Wide Reading – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

“Everyone has secrets. It’s just a matter of finding out what they are.”

The girl with the dragon tattoo is a gothic novel written by Stieg Larsson. It tells the story about a Journalist by the name of Mikael Blomkvist, who is hired by Henrik Vanger, to find out who murdered his niece more than 40 years earlier. Mikael works with Lisbeth Salander (the girl with the dragon tattoo), a young woman with a talent for hacking into people’s computers, the two find themselves tracking a serial killer who has murdered women for several decades. This report will illustrate Lisbeth Salander’s traits of a common gothic protagonist, also how this novel represents common gothic tones and moods. Lastly I will write a personal response on my perspective on this book and how I found this read.

Lisbeth Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo shows traits of a common gothic protagonist. She has a modern gothic appearance marked with piercings, tattoos, black hair and gothic clothes. Salander finds herself often misinterpreted by her scary presence and other characters in this story don’t want to mess with her, people thought she was dangerous when she was young but she actually won’t hurt anyone, unless they mess with her. Salander shows strong contrasting qualities thought out this book which is one of the main features that a gothic protagonist holds. Another feature that is displayed by Larsson is the influence of Salander’s past events on her future, because of her dark past that is explained in this book, Lisbeth has foreshadowed that something bad is going to happen later on in the read. At the beginning on the book we are told that Lisabeth has had no real family and she is frequently and brutally assaulted by her adult guardian. Because we are told this it makes me thing that something else along the lines of assault are going to happen otherwise the author wouldn’t have bothered to add this part in. At the end of the book we are told that the serial killer sexually assaults girls before he murders them which I had though as it was foreshadowed on earlier in the book. This part of the book is quite unsettling and is not very nice to read, which is commonly found in gothic fiction. I think that if the assault was not added into the book it would most definitely not be as unsettling therefore not as strong a gothic novel.

This novel displays common gothic tones and moods during the whole of the read. The tone that we get from this by the author is very unsettling, the story line for this book is very different from anything else I have read. The tone is gloomy and cold, the town that Mikael is set in is dark and cloudy, he usually goes out into the town at night which then adds another spooky layer to the story. The mood that I feel is quite uneasy and sometimes I want to stop reading as its to much to take in. The strong tones and moods coming from this story is what makes it exciting, urging us to keep on reading.

Henrik Vanger has a crazy obsession with Harriets death, this is a common feature that we see in gothic protagonists. More than 30 years later he’s still wants to no what happened to her. Before knowing the truth of what happened to Harriet I had considered that maybe Henrik was behind what had happened to her or wanted to set up Blomkvist for something due to his intense obsession with wanting him for the job. Henriks weird uneasy presence made me on edge when reading the book as I was not sure what he was going to do around the corner.

This gothic novel displays tones and moods that make you feel uncomfortable and sometimes on edge which is commonly seen in gothic fiction. It also displays traits that gothic protagonists hold, how they may have weird and abnormal obsessions with things, how past events in there lives effect the future and also how Salanders appearance displays features that the modern world views as ‘Goth’.

From reading this story I have released the extent of how badly some people are abused and mistreated, also how well nasty people can cover up what they have done. During the majority of the book I had though of Marten Vanger to be one of the good people in the family, one of the last people I had expected to be the cause of Harriets disappearance, this just shows how sick some people are in the world and that you can never fully trust someone.

Wide Reading – Ruined

“The past doesn’t go away. You just can’t see it anymore.”

Ruined is a gripping gothic novel written by Paula Morris, a story about a young girl who goes to live in New Orleans with her Aunty and Cousin as her Dads away on business. Rebecca (the main protagnist) has to attend a new school, without any friends. She decides to go to cemetery at night to spy on the cool kids from the year above, on her way out she runs into a mysterious girl who gives her directions home. Rebecca visits the cemetery often and learns more about this girl, finding out that she is a ghost. Learning that Lisette, murdered over 150 years ago by a member from one of the most important families in New Orleans (Bowman family), Lisette is destined to roam the grounds of the cemetery until the curse has lifted and she is set free to heaven. Rebecca is only to find out that she is a bowman girl by blood and her father has been lying to her all these years to try and keep her safe from the curse. She could be the last of the bowman daughters to die on her 17th birthady and take the curse with her, with help from her friends Lisette and Anton she makes it out alive but its Lisettes time to move on.

I believe that this novel shows a lot of gothic elements, the setting that is described in this text holds common features that are displayed in gothic fiction. When reading Ruined we see that Rebecca has a strong attraction to the nonhuman/supernatural world and that her emotions and curiosity override reason and what is right. Because of her curiosity to the supernatural world she gets herself into dangerous situations. These elements will be discussed in my report and I will explian how I feel about this novel.

