The Dark and the Sublime

Summary and Purpose of Unit

In this unit, students will explore the enduring power of Gothic and Romantic literature to illuminate human psychology, morality, and the complexities of the sublime. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley anchors the unit, providing a foundation for examining how human ambition, isolation, and unchecked desire can lead to both creation and destruction. Through psychological analysis, students will interrogate character motivations and mental states, while structuralist approaches will uncover how narrative form and recurring patterns shape meaning.

Suggested texts such as Dracula by Bram Stoker and Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë offer further opportunities to investigate themes of monstrosity, repression, forbidden knowledge, and the blurred boundaries between beauty and horror. This unit pushes students to refine their analytical writing, integrating multiple lenses to deepen their understanding of literature’s capacity to reflect the darkness (and brilliance) of human nature.

Learning Objectives

• Apply psychological and structuralist frameworks to analyze characters, symbols, and narrative structures in Gothic and Romantic literature.

• Understand the benefits and problems of genre-based labels and categorization in literature.

• Develop advanced academic writing that integrates multiple critical lenses and effectively supports claims with textual evidence.

• Begin to analyze feminist themes and perspectives in literature, recognizing the Gothic tradition as a space for subverting or challenging gender norms.

Key Graded Assignments

Reading Log: Ongoing personal and analytical reflections focused on key passages, literary devices, and evolving interpretations.

Sticky-Note Annotations: Close reading activity requiring students to annotate physical or digital texts with insightful questions, literary observations, and thematic connections.

Timed-Writing Exams (2+): In-class essays testing students' ability to apply critical lenses and structure complex arguments under time constraints.

Text Bank

👉 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Core)

Text Page (Link)

👉 The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Text)

Study Guide Questions (Text)

"Self Full-Filling Prophecies" (Essay)

Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire (Link)

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poetry, sublime focus) (Link)

Dracula by Bram Stoker (Link)

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (Link)

Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Christabel by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poetry, Gothic ballad)

👉 = Required Reading

Ancillary Materials

TED-ED: Everything You Need to Know to Read Frankenstein (Link)

HISTORY OF IDEAS - Romanticism (Link)

Burke on: The Sublime (Link)