In what way is the passage characteristic of gothic
fiction?
Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the
groan of mortal terror. It was not a groan of pain or of
grief-oh, no!-it was the low stifled sound that arises
from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe.
I knew the sound well. Many a night, just at midnight,
when all the world slept, it has welled up from my own
bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that
distracted me.
- "The Tell-Tale Heart,"
Edgar Allan Poe
It explores fear and strong emotions,
It focuses on reason and science,
It describes a supernatural creature,
It uses a third-person point of view.