There is tendency to keep looking over your shoulder throughout this read, making you feel cool and sense everything around, feeling as if we are in Rebeccas shoes. New Orleans is described as a gloomy, rundown town with grey skies. We feel cool when settings in this book are explained as its not very comforting to be apart of. There are many old houses that play a part in this read, adding to the spooky feel of New Orleans. Rebecca explains the Bowmans house as a mansion with lots of hidden secrets, when she visits the house in the book, Rebecca is not feeling very comfortable, she feels exposed like eyes are watching her from in the walls, she has to go outside to escape the unsettling feel of the Bowmans house. The cemetery is a main scene in this text, filled with tombs and graves, Rebecca spends a majority of her time in the cemetery during the night which adds extra tension to the story. A dark setting is described when ever Rebecca is in the cemetery, arced entrances, crows flying around, narrow alleys, shadowy corners and we are told that the cemetery has a large steel fence around it, Rebecca get stuck in the cemetery a few times as she dose not escape before the gates are locked. The fence around the cemetery acts as a cage in this story, a trap that people are frightened of.

During the whole of this text we see that Rebecca is driven by passion and emotions rater than reason. If Rebecca listened to her aunt, not visiting the cemetery she wouldn’t have meet Lisette, then Rebecca wouldn’t have learnt about the curse on the Bowman family. Because of her curiosity she was put in harms way just about getting herself killed.

“‘That cat is setting a very bad example,’ sighed Aunt Claudia, shaking her head. She seemed to have forgotten about making Rebecca promise things, which was just as well. Rebecca was hoping to follow Marilyn’s (the cat) lead sometime soon. She was from New York, after all. A small cemetery in a tiny city like this didn’t frighten her.” Throughout this novel Rebecca is determined to avoid what her Aunt says, because of her curiosity of what on the other side of the cemetery gate, Rebecca does not think about the consciences her actions could have. Putting her life in danger and changing the future for Rebecca.

Rebecca is badly influenced by her past, and it effects her future. Rebecca is put in danger, nearly getting her killed because her father lied about her past, the curse that was put upon the family. Rebecca not knowing about the curse set upon her family adds more tension to the story as it is just as much a shock to the reader as it is to Rebecca.

The main element in this novel is Rebecca’s easy assertion to the supernatural (nonhuman) world. Through out the text she is always hanging out with her ghost friend Lisette, Rebeccas curiosity plays a major role with her interactions with the supernatural world. Rebecca forces Lisette to tell her more and more about her life and the curse, as her obsession with the supernatural world is growing. Rebecca wants to meet other ghosts and know what happened to them, even thought she is frightened by the idea her mind does not let her give up until she knows everything.

During this read I felt as if there was some uncertainty to what was going to happen, at times the book felt as if it was about to end as every thing had been explained that we new of. But then there would be a ‘plot twist’ and something else would come up, e.g finding out that Rebecca is apart of the bowman family. I think that the author of this book made us think as if it was all over on purpose as it made me feel doubtful and uncomfortable kepting me on edge as I wasn’t to sure on what was in the next chapter.

When reading Ruined the attraction to the supernatural world and Rebeccas curiosity really makes the book interesting to read, as we are not sure what is around the corner. The setting in this book plays a big part in making the reader feel uneasy and on edge, I really enjoyed reading this text because the way that Paula describes settings in this book makes it exciting and adds another spooky layer to Ruined. I really enjoyed this book and I think Paula Morris wrote it very well, she let some gothic elements show in this text but I think it should have been worked on a little more to make the reader uncomfortable like gothic fiction should. Even though the story was spooky at times I never wanted to put the book down and stop reading because it was to much. I think Morris wanted to let create a spooky story in New Orleans after the storm as it makes the text more real, as it is a real setting which adds tension to the reader.

Wide Reading – The tell tale heart

“I have lost control of my mind, why do you say that I am mad? Can you not see that I have full control of my mind? Is it not clear that I am not mad?”

The Tell Tale Heart is a gothic fiction short story written by Edgar Ellen-Poe, we are told the story about a man and his intense obsession with what he sees in another mans eye. During the story the man stalks the old man by watching him in his room as he’s obsess with the idea that the old mans eye is ‘evil’, he states that he had a eye of a vulture. The man is fixated with the idea that the old man is giving him an evil eye and that it is cursed, he says he loves the old man it was just his eye that he dreaded so very much. He ends up killing the old man just because of his eye, this tells me that the man is obviously insane and clearly over the top about his emotions. I believe that the main character in this story shows strong emotional responses and this is the element I will be discussing in this report. There are features that are used in common gothic fiction, and there are three that are used throughout this text. The story shows tension and foreshadowing, it also represents the characters contrasting actions/qualities, the man in this short story follows his emotions instead of what is right.

