In the assigned readings of “The House of Asterion,” and “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” the gothic elements: characters, themes, settings—that are present are more nuanced than with other gothic stories that were assigned before. In each of these stories, a level of goth was less overt than a story as chilling as “The Black Cat,” by Edgar Allen Poe. Before it matters which of the gothic elements need be attributed to the stories, gothic elements need to be outlined for what they are. Gothic elements appear in varied ways throughout literature. How a work of text is categorized as gothic depends on what presence goth shows in the characters, settings, storyline, plots, etc.
A story which features gothic characters should be easily identifiable. Gothic characters tend to often be ones who possess traits that are more marginalized experiences of the sometimes “human” experience. The main character might be a loner, have a deformity, be of the supernatural realm, or someone with a mental illness. These are just a few examples but we can see that the character has an unfavorable quality or trait to them, whether internal or external. Other characters that will have a gothic element to them may be emotional, render a sort of catharsis to the story/main character, or have a vulnerable or helpless quality to them as well.
Plot points serve as a great aid in identifying a work as gothic. As the plot of any story is the overall context of the story, in a nutshell. The points that create the plot will undoubtably reveal traits that pertain to goth. Gothic plot points tend to be macabre. For instance, a reader may see that in the story there is a death, or multiple. Edgar Allen Poe’s works are often characterized as gothic and a hallmark in many of his stories is death. Secrets, traumatic events, escapes, fantasy blurring reality, isolation, emotional suffering, mental illness, and more are sometimes the issues that surround characters in these stories.
Lastly, settings of stories can also help gauge a reader whether they are reading a gothic text. The setting can “set” the tone of who the characters are, their circumstances and what issues may be prevalent in the particular time and location revealed by the author. In the settings—gothic attributes likely appear as dark spaces, confined rooms/homes, places where bad deeds occur, basements, attics, dungeons, forests, etc. There can be a wide range of settings that would fall under the goth category. But it is important to note that in these settings, there is a sense of foreboding. The setting either lends support to a gloomy character/plot point or it is the focal point of the gloom.
In “The House of Asterion,” by Jorge Luis Borges, the main character is Asterion. Asterion is a minotaur, a Greek mythological creature. A minotaur possesses the head and tail of a bull, but whose body is that of a man. An indicator of this gothic element is that Asterion is not wholly human. He has a rather interesting identity to sort himself through in this story. One of the greater plot points of his first-person narrative is that there is a discrepancy between how he views himself, his circumstances, and his environment. He is aware that others do not repute him in such a positive light. His loneliness becomes central to the plot because of his isolation. The isolation drives him to self-destruct. He describes bringing himself to bleeding from self-inflicted injuries. In his loneliness, he pretends to have company to give a tour of his home that is so massive that it seems there is no possibility of leaving. He resigns himself to believing that his only grace lies in a redeemer coming, whom he does not know what such redeemer will look like. Only that one day, the redeemer will come.
The gothic elements of this story are evident in each category of: characters, plot points, and settings. The mythological creature as a main character is gothic as the character is a minotaur, and of supernatural being related only to Greek mythology. In the plot points, we see themes of isolation and ostracization from the world. As the isolation continues, the main character indulges in his own undoing, mentally and physically. His psyche unravels and he relinquishes his fate inside the labyrinth of his home. The gothic elements here at losing control, self-destruction, fantasy of being saved, death, and fatalistic circumstances.
The story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez has many complex layers of characters and themes/plot points within. There are different perspectives that a reader can take to grasp meaning. The main character in this story is also a creature of supernatural make-up, a gothic element, similar to “The House of Asterion.” An angel, perhaps one of death that appears as a child is severely ill. Plot points that reveal gothic themes are ones of confinement, such as the angel being caged and held hostage for the views of spectators. The miraculous survival as well of the child who was deathly ill at the beginning of the story is also a quintessential gothic theme when the child recovers from his sickness.
The setting of this story features less gothic elements, but still one that is central to the story—the captivity and cage that Pelayo and Elisenda locked the angel away in. It is where the angel had pain and humiliation inflicted upon him by those wishing to get a look at the marvel in captivity.
