The Isms Melanie Westheiden

Gothicism Thy soul shall find itself alone 'Mid dark thoughts of the grey tomb-stone -- Not one, of all the crowd, to pry Into thine hour of secrecy: Be silent in that solitude Which is not loneliness -- for then The spirits of the dead who stood In life before thee are again In death around thee -- and their will Shall then overshadow thee: be still. For the night -- tho' clear -- shall frown -- And the stars shall look not down, From their high thrones in the Heaven, With light like Hope to mortals given -- But their red orbs, without beam, To thy weariness shall seem As a burning and a fever Which would cling to thee for ever : Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish -- Now are visions ne'er to vanish -- From thy spirit shall they pass No more -- like dew-drop from the grass: The breeze -- the breath of God -- is still -- And the mist upon the hill Shadowy -- shadowy -- yet unbroken, Is a symbol and a token -- How it hangs upon the trees, A mystery of mysteries! -- This shows Gothicism because it has a really creepy feel to it, and it looks super creepy. It looks like somewhere you’d find a ghost or a dead body.

Realism Trees standing in rain; Footfalls on the pavement, feet crushing leaves; A little girl leaving her house; The moon, barely to be seen, shining dully in the gray sky; A cry from somewhere; A man scolding his wife, and being heard outside; A man going into a library; A shout from somewhere. "Chicken I want," says someone near. "O, what do I care," says a girl. "He loves me, I'm sure," says a girl. "What the hell do I care," says a boy. "What did he do then?" says a man. The elevated comes roaring by. Rain falls quietly. It is cold. It grows darker. In the library nearby are books of history. "My, my, what shall I do?" asks a girl. "That's what he died of," says a young man. "He was in the war," says a girl. "She's the prettiest girl I know," says someone. The elevated can now be hardly heard; it is roaring elsewhere. Water falls from the trees. This shows realism because it shows the harsh reality of war and what really happens besides proving “justice.”

Naturalism An example would be “A Man’s Woman” by Frank Norris. It’s self explanatory in the title. Obviously it’s saying women are born to be caterers or however you would like to put it, to their men. Not by choice but just because it’s what they’re “supposed to do.” This shows naturalism because the woman seems sad like she’s been born into doing something she doesn’t really want to be doing but she has to.

Edgar Allen Poe. Spirits of the Dead Eli Siegel. Somewhere This