First of in this story we straight away notice how the man allows his emotions to exaggerate and take over. At the beginning of the story the man goes on about how he is not mad (as said in the quote above), he is trying to persuade everyone that he is not mad when he clearly is and he is making it worse. He’s states that “a madman does not plan” when he clearly is planning his actions through out the text, foreshadowing that he going to do something terrible. He is arguing with the unknown, trying to convince us the opposite to something that is very obvious, this makes him seem insane. He lets his emotions over ride what is right by going to the old mans house every night which is not normal. Once he kills the old man he then hides the dead body under the floor boards, he says that he cuts the body up into little pieces and places them carefully under the house. During this part he is saying that he is not mad because he hid him so carefully, not letting any blood drip so no-one could find it.

While I read this it makes me feel like the man is even more insane than at the beginning of the story, I feel that I or any other person with a healthy mindset, could not of think of these horrid thoughts and only someone who is so twisted could even think about doing this. When people do strange things like this in real life society looks down on the person, we lock them up and they are pretty much forgotten. We get a sick feeling about killers in real life and I get this feeling when reading this story. 

The atmosphere in this story is very tense, there are lots of short sentences and repetition to indicate to us that the man it not well and he is panicing about the eye. Using short sentences makes us think about the last sentence so the whole section is still fresh in our minds, our brains overthink what he has said adding even more tension and horror into the story. The author wants us to get an idea of this abnormal behaviour and make us uncomfortable. The crazy man has peswaded himself that the eye is evil but its all in his disturbed mind, it must relate to his sickness that he goes on about at the beginning of the story. At the beginning he tells us that he has been ill, very ill, but this has not caused him to go crazy it has only made his feelings and his senses stronger. This startles me as he says in the story that he has herd things in heaven and hell, however he does not fear those things, so the tension in the story increases making the reader on edge.

The beginning of the story plays a major part in how the man reacts, from the beginning I felt like something crazy was going to happen as the man describes his illness and his control of his mind. It puts me in an uncomfortable position as you have no idea what is going to happen in the story and just when you think you have an idea about what is happening another strange event happens. I think Edgar used foreshadowing in the beginning of the story to indicate the sense of sanity. The first paragraph told me that the man is unstable if not crazy. The man claims he is not mad yet he wants to kill the old man because his eye bothers him. This certainly foreshadows the narrator as unreliable, hence his eventual mental breakdown.

From the story I feel that I cannot relate to his thoughts and what he feels towards the old man as its very abnormal, at the beginning of the book he states that he loves the old man and he was very nice to him during the days coming up to his death. But then he had a very strange vibe coming from his eye, we as a reader think that the man is absolutely crazy as he is going on about how he hates the mans eye so much but he loves him at the same time. It would have been much easier for him to just avoid the old man or move past his obsession with the ‘evil eye’. His mind must be very disturbed and makes me think about what his past life was like, when I read this story I feel like he is falling deeper and deeper into insanity. His emotions are very extreme and I don’t think any normal person would go though something as intense as this.

Some times in real life we let our emotions dictate our lives and we don’t think about the consequences, Edgar Ellen-Poe defiantly shows us the results in a intense situation when you allow this to happen. He uses tension and foreshadowing to help express the discomfort felt in the story and allow the gothic elements to really shine though. Even though I could not relate to the extremes of this story I feel like everybody allows there emotions to override the correct thing to do in life situations. I believe that Poe wrote this story brilliantly and a lot of gothic elements shone though in this text.

“For it was not the old man I felt I had to kill; it was the eye, his Evil Eye.”

 

 

 

 

Gothic Protaganist? – Frankenstien

Discriptors  Traits Actions Comments
Has distinct contrasting qualities to their character.
-They have different qualities in there personality.
Diffrent personality traits. He cuts up body but then feels guilty about it. “so deeply I was engrossed in my occupation… My work drew near to a close and now everyday showed me more painly how well I had succeeded. But my enthusiasm was checked by my anxiety”
Usually of a high social rank or holds a position of power.
-‘Big dog’
The male has a higher social rank than the female. He travels around the world, owns a villa – rich.  “When my father returned from Milan, he found playing with me in the hall of our villa.”
Often surrounded by devices that foreshadow something negative.
-Text of doom.
His emotions are formed and spoken about like a lake, river, train. Saying that they are flowing from somewhere. Chooses to dismiss the warnings. “Fatal impulse that led to my ruin”
Driven by strong emotions rather than logic or reason.
-There is no real reason to why they do these things.
He has no idea why he’s doing these things but he is getting drawn to them.

