Midterm essay draft

Enderson Filpo

Midterm Essay, English 2001

Oct 18, 2020

To Begin with, what do one expect when they read a gothic story? Irony. Without Irony the word gothic would not mean a thing within the story. Gothic stories can relate to the real world as death and mysteries are bound to occur. The stories, “The Black Cat” by Edgar Ellen Poe and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman demonstrates gothic and relate to one another as the characters can be compared and contrasted, both stories expresses mysteries and terror. In “The Black Cat” the narrator is known for loving his cat and wife but resulted in a denouement ending. The story reflects to Poe’s word perverse in which “makes people do things they know will be bad for themselves”, the narrator was an alcoholic who murdered his cat who he thought was avoiding him this falls under self-destruction as being an alcoholic causes mood swings even if their friendship was good. The narrator’s childhood must have been devastating. Was it possible for the narrator to get some sort of help at some point? Or did the alcohol has already taken advantage of him which it did as it resulted for him to go from this lovely and caring person to a killer. This can be compared to “The Yellow Wallpaper” which falls under the Spirit of perverseness as well dealing with terror. The narrator is a woman diagnoses with mental illness which is going under treatment for depression. Her sanity is lost as she refuses to get treated as she keeps her journal hidden from her husband. This reflects to self-destruction as her mental illness has already gotten worst by being obsessed with the wallpaper in her room as she sees a woman trapped behind bars. This resulted in her starting to feel the wallpaper and kept it all to herself instead of informing her husband, which then led to her loss of sanity as it was too late. Afterall, I will be discussing the story, “The Black Cat” gothic emotions and compare/contrast it to the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”.