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Characteristics of
Gothic Literature
Subgenre of Romanticism
1800-1860
Gothic Literature
The Beginnings… Gothic Literary tradition came to be in part from the Gothic architecture of the Middle Ages.
Gothic cathedrals with irregularly placed towers, and high stained-glass windows were intended to inspire awe and fear in religious worshipers.
•Gargoyles—carvings of small deformed creatures squatting at the corners and crevices of Gothic cathedrals—were supposed to ward off evil spirits, but they often look more like demonic spirits themselves.
•Think of the gargoyle as a mascot of Gothic, and you will get an idea of the kind of imaginative distortion of reality that Gothic represents.
Gothic Literature
It was an offshoot of Romantic Literature. Gothic Literature was the predecessor of modern horror
movies in both theme and style. Gothic Literature put a spin on the Romantic idea of nature
worship and nature imagery. Along with nature having the power of healing, Gothic writers gave nature the power of destruction. Frankenstein is full of the harsh reality of nature. Many storms arise in the novel, including storms the night the Creature comes to life.
The most common feature of Gothic Literature is the indication of mood through the weather.
Gothic vs. Romanticism
Romantic writers celebrated the beauties of nature.
Gothic writers were peering into the darkness at the supernatural.
Romanticism developed as a reaction against the rationalism of the Age of Reason. The romantics freed the
imagination from the hold of reason, so they could follow their imagination wherever it might lead.
For some Romantics, when they looked at the individual, they saw hope (think “A Psalm of Life”).
For some Romantic writers, the imagination led to the threshold of the unknown—the shadowy region where the fantastic, the demonic and the insane reside. When the Gothic's saw the
individual, they saw the potential of evil.
Gothic Movement in America
The Gothic Tradition was firmly established in Europe before American writers had made names for themselves.By the 19th century, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathanial Hawthorne, and to a lesser extent Washington Irving and Herman Melville were using the Gothic elements in their writing.
Edgar Allan Poe was the master of the Gothic form in the United States.
Characteristics
• Set in Medieval times• Dark, mysterious, evil
tone• Dark castles, palaces,
chambers, haunted mansions
• Isolated setting• All come together to
emphasize the sense of evil
http://www.encounterspri.com/Articles.htm
More characteristics
• Presence of ghosts, spirits, vampires, and other supernatural entities
• Mysterious disappearances and reappearances
• Supernatural or paranormal occurrences
http://www.penelopesweb.com/gargoyles.html
Characteristics -- cont’d.
• Religion, usually Christianity or at least spirituality, is confronted.
• A gothic “double” is used in which a character who seems to be good is linked with another who is evil
www.pagedepot.com/.../ GOTHIC%20CHAPBOOKSX.HTM
More characteristics
• Blood, pain, death• Cruelty• Characters with
“aberrant psychological states”
• Events are uncanny or melodramatically violent bordering between reality and unreality
http://www.pantip.com/cafe/chalermthai/newmovie/hauntedcastle/hc.html
Purpose
• To evoke “terror” versus “horror” in the reader because of situations bordering reality/unreality•Often used to teach a message
• May lack a Medieval setting but will develop an atmosphere of gloom and terror
Differentiating between the two
• Horror•“An awful
apprehension”•Described distinctly•Something grotesque•So appalling,
unrealistic•Depends on physical
characteristics
• Terror•“A sickening realization”•Suggestive of what will
happen•Depends on reader’s
imagination•Sense of uncertainty•Creates an “intangible
atmosphere of spiritual psychic dread”
Gothic Conventions
Murder Death Suicide Ghosts Demons
Gloomy settings
Family secrets
Dungeons Curses Torture
Vampires Spirits Castles Tombs Terror
A few more gothic conventions
Damsel in distress (frequently faints in horror)
Secret corridors, passageways, or rooms
Ancestral curses
Ruined castles with graveyards nearby
Priests and monks
Sleep, dream, death-like states
Metonymy of gloom and terror
Metonymy is a subtype of metaphor, in which something (like rain) is used to stand for something else (like sorrow). For example, the film industry likes to use metonymy as a quick shorthand, so we often notice that it is raining in funeral scenes.
Note the following metonymies that suggest mystery, danger, or the supernatural
wind, especially howling sighs, moans, howls, eerie sounds
rain, especially blowing clanking chains
doors grating on rusty hinges gusts of wind blowing out lights
footsteps approaching doors suddenly slamming shut
lights in abandoned rooms crazed laughter
characters trapped in a room baying of distant dogs (or wolves?)
ruins of buildings thunder and lightning
Importance of Setting
The setting is greatly influential in Gothic novels. It not only evokes the atmosphere of horror and dread, but also portrays the deterioration of its world. The decaying, ruined scenery implies that at one time there was a thriving world. At one time the abbey, castle, or landscape was something treasured and appreciated. Now, all that lasts is the decaying shell of a once thriving dwelling.
Basic Plot Structure for a Gothic Novel
Action in the Gothic novel tends to take place at night, or at least in a claustrophobic, sunless environment.
Ascent (up a mountain high staircase); Descent (into a dungeon, cave, underground chambers or
labyrinth) or falling off a precipice; secret passage; hidden doors;
Physical decay, skulls, cemeteries, and other images of death; ghosts; revenge; family curse; blood and gore; torture; the Doppelganger (evil twin or double), etc.
Gothic Writers
Anne Rice
Edgar Allan Poe
Joyce Carol Oates
Stephen King
Stephenie Meyer
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