Death: "The Gashlycrumb Tinies"

Gorey reflects upon a childish delusion entwined with morbidity and despair in his rhyming didactic couplets found amongst the pages of the “Gashleycrumb Tinies.” The children within the story can be found encompassed by the likelihood of Death, himself. The tribulations and demise of the children entrance the reader creating movement amidst the ever-flowing ode. Gorey begins in saying “A is for Amy who fell down the stairs”(Gorey). With each letter of the Alphabet a depiction of death is made. Never is death directly stated though. The cessation of life is eminent in the circumstances, but only ever alluded. Gorey does so to bring forth a sense of light heartedness. It is less horrific if verification is not made of the child’s death. The alphabetic nature also brings forth a sense of childlike creativity. How else to depict death, than to bring it to the simplest state of being, deriving from the basic function of language. The rhyming didactic couplets also create an easy dialect to comprehend. The work, itself, reads very smoothly. “Gashleycrumb Tinies” is a necessity for the elemental depiction of intrinsic morbidity.

In the year of 1963 many great men succumbed to the inevitability of the darkness surrounding death. Gorey released his work in a relevant manner, as death was a commonality of the year. Robert Frost as well as the President, Jonh F. Kennedy sparked a fear of the eventuality of death. It was a topic of much discussion. The social and historical content of the year 1963 defines Gorey’s work