Poe's iconic poem "The Raven," released in 1845, follows a young scholar who is emotionally tormented by a raven's foreboding repetition of the word "nevermore" in response to his inquiries about the possibility of an afterlife with his departed lover.

Poe's "Ligeia" is an extended poem where a husband recounts the tale of his beautiful deceased wife who returns from the grave and takes on the identity of his second wife.

"Young Goodman Brown," a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne who was a contemporary of Poe, was written in 1835. It tells the story of a newly married Puritan in New England who ventures out one night against his wife Faith's wishes and discovers several of his neighbors participating in satanic rituals in the forest.

Stephen King's novel The Shining (1977) narrates how the malevolent forces in a secluded resort hotel drive the alcoholic caretaker to try to murder his wife and child.

The short story "The Shunned House" by H. P. Lovecraft revolves around a house cursed by evil powers. This somewhat Gothic horror story was inspired by "The Fall of the House of Usher" and Nathaniel Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables, both of which depict haunted houses that instill terror in their residents.