Horror and/or Gothic Fiction

Gothic Elements from Four Sources:

• Ancient houses, haunted, secluded, isolated, prison-like rooms, dungeons, caverns, a damsel in distress.
• A female in distress, an isolated mansion, locked rooms, the threat of masculine torment.
• Gothic tales explore the difference between reality and hallucination; deal with the casting off of social restraints; and attempt to reveal psychological experiences of the individual.
• Stock villains (sometimes men of science); heroines in distress; castles, convents, strange mansions; an atmosphere of secret evil.

Gothic Fiction Presents:

• Confusion of actuality and fantasy by the main character.
• Unreliable or misguided, and hence misleading, narrators.
• Emphasis on the psychological states of the characters.
• What are thought to be ghosts, spirits, specters, phantoms.
• A woman in distress.
• Detached, dispassionate keepers who dominate, or attempt to dominate, the heroine.
• Impressionistic descriptions and images.

Gothic Novels:

“A form of novel in which magic, mystery, and chivalry are the chief characteristics.  Horrors abound: one may expect a suit of armor suddenly to come to life, while ghosts, clanking chains, and charnel houses impart an uncanny atmosphere of terror. . . . [Settings are often] a medieval castle . . . with long underground passages, trap doors, dark stairways, and mysterious rooms whose doors slam unexpectedly. . . . [The emphasis is often] on setting and story rather than on character . . . The term today is applied to works . . . that lack the gothic setting or the medieval atmosphere but that attempt to create the same atmosphere of brooding and unknown terror . . . [also used to indicate] a fantastic spirit combining horror, crime, romance, and realism.”  – from A Handbook to Literature (5^th edition)

A Final Note:

The “gothic” appeals to the Romantic writers because it suggests whatever was:

• Medieval
• Natural
• Primitive
• Wild
• Free
• Authentic
• Romantic
• See the handout – “Notes on Romanticism” – for further similarities.