Read the excerpt from "the tell-tale heart." true! —nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous i had been and am; but why will you say that i am mad? the disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them. above all was the sense of hearing acute. i heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. i heard many things in hell. how, then, am i mad? hearken! and observe how healthily—how calmly i can tell you the whole story. in what way is the excerpt characteristic of gothic literature? it features a bright, inviting setting. it explores fear and strong emotions. it includes a supernatural creature. it focuses on science and reason.

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.

wordsworth tends to see nature as 'out there'; a presence which surrounds humans, and contributes to human life, but is different from humans. if you look at a typical wordsworth poem (there was a boy, ye knew him well ye rocks) - wordsworth talks about nature as something that needs to be learned about and understood, nature is different from us.  

if you look at a byron poem (the isles of greece is a good one) - byron looks at nature mainly for what it already means to man. wordsworth will look at a landscape and see the mountains, trees, valleys, and rivers as almost spiritual presences - wordsworth wants to get to know nature.  

byron will look at the same landscape and he will want to know who lives there, what are the villages? are there any farms or mines, is there some history?  

wordsworth looks at nature for what it is; byron is forever asking what it means.  

wordsworth thinks that humans are part of nature; byron thinks that nature is part of being human