts discover themselves listening to their neighbors’ conversations and arguments. Mrs Westcott can’t seem to enjoy this.. One day, she discovers that a neighbor is experiencing domestic violence. She asks her husband to go and help her but he believes that they should just stay put and mind their business. Mr Wescott notices his wife gradually becoming interested in the conversations of their neighbors that the radio is playing. He thinks that his wife should stop listening but she continues. Jim addresses Irene about her past sins and also their family’s financial difficulties. Jim, refusing to remain involved in Irene’s delusionary ideas, forces Irene to admit her dishonest attempts to keep up appearances.
The Enormous radio may be considered not gothic because of the setting, time and events taking place. Gothic fiction usually has something to do with horror, terror, suspicions, etc, and the Enormous Radio doesn’t have much of this going on.Nothing tragic happens to any of the main characters Irene and her husband. There are no unusual events that will have the reader in a state of terror or at the edge of their seat.
