Eleven Scary Stories of the Gothic in Literature

High school students LOVE gothic in literature. There is just something about the darkness of the setting, characters and plot that high school students fall for, every time. So here is a list of eleven gothic stories for high school English class that will be just the thing.

What’s Gothic in Literature?

When we think about gothic in literature, the definition tends to connect a series of common elements. Gothic literature features dark settings, dark characters and dark plot lines. The stories often revolve around death, horror and decay and the main characters are often self destructive. They tend to have once grand settings that are now in disrepair and the diction in the stories is used to highlight this decay through macabre vocabulary.

And, high school students eat these stories up.

11 Scary Stories of Gothic in Literature for High School English. These 11 stories are a perfect introduction to Gothic Literature. Each with ideas on on how use them in the classroom.

Favorite Gothic Short Stories for High School Students

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner

This is Southern Gothic at its finest. The story opens with the death of Miss Emily Grierson and the town is giddy with interest. No one, save her one servant, has been in her house for decades. Their curiosity is palpable. The story jumps from the present to Emily’s back story which includes her controlling father, a suitor who just disappears, a strange odor coming from her house and her reclusive lifestyle. And the twist at the end gets the students every time.

Teaching ideas for “A Rose for Emily”:

Consider the Point of View—the story is told through a collective first person
The group as a character—the town acts as one character who is quite influential on Emily’s life
Non-linear timelines—for more, check out this post.

“The Moonlit Road” by Ambrose Bierce

Another Souther Gothic, this story of a murder told in three voices. The son of the murder victim starts it. Then is the presumed murderer followed by the victim (through a medium). Each narrator adds details to the story so that the reader can piece together what really happened.

Teaching ideas for “The Moonlit Road”

Consider Point of View—the story is told through multiple first person narrators, so narrator reliability is big
Plot Structure—Since each narrator reveals a little more, it opens discussions of why Bierce would structure the story this way

“Strawberry Spring” by Stephen King

It’s 1968. On a college campus in Maine, a serial killer named “Springhill Jack” has resurfaced, after years of being dormant, a body is found by a janitor on a foggy night. The students are all a buzz with “did you know her” and “who do you think did it” and “I heard it was her boyfriend.”

Teaching ideas for “Strawberry Spring”

Focus on Setting—the details of the setting are brilliant in this Stephen King short story: have students examine how he uses the setting to develop the mood
Focus of Details—have students gather the details to see how King sets them up for ending
Pair with a Podcast—There is a scripted podcast based and expanding on the story. (At the time of writing this, I have not listened to this, so I cannot attest to the quality or how closely it follows the story line.) Students could listen to the first episode and then do something similar with another gothic story.

“A Haunted House” by Virginia Woolf

In Virginia Woolf’s very short story, a ghostly couple prowls around the house they once lived in doing mischievous acts. The details allow us to build a picture of the couple’s life when they were alive. Although this story is lacking some of the gothic characteristics of decay and self-destruction, it fits through the darkness of the setting and fact that they main characters are ghosts.

Teaching ideas for “A Haunted House”

Focus on Imagery—the imagery in this story is gorgeous, have students choose their favorites and then explain how they help to develop the setting, characters or theme
Focus on Characterization—what do we really know about the couple? How do we know it?

This story is part of my Flash Fiction Bootcamp for AP® Literature. For more on how I use it, check out this post. Or for a done-for-you lesson plan, head here.

“I Used to Live Here Once” by Jean Rhys

The narrator is revisiting her childhood (?) home. She notices all the changes that have occurred since she has been gone including missing trees and the addition of a swing set. She approaches the children who are playing on the newly added swing set, but their only response is a comment about how it is suddenly cold. This is a flash fiction story, so students can read it under 5 minutes.

Teaching Ideas for “I Used to Live Here Once”

Focus on Details—how does Rhys use the details in the story to enlighten the reader about the true nature of the narrator

“The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe

No gothic short story collection would be complete without the addition of story by Edgar Allen Poe. And every English teacher has their preferences, mine is “The House of Usher.” The story is first person and told by a friend who is visiting “The House of Usher.” The initial description of the house say it all: it is in a state of decay just like the family.

Teaching Ideas for “The Fall of the House of Usher”

Focus on Diction—in just the opening paragraphs, you can highlight how Edgar Allan Poe masterfully uses word choice to give the truly gothic sense of decay in the story. (For a done-for-you lesson, check out Passage of the Week: from “The Fall of the House of Usher”)
Focus on Characterization—help your students to see how Poe uses the methods of characterization to build the madness in the House of Usher.

