Bitter Waves and Haunting Materialisms: Sea Imagery in Louisa May Alcott’s Gothic Tales

Current criticism has explored the ways in which many nineteenth-century American writers have addressed environmental issues in their writings. This essay contributes to the discussions regarding the depiction of the environment in nineteenth-century American literature through an examination of two of Louisa May Alcott’s thrillers, “Ariel, A Legend of the Lighthouse” (1865) and “Perilous Play” (1869), looking at the ways in which the sea is represented. Through a material ecocritical perspective, this essay frames the sea water as literary matter, and argues that water emerges as agential in Alcott’s tales, thereby noting the various ways it affects literary characters.