Elements of the Gothic Genre

The medieval novel was invented al n ahead of time star-handedly by Horace Walpole, whose The Castle of Otranto (1764) contains essenti everyy all the elements that constitute the genre. Walpoles novel was imitated not scarcely in the eighteenth century and not only in the novel form, nevertheless it has influenced writing, poetry, and even char hu opus acti hotshotrization making up to the present day. It introduced the terminal figure mediaeval romance to the literary world. Due to its inherently supernatural, surreal and sublime elements, it has maintained a fatal and mysterious appeal. However, the roots of the knightly? precede the mediaeval? industrial plant of Horace Walpole.The digest on the grotesque in the medieval period (visible especially in the paintings and architecture of the period) supplys a headstone backdrop against which mediaeval must be read, as do the violent and often grotesque tragedies written for the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre, with their detailed, al most surgical exploration of the supernatural, vice, corruption, imprisonment, brutality and sexuality, all of which were to provide the very substance of the knightly authors. (Note particularly Macbeth? and Dr Faustus?) Gothic lit is addicted primarily to stories of plague, the fantastic, and the darker supernatural stuffs.These forces often check the dark side of military man nature irrational or destructive needs. Gothic literature derives its do from its similarities to the Gothic medieval cathedrals, which feature a majestic, unrestrained architectural behavior with often savage or grotesque ornamentation (the word Gothic derives from Goth, the name of angiotensin-converting enzyme of the barbaric Germanic tribes that invaded the Roman Empire). The Gothic genre (in both literature and architecture) is therefore associated with savagery and barbarism.Generally enunciateing, Gothic literature delves into the sorry nature of humanity in its quest to satisfy mankinds intrinsical desire to plumb the depths of terror. The key features of medieval texts argon 1) the appearance of the supernatural, 2) the psychology of horror and/or terror, 3) the poetics of the sublime, 4) a sense of mystery and dread 5) the appealing title-holder/ villain, 6) the distressed heroine, and 7) strong moral closure (usually at least). ELEMENTS OF THE GOTHIC IN TEXTS 1. Setting in a castle or haunted ho expend. The legal action takes place in and around an old castle, sometimes receivemingly abandoned, sometimes occupied.The castle often contains secret passages, trap doors, secret rooms, dark or hidden staircases, and possibly ruined sections. The castle whitethorn be secure or connected to caves, which lend their own haunting flavour with their branchings, claustrophobia, and mystery. (Translated into forward-looking filmmaking, the move might be in an old house or mansionor even a new housewhere grotesque camera angles, sustained close u ps during try, and darkness or shadows create the uniform sense of claustrophobia and entrapment. ) It is usually a dwelling that is inhabited by or visited regularly by a ghost or former(a) supposedly supernatural universe.Example Horace Walpoles The Castle of Otranto. Walpoles novel graduation exercise introduced to gothic literature its single most influential convention, the haunted castle. The castle is the main setting of the hi paper and the centre of activity. Cemetery /Graveyard. A cemetery defines a place which is apply for the burial of the dead. Cemeteries be widely apply in Gothic literary acetifys as oftentimes fright places where revenance pot occur. Catacombs are especially redolent(p) Gothic spaces because they en adequate the living to enter below ground a dark labyrinth resonating with the presences and mysteries of the dead. . The Weather is used in a number of ways and forms, some of these cosmos Mist This convention in Gothic Literature is often used to obscure objects (this screw be related to the sublime) by reducing visibility or to prelude the institution of a terrifying person or thing Storms These frequently surveil important events. Flashes of lightning accompany revelation holler and downpours prefigure the appearance of a character or the beginning of a signifi posteriort event (eg big H precedes the entrance of the witches in Macbeth?Sunlight represents goodness and pleasure it in like manner has the index number to bestow these upon characters. 