“A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell

This one is longer and can be read either as a short story or a short play called “Trifles”. It is the story of a woman who’s husband has been murdered. When the neighbor discovers it, she seems to know nothing. The scene opens with a sheriff investigating at the house with both the neighbor witnesses and the wife.

Teaching Ideas for “A Jury of Her Peers”

Focus on Characterization—there is a lot to be gleaned through the dialogue in this story, especially about Minnie (the wife of the murdered). Her responses to the sheriff leave much to be inferred.
Focus on Detail—the cold plays a role throughout the story. How does Glaspell build it into the story and why does it matter?

“Bluebeard” by Charles Perrault

This is a classic fairy tale that your students will likely not know, but should. An older (ugly) neighbor has his eye on either of his young neighbors to be his bride. Neither are interested until money enters the equation. Finally the younger one agrees. He takes her to his palatial country estate, tells her he must go away on business and gives her the run of the estate. He hands her a set of keys telling her she may go anywhere she likes, except this one room. Of course, she cannot resist.

Teaching Ideas for Bluebeard

Introduce Archetypal Criticism—fairy tales are perfect for teaching students about archetypes. There are any number of character and setting archetypes in this story that make it perfect for a study of archetypes.
Pair with a Poem—Edna St. Vincent Millay has a poem by the same name that is an allusion to the fairy tale. Teach the poem (which is a sonnet) first and then enlighten them on the allusion. (Poetry Soup has other Bluebeard poems as well).

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The narrator is writing the story in an almost diary-like style. She is supposedly summering with her family at this mansion where her doctor/husband has locked her in a room with hideous yellow wallpaper, bars on the windows and other insidious details. The narrator is convinced that there is a woman trapped in within the “bars” of the vines in the wallpaper and she begins to work at freeing the woman who is trapped.

Teaching Ideas for “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Introduce Psychological Criticism—I love teaching this story when my students have previously taken AP® Psychology because they naturally gravitate to discussing the narrator’s mental stability, but even without that background you can introduce your students to psychological criticism.
Considering Reliable Narrator—how reliable is this narrator? For more on teaching point of view, check out this post

“The Summer People” by S hirley Jackson

The Allisons are an older couple who have decided to stay on at their summer cottage after Labor Day rather than return to their New York City apartment. But as they try to go about their regular (summer) lives, it becomes apparent that the townies do not welcome them staying on beyond their appointed time. The ending comes with both a twist and a lack of finality.

Teaching Ideas for “The Summer People”

Consider Dialogue—examine how the dialogue reveals the peril of the situation for the Allisons. Students can consider how the dialogue reveals their background, their values and their relationship with the environment.
Consider Suspense—examine plot structure to see how the author creates suspense in the story.

“A Wireless Message” by Ambrose Bierce

This story begins with almost newspaper-like lead. The reader is set up with the who, what, where and when. And it’s the perfect start to the gothic in literature. The main character is estranged from his wife who is still in Chicago while he is in a small unnamed town Central New York. He has gone out for a late night walk to clear his head when he is greeted by a light on the horizon that is there regardless of the direction he faces. As he tries to get his bearings, he sees an apparition of his wife. When he finally finds himself back at his brother’s home, he gets a telegram stating his wife has died in a fire.

Teaching Ideas for “A Wireless Message”

Consider Syntax—Bierce uses a beautiful combination of short and long sentences to control the pacing of the story.
Consider Suspense—examine plot structure to see how the author creates suspense in the story.

This story is part of my Flash Fiction Bootcamp for AP® Literature. For more on how I use it, check out this post. Or for a done-for-you lesson plan, head here.

Build a Unit for the Gothic in Literature

It’s easy to pull these stories into a gothic in literature unit through a genre study. Choose any three to five stories. You don’t even need to tell students that they are gothic stories, you could simply do what I did which is tell the students they are connected through some aspect. When my English 11 students worked on a gothic unit, the stories were simply connected through the idea that there were mysterious dead bodies in each.

After we had finished all of the stories, students took notes on the gothic in literature using these anchor charts, then we used a jigsaw style grouping to have students reexamine the stories in groups for each of the elements of the gothic and create collaborative posters.

After we discussed the elements of the gothic in literature, students wrote their own gothic stories. We then tied this back to our state exam by having students do some metacognition work by identifying their own central ideas and their own writer’s craft used to build the central idea.