Examples Of Gothicism In A Nightmare On Elm Street
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Anna Brett
Gothic Literature (A)
Mrs. Briggs
12 January 2015
The Gothicism of Enjoyment
A Nightmare on Elm Street tells a plaguing tale of a group of teenagers who are haunted by repressed memories. Two teenagers by the names of Kris and Dean are at a diner in the beginning of the movie. Dean tells Kris that he has not been able to sleep for days. He begins to fall asleep at the table and is greeted in his nightmares by monstrous man with scratches and burn marks all over his body. As this man is about to kill Dean in his dream, in real life Dean picks up a knife and gruesomely slits his throat while fellow teenagers Kris and Nancy watch. At Dean’s funeral, Kris notices a picture of she and dean as children. She doesn’t remember knowing…show more content… Part of the gothic is the idea of the over sexualization of women and vulnerable people. This is shown through older novels, art and other gothic works. Often in pieces of art, specifically paintings, one can see naked women often surrounded by blood and a hell looking setting. This gory yet somewhat beautiful type of scene is seen in A Nightmare on Elm Street. At a specific part in the movie, Nancy has gone back to the preschool that the parents tried to burn down. As she is stepping into the wretched, burned, blood stained hell, Freddy comes up. He whispers into Nancy’s ear making her shiver with disgust as he tries to lift up her skirt. The setting is gory while the sexual act is unwanted and fearful. The fact that director of the movie would mix the two together goes back and plays on gender roles and ultimately the allure of the human body. Halberstam writes in regards to the female body, “[There is a] perverse sexuality by first showcasing the temptations of the flesh in glorious Technicolor and then by depicting so-called normal sex as sickly enterprise devoid of all passion” (17). Halberstam’s point is reflected in the scene between Freddy and Nancy. The passion has been taken out and there is just the focus on the fleshy aspect. The gothic monstrosity of Freddy takes the fears inside the girl’s head, manifested in her dreams, and turns them into an unfortunate reality. Halberstam goes on to say, “Horror…has a power closely related to its pleasure producing function and he twin mechanism of please-power perhaps explains how it is that gothic may empower some while it disables others” (17). She is emphasizing the thin line between good and bad as it is commonly seen in the