Answer:
The best answer to the question: In what way is the excerpt characteristic of gothic literature? would be: It explores the elements of fear and strong emotions.
Explanation:
"The Tell Tale Heart" is a short story that was written by American author Edgar Allan Poe and it was published around 1843. This short story is considered by critics to be a classic of the Gothic genre.
In order for a story, any story, to be considered as belonging to Gothic literature, there are a certain characteristics, at least one of which, that must appear on the text. These characteristics are: mention of death, decay, gloom, supernatural creatures and events, horror fear, but funnily enough, also romanticism, and above all, high emotion.
In the case of this excerpt, it is the appearance of fear, and also of strong emotionality, that turns this excerpt into an example of Gothic literature. When the narrator tells as that he is very nervous, in fact, he emphazises that nervousness by using words like "very", repetitevely, he is establishing this element of fear towards a situation. But then, he also expresses emotionality towards the events that are evolving when he mentions that he is not mad, and begins mentioning things that are happening to him, things that cannot be seen, nor touched, nor sensed at all, and he does this with passion, almost as if he were, in his fear, also excited about what is happening to him, all connected to the event previous to the excerpt. This is why the answer is the one above in bold.
