The Art of Dying - Blog Share

I always find something interesting at The Gothic Library. The latest installment is no exception, talking about the peculiar ways and meanings behind death in Gothic literature, when the deaths of characters abound in our everyday media-The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, etc. etc.

I agree it is essential to remember that, as much as we might miss Glenn Rhee, or, you know, anyone in Westeros, that without the framing of a death in Gothic tropes, the tendency is to minimize that loss. But when a character dies in a Gothic tale, you never let it go. It's the central driving force of the tale: who and how someone died, by whose hands, for what reason...is that person truly dead? Is their soul at rest? If not, how can that be effected? These are the ways of storytelling that make the gothic so wonderful and broad, a genre that won't ever become stale as long as people continue to pour their souls into it.

I'll add to Julia's list of memorable deaths with one that will never leave me: Lady Madeline in "The Fall of the House of Usher," by Edgar A. Poe. Madeline's death is told to the narrator, observing Roderick Usher mental breakdown, accompanied by the literal fall of his house. The haunting mood that Poe describes as Usher's state of mind- telling of Madeline's death, followed by questioning, doubting, denying, and fearing the lack of death and what it hath wrought-it haunts me still.

If you've enjoyed the content on my page and have any affection for Gothic fiction, I heartily recommend The Gothic Library. If Poe is what you're after, read "The Fall of the House of Usher" here.