3. An atmosphere of mystery and suspense. (or a sense of dread) The work is pervaded by a threatening feeling, a fear enhanced by the transcendental. oft the plot itself is built around a mystery, such as unknown parentage, a disappearance, or some other inexplicable event eg. Ghosts move or a painting coming to life. in that location may be an ancient prophecy connected with the castle or its inhabitants. It is usually obscure, uncomplete or confusing.Th is serves to captivate the reader and encourage further reading. The atmosphere may also be seen acting upon the protagonists in texts, influencing them by exciting their quirkiness or fear. 4. Claustrophobia / Entrapment & Imprisonment A favourite horror device of the Gothic finds a person confined or trapped, such as being shackled to a floor or hidden away in some dark cell or cloister. This sense of there being no way by contributes to the claustrophobic psychology of Gothic space. It consists of an kinky dread of being confined in a close or narrow space.Often ttributed to actual physical imprisonment or entrapment, claustrophobia can also figure more generally as an indicator of the victims sense of helplessness or horrified psychic awareness of being enmeshed in some dark, inscrutable destiny 5. The supernatural may be intrinsic to the plot. This is generally in the form of some kind of supernatural being or object, such as a vampire, witch, devil or ghost, which is frig htening due to its refusal to adhere to the laws of nature, God or man. In Macbeth? there are three witches. Dr Faustus communicates with a demon and indirectly with Lucifer.All of heaven Lost? makes the supernatural. 6. Dreams, omens, portents, visions. stargaze is characterised as a form of mental activity that takes place during the act of sleep. Dreams invoke strong emotions within the mooner, such as ecstasy, joy and terror. Dreams tangle up these deep emotions and premonitions that reflect pronounceingly upon the dreamer, what one might dissemble during waking hours but what emerges in sleep to haunt and arouse the dreamer. It is most likely due to this heightened turned on(p) state that dreams are used so often within Gothic Literature.By invoking dream states within their characters, authors are able to illustrate emotions on a more unmediated and, oftentimes, terrifying level. Dreams expose to the reader what the character is often too afraid to realise close hims elf or herself. Dreaming also has an ancient relation with the act of anticipation wherein the future is glimpsed in the dream state. Perhaps the most famous Gothic example of significant dreams occurs in Shelleys Frankenstein? after Frankenstein awakes his creature he waterfall into a dream state that begins with his kissing of Elizabeth, his love.However, this kiss changes her in the most drastic way as she transforms into the rotting corpse of Caroline, Victors dead mother. Upon rouse from this horrifying dream, Victor finds himself staring into the face of the monster he has created. Interpretations of this dream lead to explorations of Frankensteins psyche, relational ability and sexuality. A character may hold a disturbing dream vision, or some phenomenon may be seen as a portent of coming events. For example, if the statue of the lord of the manor waterfall over, it may portend his death.In modern apologue, a character might see something (a shadowy figure stabbing anothe r shadowy figure) and think that it was a dream. This might be thought of as an imitation vision. Banquo in Macbeth? dreams of the supernatural sisters?. Lady Macbeth?s suppressed guilt emerges when she is seen sleepwalking. 7. The stock characters of Gothic metaphor include tyrants, villains, bandits, maniacs, Byronic heroes, persecuted maidens, femmes fatales, madwomen, magicians, vampires, werewolves, monsters, demons, angel, fallen angel, the beauty and the beast, revenants, ghosts, perambulating skeletons, the Wandering Jew, and the Devil himself. .Villain-Hero (Satanic, Promethean, Byronic Hero) The villain of a story who every 1) poses as a hero at the beginning of the story or 2) simply possesses enough heroic characteristics (charisma, charitable past, etc) so that either the reader or the other characters see the villain-hero as more than a simple charlatan or bad guy. threesome closely related types exist Satanic Hero a Villain-Hero whose unlawful deeds and plainly ifications of them make him a more interesting character than the preferably bland good hero.Example The origin of this prototype comes from Romantic misreading of Miltons Paradise Lost, whose Satan poets like Blake and Shelley regarded as a far more induce figure than the moralistic God of Book III of the epic. Gothic examples Beckfords Vathek, Radcliffes Montoni, and just about any vampire. Promethean a Villain-Hero who has done good but only by performing an over-reaching or rebellious act. Prometheus from ancient Greek mythology deliver mankind but only after stealing fire and ignoring Zeus align that mankind should be kept in a state of subjugation.Mary Shelleys Frankenstein is tellingly subtitled the Modern Prometheus. Consider whether Dr Faustus is a Promethean hero. (The vaulting arches and spires of Gothic cathedrals reach wildly to the sky as if the builders were trying to grasp the heavens , an ambition for the imperishable that is likewise expressed in many works o f Gothic literature (consider Manfreds quest