FREE ESSAY ON PERSONAL RESPONSE TO GETTING RID OF GEORGE

PERSONAL RESPONSE TO GETTING RID OF GEORGE

Robert Arthur's story, Getting Rid of George is a good gothic story because of it's
various examples of required gothic elements. These requirements include atmosphere,
psychological state of mind, mystery, romance, and melodrama. All of these combined make
this story a good gothic example.
To begin, the setting, at one point, takes place at a dark secludes cabin in the
mountains. Evidence of this is found when Harry describes: "It is absolutely deserted up
there at this time of year." As well, the disappearance of George to everyone except
Laura and Harry adds to the gloomy atmosphere. Again adding to the gloom and terror of
the story is the physical exploitation of cruelty shown by Laura when she repeatedly
beats George with a statuette until he lay dead on the floor. Mental exploitation of
cruelty is also evident when George returns from the dead and blackmails and once again
tries to ruin Laura new found life. We found clear examples of an atmosphere of gloom and
terror throughout this story proving that Getting Rid of George is a well written gothic
story.
Along with a gloomy and terrifying atmosphere, Arthur uses the element of aberrant
psychological states of mind to add to his gothic story. An example of irrational
behavior is shown when Laura becomes outraged and spontaneously murders George. We
thought, as well, that when Laura suffers a fainting spell is also an example of this
psychological state of mind. Evidence of this is found when Arthur writes: "Harry held
Laura until the nausea within her subsided." Lastly, hallucinations were also prevalent
in the story as well. We thought a good example was when Harry and Laura were bringing
George to the cabin to dispose of his body, Laura claims that George's dead eye slowly
opened and gave her a knowing wink.
Elements of mystery were also used throughout this story. Many things were hidden or
unknown. Some examples are when George walked into Laura's dressing room disguised as
part of the press. His real identity, to Laura, was unknown. Also the fact that Laura
murdered George and Harry is planning to help her was kept hidden from anyone and
everyone. We also found obvious secrecy and obscurity in the story as well. Laura's past
was kept as a deep secret as it would more than likely hurt her new career as an actress.
We found proof of this when harry tells Laura: "As soon as Haila learns you've been able
to keep your past life a secret from everyone, she'll open a vendetta against you." It is
clearly shown that an element of mystery is used repeatedly throughout the story. 
Another gothic element that was used is romance. within the element of romance some
fictions narrative is used such as when George speaks and acts towards laura as if
nothing is or should be wrong. Our example is shown when George says: "Come on now, kiss
lonesome George." Again: "Now come to your loving husband like a good woman should." We
found this quite unordinary because Laura obviously wants nothing to do with George, and
he is stupid if he doesn't realize that. As well, we noted two romantic relationships.
Laura and Harry were desperately in love and had gotten married and George and 'Gloria'
were a couple at one point. However along with Laura's new life came a new name and a new
husband. Along with this romantic element comes an exotic place or setting. The only one
we thought would sort of fit into this category is the cabin up in the mountains where
harry brought Laura for their honeymoon. Therefore, many different examples of romance
were evident in this story.
The last gothic element used is melodrama. Violent physical action is an example of
melodrama, we thought the best example of this was when Laura continuously beat George
with a silver statuette. Secondly, extravagant emotions produce melodrama as well. The
emotions were noticed when Laura described: "pain and loathing were a white fire in my
mind." She thought this when George had barged into her room looking to ruin her life
again. Poetic justice was also served to these characters. George deserved to die for
everything he did, and Laura and Harry deserved to have everyone find out about George's
death, they ended up getting caught in their lie. Last but not least, credibility of the
action and the character sacrificed for the violent effect. George sacrificed his life by
coming back for Laura and Harry and Laura sacrificed their freedom and reputation by
keeping George's death a secret. Evidently, melodrama was used to support Arthur's gothic
story.
In conclusion we found that Arthur's story Getting Rid of George was a good gothic story.
Arthur used many gothic elements to help support and make his story good and also a
mysterious one. We found this story suspenseful and mysterious and enjoyed reading every
part of it.