As we have seen in these past few analyses of Capote’s works, the southern gothic takes place in a public, or brightly lit settings that is a perfect home for characters who embody the grotesque. These grotesque characters can be either physically, mentally, or sexually deviant from the norm; however, they are not limited to only one of these sub-categorizations. Now, since we have looked at characters who exhibit all parts of the grotesque, we can now work our way back to Capote’s most notably southern gothic Novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms. This novel’s setting is the most obviously southern gothic out of all of capote’s works.
We first see the setting of Other Voices, Other Rooms when Joel arrives in Noon City, a place which is described as having “only one street” (Capote 17). Early on, the isolated town begins to come to life as a southern gothic setting that…show more content… When Joel arrives at Noon City, he runs into several townies. One townie in particular, Miss Roberta, has a particularly gothic view of Skully’s landing stating, “I call it the Skulls”, she declares (Capote 25). This nickname given to the landing offers Joel a foreshadowing of the gothic setting which he is about to enter. To further paint the setting with gothic tones, on Joel's trip into “the skulls” he is met by Idabel and Florabel. When they decide to run home from Jesus Fevers moving cart the “tide of darkness” is described as “washing the twins from sight” (Capote 38). This discription of darkness gives the skulls an especially eerie feel which brings a gothic tone to the front and center of the setting. The twins’ disappearance becomes even more haunting when the narrator says “they were perhaps what [Joel] first imagined: apparitions” (Capote 38). This accusation lends the landing an
