12th February 2018

The Gothic Protagonist

Driven by passion or strong emotions rather than logic or reason

The protagonist of this story has a deep obsession with the eye of the old man which could be classed as his passion. This draws him to the old man, making him feel deeply connected to him just from the way he looks at the eye. He had said that he has nothing against the old man, he “even loved him” but still this obsession with the eye had made him want to kill the man for no real reason. “Then, carefully, I lifted the cloth, just a little, so that a single, thin, small light fell across that eye.For seven nights I did this, seven long nights, every night at midnight.” HIs obsession was that deep that he had to watch over the eye each night. This shows that the reason for killing the old man had no reason behind it but was partly driven by this obsession he had with the eye.

Has a need to know

He needs to know why, why he is obsessed with the man, what the eye has over him and why he needs to question himself about his wellbeing. Throughout the story, the protagonist keeps asking questions like “why do you say that I have lost control of my mind?, why do you say that I am mad?” It like he needs the readers to reassure him that he’s not mad, as he needs to ask the same questions over and over again. He needs to know if he is sane or is that what he’s just telling himself. The protagonist also has a need to know about the old man’s eye and what is attracting him to it and feels the need to watch over him for 7 nights to find this out.

Generally secretive, has an air of mystery

From the beginning of the book, we are basically left in the dark as far as knowing about the protagonist in any way. We are not given any of its past, nothing about how, why or when his illness had come around, or even what gender this protagonist is. We are not given anything that could give us any idea about what sort of man or women this could be which leaves the protagonist a mystery, making us have to assume.

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Category

Writing