- when Tom goes beyond the boundaries of the Ewell house, disaster ensues;
- when the Old Sarum group crosses the boundary that separates them from polite society, danger threatens.
- Forebodings of evil
- Ghosts, vampires, witches and ghost houses
- Forbidding secrets
- Insanity
- The baleful influence of the past and cultural degeneracy
- Eccentricity
- The lure of terror
- Imprisonment, including barriers, walls and veils
- Home as a dangerous and perverted prison
- The prison of stereotypes
- Taboos including incest and miscegenation
- Violence, especially that which has to do with the attempt to break boundaries
- Gothic self-parody
By Dr. Claudia Durst Johnson
The form of the gothic is a productive avenue for exploring To Kill A Mockingbird. The gothic is in TKM as well as in many classic and current works of literature: Dracula, Frankenstein, Aliens, Independence Day. The gothic form includes elements such as the supernatural, ghosts, vampires, sinister murders, sexual violence, incest, haunted houses, prisons and dungeons, encounters with people unlike ourselves like witches, space aliens, and the baleful influence of the past.
Behind the gothic is the idea of imprisonment within and the breaking through boundaries. Not only is TKM rich in references to the superficial trappings of the gothic, but the idea of boundaries which separate people is central to the novel's larger meaning.
Boundaries usually imprison but sometimes protect. Boo and Tom are not only literally imprisoned, but are metaphorically imprisoned in stereotypes. Scout feels that "a pink cotton penitintiary" is soon to descend upon her. When characters attempt to break out of boundaries, violence inevitably breaks out:
The children try to break through the boundary to Boo Radley and Scout tries to break through the boundary of race that seperates her from Calpurnia by trying to visit her house. In breaking boundaries to know and sympathize with those once frightening people and things foreign to us, we gain new perspectives on ourselves and embrace difference.
Sample Activity
Have your students brainstorm what they think constitutes "gothic" elements. Prompt them with examples of films or comics with which they might already be familiar, such as Batman, Dracula, Independence Day.Provide them with the following list or use theirs. After discussing their gothic elements, can they match those on the lists to events in TKM?
