Ethan Brand: Genre 1 key example

The Gothic elements of “Ethan Brand” include the eerie and unsettling mood, the nighttime-at-the-lime-kiln setting (given the unsettling combination of flames and shadows), as well as Brand’s mental instability and obsession with talking about the Unpardonable Sin he has committed. That Brand commits suicide as a final act of madness—and his heart is revealed to be made of stone—also contribute to the Gothic energy of the story.

“Ethan Brand” can also be considered a work of dark romanticism, which overlaps with Gothic fiction in many ways. Romantic writers—including dark romantic ones—sought to tell emotionally engaging and imaginative stories that featured fantastical elements (as opposed to realist writers, who seek to capture life as it truly is). Hawthorne’s expressive writing style and engagement with his characters’ intense emotions—as well as the story's more mystical elements, like Brand supposedly conjuring a demon out of flames—make “Ethan Brand” a work of romanticism rather than of realism.