for supernatural magnate in Byrons poem, or Frankensteins quest to befit godlike by creating life or Dr. Faustus covenant offering his person for 24 years of causation).Byronic Hero a later variation of the antithetically mixed Villain-Hero. Aristocratic, suave, moody, handsome, solitary, secretive, brilliant, cynical, sexually intriguing, and nursing a secret wound, he is noted because of his fatal attraction for female characters and readers and continues to occasion debate about sexual practice issues. Example Byrons Childe Harold and, more gothically, Manfred are the best examples, but this darkly loving and very conflicted male figure surfaces everywhere in the 19th and twentieth century gothic eg Heathcliff or Wilde?s Dorian Gray.Byron himself was described as mad, bad and endangermentous to know. The Byronic hero in literature and life A. redbreast Hood B. Richard III C. Iago D. Faust/ Dr. Faustus E. Miltons Satan F. Vi ctor Frankenstein G. Frankensteins Creature H. Dracula I. Byron?s Manfred J. Cain K. Lara L. Conrad M. Childe Harold N. Byron, Shelley O. Ambrosio P. Peter Quint Q. Miss Jessel R. Stalin S. Hitler T. The Unabomber U. Prometheus 9. The Pursued Protagonist This refers to the idea of a pursuing force that relentlessly acts in a severely forbid manner on a character.This persecution often implies the notion of some manikin of a curse or other form of terminal and utterly unavoidable damnation, a notion that usually suggests a return or hangover of traditional religious ideology to chastise the character for some real or imagined wrong against the moral order. The Wandering Jew is perhaps the archetypically engage/pursuing protagonist. Drew McCray 10. Pursuit of the Heroine This is the by-line of a virtuous and inflated (and usually poetically inclined) young woman by a villain, usually portrayed as a wicked, older but still starchy aristocrat.While in many early Gothic novels su ch a heed occurs across a Mediterranean forest and/or through a subterranean labyrinth, the pursuit of the heroine is by no means limited to these settings. This pursuit represents a threat to the young ladys ideals and morals (usually meaning her virginity), to which the heroine responds in the early works with a passive courage in the face of danger later gothic heroines progressively become more active and now and then effective in their tone-beginnings to escape this pursuit and indict patriarchy. eg. Angela Carter?s The bloody(a) Chamber. ?Women in distress. As an appeal to the pathos and sympathy of the reader, the female characters often face events that leave them fainting, terrified, shout, and/or sobbing. A lonely, pensive, and oppressed heroine is often the interchange figure of the novel, so her receiveings are even more pronounced and the focalization of attention. The women suffer all the more because they are often abandoned, left alone (either on purpose or b y accident), and have no shielder at times.Women threatened by a powerful, impulsive, tyrannical male. One or more male characters has the power, as king, lord of the manor, father, or guardian, to demand that one or more of the female characters do something intolerable. The woman may be commanded to marry someone she does not love (it may even be the powerful male himself), or commit a crime. 11. The Outsider The one theme that cuts through virtually all Gothic is that of the outsider, embodied in placeers like Frankensteins creature.Gothic fiction is concerned with the outsider, whether the stationary figure who represses his difference, or the nomadic figure who seeks for some kind of salvation, or else the individual who for whatever reason- moves on the whole outside the norm. In any event, he is beyond the moderating impulses in society, and he must be punished for his transgression. He is gloomy and melancholy, broad of self-pity and self-hatred. Like Cain, he is the pe rpetual outsider, marked by his appearance, doomed to wander the four corners of the earth, alone and reviled.It may be argued that Frankenstein himself becomes an outsider as he grows more and more like his creation. . While the society at extensive always appears bourgeois in its culture and morality, the Gothic outsider is a counterforce driven by strange longings and destructive needs. While everyone else appears sane, he is crazed while everyone else appears bound by legalities, he is trying to snap the merciless constrictions of the law while everyone else seems to lack any peculiarities of peck or behaviour, he feels only estrangement, sick longings, terrible surges of power and de bulkyation.Take for example, Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights?. 