Monday, January 28, 2013

Gothic Tropes within "The Ruins"


     “The Ruins of Abbey Fitzmartin” contain the same gothic tropes in which we have been studying since the beginning of the semester. To begin with, the setting is a decaying abbey. Our main characters are heroic women. The story is centered around an deception and unjust murder all due to a forced marriage by a controlling father. This plot is identical to the stories we have been studying thus far, and just like these stories, we are provided with ways to address these fears.
     The Ruins tells us not to trust strangers, they can deceive you. Learn someone’s true identity before trusting them (and even then they may not be trustworthy). It also tells us that if we need to seek refuge, then we need to find somewhere else other than a religious establishment. Religion and its followers are not always pure. We also learn to avoid the darkness because that is where the skeletons and ghosts lurk. The ultimate resolution to this story, and a lesson we learn is the dead may not be truly dead and could still be able to seek revenge on those that have wrong them. This teaches us to try not to harm others because they could pay us back. 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Andrea,
I think you have a great post about the Ruins of the Abbey Fitzmartin. I really liked how to the beginning you kind of gave a back ground of the story. I also thought how you connected this story to the other ones that we have been reading in class. I was a little confused when you said "It also tells us that if we need to seek refuge, then we need to find somewhere else other than a religious establishment." I was leaning in the direction that she shouldn't have joined the monastery if she wasn't going to stay true to the values. I think you had some great connections.

-Abbie Burton

Andrea said...

Oh, I agree that she should not have joined the monastery if she was not going to stay true to the values. I think Poe was trying to tell us to run from arranged marriage but to not hide in the Cathedral. I think my sentence just did not convey what I meant.