But What do Literary Scholars REALLY Mean When they Mention the Gothic?
When many of us think of the Gothic we may think of the dark and depressing that ultimately brings about horror and imminent death. And depending on the time and place--this may be a valid assumption.
But...
In terms of the British Romanticism period, the Gothic novel is a multi-layered thing.
But...
In terms of the British Romanticism period, the Gothic novel is a multi-layered thing.
Below is trailer on a high school level course on Gothic Literature. It gives a very superficial but concise explanation of the genre.
A Special Note on Setting:
The Gothic and Setting are inextricably connected. The Castle of Otranto would not have been able to evoke fear and suspense if it did not have the underground tunnels, mysterious rooms, and been large enough to accommodate hidden horrors. So to understand the Gothic, one must understand the importance of the castle, manor, or estate to the genre.
"The castle has been transformed in Walpole's handing from a locus of safety into a place of sexucal transgression, and supernatural visitation, or secret passageways and political intrigue. With its adjacent monastery, it is a place that harbours guilty secrets and unlawful desires, a fortress not for keeping people out but for keeping them in (Garner 14)."
The very foundation of The Castle of Otranto set the standard for castles in the Gothic stories that would come afterwards -- from The Mysteries of Udolpho to Dracula.
The Gothic and Setting are inextricably connected. The Castle of Otranto would not have been able to evoke fear and suspense if it did not have the underground tunnels, mysterious rooms, and been large enough to accommodate hidden horrors. So to understand the Gothic, one must understand the importance of the castle, manor, or estate to the genre.
"The castle has been transformed in Walpole's handing from a locus of safety into a place of sexucal transgression, and supernatural visitation, or secret passageways and political intrigue. With its adjacent monastery, it is a place that harbours guilty secrets and unlawful desires, a fortress not for keeping people out but for keeping them in (Garner 14)."
The very foundation of The Castle of Otranto set the standard for castles in the Gothic stories that would come afterwards -- from The Mysteries of Udolpho to Dracula.
Major Characteristics of the Gothic
- Time period in the Gothic novel is also an extremely important part of the Gothic novel. British Romantics (the authors) of Gothic novels were rebels against society at the time. Victorian society in particular dictated that everything be in its place from objects to people. Gothic literature often takes place in a time with no barriers and in which much more is allowed.
- This mentality came from the origins of the Gothic as a whole. It was synonymous with the Visigoths who were synonymous with barbarism, power, brute force, violence, and torture. This went against the very grain of Victorian gentility.
- The era in which Walpole and the successors to his Gothic genre wrote, had a society built upon structure. The Gothic novel challenged structure, and made authority figures tyrannical.
- The Gothic Novel was a rebuttal to works of the Enlightenment age which reinforced ideas of decency, proportion, symmetry, order, and the civilized world.
- Often in the Gothic world the bourgeois will come under scrutiny and protagonists will be in the thick of any conflict.