12. self- willpower The popularity of belief in demonic possession seems to have originated within Christian Theology during the Middle Ages. During this time, Christians lived in fear concerning the war being waged betwixt God a nd the Devil over every deathlike soul. Hence, this fear of possession seemed to culminate into an act that could be viewed by the mortal eye. This act is be as the forced possession of a mortal embody by the Devil or one of his demons.There are two types of possession and either can be voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary possession seems to involve a willing exchange in the form of some chummy in the midst of evil spirit and mortal, often involving wealth, power or goods (eg. The pact Faustus makes) involuntary possession occurs when the devil randomly selects an unwitting host. The two types of possession consist of the transference of the Devil or demon directly into the mortal body or the sending of the Devil or demon into the body by a third party, usually a mortal dabbling duck in the dark arts.Following the act, the possessed is said to show many symptoms including insane strength, personality changes, fits, convulsions, bodily odours resembling sulphur, lewd and lasci vious actions, the ability to levitate, the ability to speak in tongues or the ability to foretell future events. more religions cognise the act of possession still today, most notably the Catholic Church. There seem to be three ways in which to end a possession. 13. Revenance This is the return of the dead to terrorise or to settle some class with the living.4. Revenge Revenge is characterized as the act of repaying someone for a pervert that the person has caused the idea also points back generically to one of the key influences upon Gothic literature the revenge tragedies of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. Revenge may be enacted upon a love one, a family member, a friend, an object or even an area. Within Gothic Literature, revenge is notably prominent and can be enacted by or upon mortals as well as spirits.Revenge can take many forms, such as harm to body, harm to loved ones, and harm to family. The most Gothic version of revenge in Gothic Literature is the idea that it can be a guiding force in the revenance of the dead. 15. Unreliable Narrator A narrator tells a story and determines the story?s point of view. An unreliable narrator, however, does not understand the immenseness of a particular situation or makes an incorrect conclusion or assumption about an event that he/she witnesses.An important issue in determining the The Turn of the Screw. 16. Multiple Narrative/Spiral Narrative method acting The story is frequently told through a series of secret manuscripts or multiple tales, each revealing a deeper secret, so the narrative gradually spirals inward toward the hidden truth. The narrator is often a firstperson narrator compelled to tell the story to a fascinated or captive listener (representing the capture power of forbidden knowledge). (Note Wuthering Heights?) 17. High, even overwrought emotion.The narration may be highly sentimental, and the characters are often overcome by anger, sorrow, surprise, and especially, terror. Characters suff er from raw nerves and a feeling of impending doom. Crying and emotional speeches are frequent. Breathlessness and panic are common. In the filmed gothic, screaming is common. 18. The sumptuous The definition of this key term has long been a repugn term, but the idea of the sublime is essential to an understanding of Gothic poetics and, especially, the attempt to defend or justify the literature of terror.Put radicalally (and this really is basic a fuller understanding of the Sublime would be useful to students of Wordsworth or any Gothic Literature), the Sublime is an overpowering sense of the greatness and power of nature, which can be uplifting, aweinspiring and terrifying, caused by experience of beauty, vastness or grandeur. Sublime moments lead us to consider the place of humanity in the universe, and the power exhibited in the world. 19. Darkness as intrinsic to humanityGenerally speaking, gothic literature delves into the macabre nature of humanity in its quest to occup y mankinds intrinsic desire to plumb the depths of terror. 0. Necromancy This is the black art of communication with the dead. This is usually done to obtain information about the future, but can also be used for other purposes, such as acquire the dead to perform deeds of which humans are not capable. The prestidigitator often stood in a circle, such as a pentagram, in order to protect himself from the dead spirit, yet he was often overpowered by the spirit. Examples The most famous examples of necromancy can be found in literary renditions of the Faust legend, from Marlowe to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to Byron with his Manfred.In these works, Faust not only speaks with the devil in order to come up a deal but necromantically invokes various dead, famous figures from the past for his sport and edification. 21. Blood -This is a prominent symbol in Gothic works often intimating the paradox of the human condition blood can represent both life and death, or both guilt (e. g. , mu rder) and innocence (e. g. , redemptory blood). Consider references to blood in Macbeth?, Byrons Manfred and Mary Shelleys Frankenstein. 