The Witching Hour Essay Research Paper The

The Witching Hour Essay, Research Paper The Witching Hour Title: The Witching Hour Author: Anne Rice Copyright Date: 1990 Number of Page Read: 1043 Three main elements classify the genre: Gothic, Mystery, and Romance. I classify Gothic novels as stories pertaining to a dismal atmosphere, such as Edgar Allan Poe’s literature. . Lovers who unlock thirteen generation’s of Mayfair family secrets and incest; discovering that their intervention becomes a more complex-intertwining destiny. Our Antagonist Michael Curry, a 48-year old Irish man who had lost himself in a world in which he had accomplished his dreams, experienced his emotional pain, and yet he felt empty. Michael approached the rocks of the bay, thought of his life and emptiness, then he slipped and fell to his

fatal doom in the sea. Found by a woman known as Rowan Mayfair , he discovered that he was dead for over an hour as he rested in the hospital. Michael also discovered that he had received the gift of seeing images by using his hands to touch objects, and that he chose to come back. He was burdened by the images and the vision after his death, that he had a purpose, that he was sent for a reason. Something that had to do with a doorway, and the number thirteen. After isolation from the press of the burden of his powers, he found himself wanting to go back on the deck of the boat where he was rescued. He wanted to talk to the woman who rescued him, for he thought that she would let him touch the boat to recover images that night. He discovered that this neurosurgeon, Dr. Rowan

Mayfair, was the veritable love of his life. After he discovered how much he deeply loved Rowan, he began to reminisce the images of his purpose; that certain elements and images of his childhood hinted him to return to the house he had been fascinated with in New Orleans as a child. Another major character of the story, Englishmen Aaron Lightner, was a part of an archaic organization known as the “Talamasca”. Aaron studied a family called the Mayfairs in New Orleans, because his organization had believed the Mayfairs to be witches. He devoted his life to the history of the Mayfair witches, and his organization had compiled a history of the Mayfairs since the days of the 17th century inquisition in Europe. As he watched Michael and Rowan from the corners of darkness, he

intervened their lives to enlighten their knowledge of Rowan’s family history?and its dangerous potential. Rowan did not know a single thing of her family history, as she was left in the dark her whole life by her aunt Ellie who became her legal guardian the day she was born.. After her notification from a family member that her mother died, this gave her permission to learn her family history and go to New Orleans where her family resided to mourn her catatonic mother’s death. This also gave her signs of coincidence with Michael’s life and hers. Rowan then learned of her family’s meaning and history, and her life started to make more sense as she got involved. Her passion to heal the wounded, her sixth sense to stop the wounds of the sick, and her dangerous potential to

kill without knowing it?or does she? These three main characters learn of the history, the scandals, the incest, the beauty, and the apparition. The apparition is the Protagonist of the story, and goes by the name of “Lasher”. Lasher destroys everything that was established between Michael and Rowan, and he is a character that seduces the Mayfair’s into his need to be human. He had been with the Mayfairs for thirteen generations, and was summoned by an ancestor of Rowan’s named Suzanne. Lasher, an ignorant being who learned over the generations of human nature to educate himself in this new realm. He eventually enlightened Rowan of his past, his intentions and his knowledge, for she had the gift to see him after his mother’s death. But she was warned of this being by