What is Gothic / Gothic elements in Waste Land

1. What is Gothic?
I. An English genre of fiction popular in the 18th to early 19th centuries,
characterized by an atmosphere of mystery and horror and having a pseudo-
medieval setting.
II. The term Gothic fiction refers to a style of writing that is characterized by
elements of fear, horror, death, and gloom, as well as romantic elements, such
as nature, individuality, and very high emotion. These emotions can include
fear and suspense.
This style of fiction began in the mid-1700s with a story titled, The Castle of
Otranto (in 1764), by Horace Walpole. This story was about a doomed family
and is filled with death, desire, and intrigue. This story is considered to be the
first of the Gothic fiction tales, since it encompassed many of the
characteristics of the genre. The term Gothic actually originated as a term
belittling the architecture and art of the period, which was dark, decaying, and
dismal
Some examples:
I. Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto was published in 1765 and is
sometimes cited as one of the first gothic novels
II. Anne Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho was published in 1794
III. Jane Austen parodies the gothic genre in her 1818 novel Northanger
Abbey
The settings: were often old, dilapidated buildings or houses in gloomy, lifeless,
fear-inducing landscapes (The Fall of the House of Usher, is a great example of the
use of nature and setting as a fearful element). Much of the literature involved
monsters, such as vampires, who brought suffering and death to the forefront. There
were also stories that simply displayed these elements of fear and suffering in the
settings themselves.
Purpose of Gothic Poetry, or any art?
I. In gothic poems, dark poems or any "art", goal is to seek EMOTIONS and
REACTIONS. To play with fears of your own mind. Gothic Poetry might be
well aimed finger to poke places and fears, to poke things where it hurts.

2. II. The purpose of any art is to make people think things, to look those things
from different points of view, to see beyond fears and beyond own narrow
scope on things. Also, one purpose is to try show people that they are not only
one with dark thoughts, show people maybe some their own fears or thoughts
in writing, show that they are not alone.
Gothic elements in " The Waste Land " section 1 " the burial of the dead "?
T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” is a dark and gloomy view of a zombified
modern experience. In accordance with the tenets of representing the fear
seen in postmodernism, Eliot uses Gothic images to show the bleakness of the
modern world in all of its terror.
Post-modernism embodies a tone of the external world being
unrecognizable, and thus invoking fear within its concepts. It shares the idea
of Gothic literature portraying the terror of unknown monsters and demons,
but it is the modernity itself, which has become the demonized unknown
within the context of postmodernism. The poem's setting is a vision of the
Gothic terrain, with its "heap of broken images," "That corpse you planted last
year in your garden," "The wind under the door," "bones cast in a little low dry
garret,”.
There are several gothic elements which have an important dimension in “The
Waste Land,” one of which being the image of death. The concept of death in
Eliot’s masterpiece brings significance in its symbolic nature, not necessarily
purely physical. Eliot presented a spiritual and emotional death, rather than
purely emphasizing the physicality of the experience . Thus, there are dead
men walking. Those within the cities have died a “symbolic death,” refusing
to move on towards an area of more spiritual significance They have died in a
much more spiritually significant manner.
Moreover, there is the element of haunting that is common within Gothic
literature and is replayed in Eliot’s image of the world’s Metropolis death.
Haunting plays an important role within postmodernism and Eliot’s work “The
Waste Land.” He shows the dead men walking as haunting the earth.
Research suggests that “The terror of the Gothic therefore […] functions as a
deconstructive counter-narrative which presents the darker side of subjectivity,
the ghosts of otherness that haunt our fragile selves,”
The structure of the poem itself also helps portray Gothic imagery. There is
“Gothic imaginary at work on a number of different levels supporting the
theme of terror and linguistic frustration,” The introduction is in Latin and
Greek, which anchors the gothic themes of the past that is so far removed from
us. From there, Eliot consistently writes in fragmented words and phrases
which then represent the fragmented lives being lived within the context of
modernity. Thus, “the nightmare of fragmentation will persistently haunt the
ego as a recollection of its functionality,”

3. T.S Eliot, one of his horrific images in the poem ,will show you fear in
handful of dust ''in handful of dust'', is a fearful image that he will show the
reader that his life worth nothing. It may also remind them of their end.
Another example of the horrific images , (Those are pearls that were his eyes.
Look!) This is an image of ugliness and horror. It is horrific image of white
ball of the eye that is shining like the pearl in the bottom of the water. ''Look''
is an invitation to see the actual death, destruction and alienation of the person.
Nothing remains of him but a blank look in the eyes. It is a fearful ugly
horrific picture, and that images emphasis in the gothic elements.