Gothic and the Deranged

When I think of the Gothic I think of the deranged and the mentally ill.

In the 18th Century, knowledge on mental illness was often associated with satanic possessions. The people feared what they don't know and Gothic writers took that fear and spun it into their tales.

An example of such was the Telltale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe.

Poe introduces us to the narrator where he begins a speech proclaiming his sanity and how he isn't mad. His denial of madness is often seen in patients with mental illness who refused to believe they are abnormal.

The narrator then begins to nonchalantly talk about the murder of an old man and how he took extreme cautions to hide the body.

The discrepancy in his behaviour and actions is regarded as unsettling and relied on the element of an unreliable narrator.

Other Gothic texts also rely on an aspect of insanity to sell the element of an unreliable narrator. An example is the movie Donnie Darko, a suburban Gothic story following a schizophrenic teenager Donnie Darko who was told that the world was going to end in 28 days.

Through both texts we are shown an insight on the instability of the mind and those who suffer from it. After all there is nothing more unsettling than the betrayal of our own minds.