He stops every thing to go and do chemistry at uni, but something draws him to leave and work in a funeral home, the devotes life to bring back the dead.

“No word, no expression could body forth the kind of relation in which she stood to me—my more than sister, since till death she was to be mine only.”
“Wealth was an inferior object, but what glory would attend the dis- covery if I could banish disease from the human frame and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!” 
Generally secretive or surrounded by air of mysyery.
-Dodgy
Keeping secrets He doesn’t have many friends and he doesn’t tell anyone about his experiment.

My temper was sometimes violent, and my passions vehement; but by some law in my temperature they were turned not towards childish pursuits but to an eager desire to learn, and not to learn all things indiscriminately.

Has a need to know or curious nature.
-Nosey
Curious Fake towards others, Once he has his mind set, he goes for it.

Thee world was to me a secret which I desired to divine.

New language

Glossary:

Hastened: be quick to do something.

Benevolent: well meaning and kindly.

Vagrants: a person without a settled home or regular work who wanders from place to place and lives by begging.

Disconsolate: very unhappy and unable to be comforted.

Abode: a place of residence; a house or home.

Indiscriminately: in a random manner; unsystematically.

 

 

 

Foreshadowing in Frankenstein

Thus strangely are our souls constructed, and by such slight ligaments are we bound to prosperity or ruin. When I look back, it seems to me as if this almost miraculous change of inclination and will was the immediate suggestion of the guardian angel of my life—the last e ort made by the spirit of preservation to avert the storm that was even then hang- ing in the stars and ready to envelop me. Her victory was announced by an unusual tranquillity and gladness of soul which followed the relinquishing of my ancient and latterly tormenting studies. It was thus that I was to be taught to associate evil with their prosecution, happiness with their disregard.
It was a strong e ort of the spirit of good, but it was in- e ectual. Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction.

Foreshowing is like a fortune telling device, possible things that will happen.
Hints that are in Frankenstein that are saying that something bad will happen.

  • He is saying that he and the girl are built to “prosperity or ruin”, not knowing if they will be drawn to wealth and susses or destroying things. Showing foreshadowing and mystery as he is saying that to things could happen.
  • This is telling me that his destiny was to strong to stop now and it had already made a huge influence on him, ordering him to his “utter and terrible destruction.” He is saying that her laws could not be changed now and that it his his destiny to do something bad in the future, this is a great example of foreshadowing.

Tone and mood – Tell tale heart

It is impossible to say how the idea first entered my head. There was no reason for what I did. I did not hate the old man; I even loved him. He had never hurt me. I did not want his money. I think it was his eye. His eye was like the eye of a vulture, the eye of one of those terrible birds that watch and wait while an animal dies, and then fall upon the dead body and pull it to pieces to eat it. When the old man looked at me with his vulture eye a cold feeling went up and down my back; even my blood became cold. And so, I finally decided I had to kill the old man and close that eye forever! So you think that I am mad? A madman cannot plan. But you should have seen me. During all of that week I was as friendly to the old man as I could be, and warm, and loving.

 

Tone: This part of the story say a lot that he hates something about the man but he still loves him, the character seems uncertain on what he is trying to say and what he feels. When he talks about the eye and how it is like a vulture he’s gets carried away and starts saying that he’s not mad but it makes the man seem even more mad and insane. The character has a weird obsession with the eye and he has no reason for it so it makes him sound crazy, scared even paranoid. He may have something going on in his mind that is unhealthy.

Mood: When reading this part of the story it develops a creepy mood and we feel a bit uneasy about the character. How the character says he was nice to the man all week makes us have a sick feeling because of what the man is going to do at the end of the week. The story puts us in a confused frame of mind and we feel weird out reading this.

The Gothic Protagonist – The tell tale heart

The student’s goal now is to pick three of these things and analyze how they apply to the narrator in further depth.

4. Driven by strong emotions rather than logic or reason: this point was applied in the short story ‘The tell tale heart’ because the narrorator was obsessed with the other mans eye for no real reason, he hated the mans eye out of what he felt and the emotions he felt towards the man as he says “There was no reason for what I did.” at the beginning of the story. At the end of the story when the police were talking the the man his emotions got away on him and he told the police that he killed the man because he was scared of the loud heart beats. “Suddenly I could bear it no longer. I pointed at the boards and cried,Yes! Yes, I killed him!” if the man was thinking straight he wouldn’t have told the police that he killed the man but he had no idea what he was doing, he was just doing what his emotions were telling him.