'During a whole dull, dark, silent day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds were oppressive low in the heavens. . . [I] found myself at last, as the shadows of the evening drew on, in sight of the melancholy house of Usher” (317). Edgar Allan Poe's opening sentence in "The Fall of the House of Usher" captures the dark, gloomy, mysterious, and desolate aura that characterizes Gothic literature. In Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe chose to incorporate similar gothic imagery into her novel by portraying Simon Legree as an evil character and associating him with grotesque images. His descriptions of Simon and his plantation reflect themes often depicted in Gothic novels, such as disorder, decadence, and darkness. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay When we first meet Simon Legree, his traits describe him as a monster. Stowe describes him as "small, broad and muscular", with a "ball-shaped head", "shaggy", "hairy", "very dirty" and "lined with long nails, in a very dirty condition" (334) . Here Stowe is not painting a picture of a human, but describing a beast. Stowe's depiction of Simon as a dirty, claw-like beast becomes very apt as the novel continues, and the reader is introduced to Legree as a corrupt and cruel master of his slaves. In his novel, Stowe chooses to progress into Legree's Gothic realm rather than immediately flooding the pages with dark imagery. She begins with Legree's bestial characterization, then concludes her introduction to Simon Legree with a passage that foreshadows his next chapter, "Dark Places." Stowe writes: “The boat moved forward, laden with its weight of sorrow, up the red current, muddy and murky, through the steep and tortuous meanders of the Red River. . .' (342). Here, Legree and his newly purchased slaves are traveling along this river, and Stowe chooses to associate their journey with the color red. Red symbolizes the fate that the newly purchased slaves will face when living with Simon Legree. By flooding the passage with images of a red river, it becomes clear that Stowe's writing was influenced by Dante Alighieri's Inferno. Here, a river red with blood surrounds the seventh circle, the place where violent sinners are kept. Stowe seems to suggest that Legree himself, surrounded by the Red River, is a violent sinner. Additionally, it could be argued that Stowe's Red River contains the blood of slaves who died at the hands of their cruel masters. By alluding to Dante's Inferno, Stowe associates Simon Legree with both the devil and hell. To enhance the Gothic imagery of death, misfortune, and evil, Stowe also uses words such as "turbid current," "abrupt," and "tortuous windings" to foreshadow the hell she will present to the reader in the upcoming chapter. In the next chapter, Stowe's use of Gothic imagery becomes extremely vivid. Stowe opens the chapter with a quote stating, “The dark places of the earth are filled with habitations of cruelty” (343). Here, Stowe makes his first connection between Gothic imagery and slavery. The “dwellings of cruelty” refers to all plantations in America run by slave owners like Legree, and cruelty, coupled with darkness, contributes to Stowe's definition of the Gothic. She then chooses to focus on Legree's plantation and how his plantation lives up to the quote that opens the chapter. Stowe describes the road leading toLegree's house as "winding through dreary pine barrens, where the wind murmured sadly." . .' (343). Stowe's choice of words, such as the whispering wind and the winding roads, paint a strange gothic picture quite similar to the beginnings of Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" and Alighieri's Inferno. Also, it is plausible to associate this dark image with Simon Legree, given that this dark, winding road he traveled traveled on trails leading to his plantation. When we reach Simon Legree's house, Stowe introduces us to a once clean-shaven lawn that has been transposed by "ornamental shrubs", "tangled and frilly grass", a "ground littered with broken buckets" and 'd' other neglected remains.' (345). Stowe here evokes disorder, a fairly common theme in Gothic novels. In Wuthering Heights, a well-known gothic novel, Emily Brontë's villain, Heathcliff, lives in an older castle-like house, full of cobwebs, cluttered with utensils, and characterized by broken shutters. The disorder depicted in Uncle Tom's Cabin not only reflects the lawn, but also symbolizes the disarray within Legree's plantation. Furthermore, the fact that there was "once a clean-cut lawn" and that "what was once a large garden was now all overgrown with weeds", shows that Legree's planting was not always Gothic, but that it became an abandoned place once Legree took over the plantation. The description of the plantation, covered in weeds and shrubs that continued to grow during Legree's reign, makes me imagine dark clouds slowly casting shadows over a place of doom. To contribute to this gloomy picture, Stowe also speaks of flower pots "containing sticks, the dried leaves of which showed that they had once been plants" (345). With weeds and invasive shrubs, leafless sticks represent deterioration and rot. Stowe deepens the grim description of the landscape when she introduces the reader to Legree's castle-like house. She writes: “some windows blocked by boards, others by protected panes and shutters hung by a single hinge, all this testifies to gross negligence and discomfort” (345). Here, Stowe paints a portrait of an abandoned ghost house. The disorder introduced to the reader in Legree's description of the landscape remains vivid in the broken windows and shattered shutters. Summarizing these characteristics as “gross negligence and discomfort” implies ambiguity. She seems to suggest that these conditions apply not only to Legree's house, but also to Legree's relationship with his slaves on the plantation. For example, the character of Cassy, ​​like the leaves of the plants outside, loses its beauty and liveliness under the influence of Legree's reign. Cassy, ​​once an extremely attractive young woman, has a "dark, wild face" with traces of wrinkles and heavy black eyes. Cassy, ​​like the plantation landscape, became the product of Legree's cruelty and neglect. In Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher", the House of Usher possesses Roderick Usher by causing him an immense amount of mental derangement and ultimately swallowing him into the "crack" of the house. Roderick and Cassy have become objects of decadence and their features resemble those of a gothic character. While describing the interior of Legree's house, Stowe once again focuses on the disorder and decay. She writes: “it was formerly covered with gaudy and expensive paper, which now hung, moldy, torn and discolored, from the damp walls” (370). Much like Cassy and the plantation landscape, the interior of the.