Authors Treatment of Fate and the Supernatural in Short Stories Written Before 1914 :: Short Stories Yellow Wallpaper Lost Hearts Essays

Authors Treatment of Fate and the Supernatural in wretched Stories Written Before 1914Using a selection of short stories create verbally before 1914, comp atomic number 18 andcontrast their authors treatment of good deal and/or the ghostlyI understand the term supernatural to be an event or being that isabnormal in some way and for which thither is no rational explanation.Although traditionally the supernatural is confined to spiritualbeings, such as ghosts, I perceive it to have a much wider meaning. I allow for be investigating how certain writers of short stories view thesupernatural and how they conciliate it into their stories. The authors I go away be looking at in this turn out are M.R.James, doubting Thomas Hardy andCharlotte Perkins Gilman their stories, Lost Hearts The Wi in that locationd spikeand Yellow Wallpaper, respectively. I will be focussing mostly onthe supernatural in this essay, but will as well investigate the caputof fate briefly. Fate is the suggestio n that all events happen for areason, and that there is a greater power watching over us.Both these subjects are cardinals that greatly interested the Victorians,the era in which these stories are written. They were especiallyintrigued by the spiritual world, and the upper classes held sances,attempting to contact the dead. This preoccupation with thesupernatural, and indeed fate, is one that emerges repeatedly in theseshort stories.The first story that I will be looking at is The Withered Arm byThomas Hardy. Hardys style was very progressive for the time, butalso reactionary conservative, even, in certain aspects. His storieshave a preoccupation with fate and the inevitability of death.The main supernatural aspect is the plenty of Mrs reconcile that Rhodasees. The vision taunts her, and Rhoda retaliates by grabbing its arm.The vision appears sitting on her chest whilst she is in strike out Thepressure of Mrs Lodges person became heavier, and yet is not MrsLodge as she should be But the features were shockingly distorted,and wrinkled as by age. Although Rhoda can feel its presence, it isextremely strange that it should be sitting on her chest in the middleof the night, and it is undoubtedly a vision or a distortion of adream. Harding even describes it as a tint. This is shape upconfirmed by its sudden disappearance, She looked on the floorwhither she had whirled the spectre, but there was nothing to beseen. The whole story really revolves around the actions of thespectre or vision, and this is the definite supernatural element inthe story. Later on however, both women go to see a ConjurerTrendle, and Mrs Lodge sees the establishment of the person who cursed her in