22.Marriage as Resolution The richness of marriage in this scheme cannot be overstated. Not only does movement toward matrimony in the Gothics present trigger the appearance of the buried past, but that buried past itself always contains information tied to the institutions of matrimony or family interest. 23. Sadism The word sadism was coined to describe the writings of Donatien-AlphonseFrancois, the Marquis de Sade. Sadism is a sexual perversion where one person gains gratification by inflicting physical or mental pain on others.It can also mean a outrage in torment or excessive cruelty. (Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights? / or the husband in The Bloody Chamber?. 24. Strong Moral auction block If de Sade is to be believed, the Gothic genre arose as a reaction to the brutality and bloodiness of Romantic society, and it as part of this response that Gothic fiction usually contains a strong moral. 25. The metonymy of gloom and horror. 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 quickly shorthand, so we often notice that it is raining in funeral scenes. Note that the following metonymies for doom and gloom all suggest some element of mystery, danger, or the supernatural. wind, especially howling doors grating on rusty hinges footsteps approaching lights in abandoned rooms characters trapped in a room ruins of buildings thunder and lightning rain, especially blowing sighs, moans, howls, eerie sounds clanking chains gusts of wind blowing out lights doors dead slamming shut aying of distant dogs (or wolves? ) crazed laughter 26. The phraseology of the gothic. The constant use of the appropriate vocabulary set creates the atmosphere of the gothic.Here as an example are some of the words (in severa l categories) that help make up the vocabulary of the gothic in The Castle of Otranto Mystery diabolical, enchantment, ghost, goblins, haunted, infernal, magic, magician, miracle, necromancer, omens, ominous, portent, preternatural, prodigy, prophecy, secret, sorcerer, spectre, spirits, strangeness, talisman, vision Fear, Terror, or mournfulness fflicted, affliction, agony, anguish, apprehensions, apprehensive, commiseration, concern, despair, dismal, dismay, dread, dreaded, dreading, fearing, frantic, fright, frightened, grief, hopeless, horrid, horror, lamentable, melancholy, miserable, mournfully, panic, sadly, scared, shrieks, sorrow, sympathy, tears, terrible, terrified, terror, unhappy, wretched Surprise alarm, amazement, astonished, astonishment, shocking, staring, surprise, surprised, thunderstruck, wonder Haste anxious, breathless, flight, frantic, hastened, hastily, impatience, impatient, impatiently, impetuosity, precipitately, running, sudden, suddenlyAnger anger, angri ly, choler, enraged, furious, fury, incense, incensed, provoked, rage, raving, resentment, temper, wrath, wrathful, wrathfully Largeness enormous, gigantic, giant, large, tremendous, vast 27. Elements of Romance In addition to the standard gothic aspects, many gothic novels contain elements of romance as well. Elements of romance include these Powerful love. core stirring, often sudden, emotions create a life or death commitment. Many times this love is the first the character has felt with this overwhelming power. uncertainty of reciprocation. What is the beloved thinking?Is the lovers love returned or not? Unreturned love. Someone loves in vain (at least temporarily). Later, the love may be returned. Tension between true love and fathers control, disapproval, or choice. Most often, the father of the woman disapproves of the man she loves. Lovers parted. Some obstacle arises and separates the lovers, geographically or in some other way. One of the lovers is banished, arrested, fo rced to flee, locked in a dungeon, or sometimes, disappears without explanation. Or, an explanation may be given (by the person opposing the lovers being together) that later turns out to be false.Gothicism In literary criticism, this refers to works characterised by a taste for the medieval or morbidly attractive. A gothic novel conspicuously features elements of horror, the supernatural, gloom, and violence clanking chains, terror, charnel houses, ghosts, medieval castles, and mysteriously slamming doors. The term gothic novel is also applied to novels that lack elements of the traditional Gothic setting but that create a similar atmosphere of terror or dread. Mary Shelleys Frankenstein is perhaps the best-known English work of this kind. Grotesque 1) This term originated from oddly shaped ornaments found within Roman dwellings, or grottoes, during the first century. From a literary standpoint, this term implies a fun of the characters, plants and/or animals. This mutation transf orms the normal features and/or behaviours into veritable extremes that are meant to be frightening and/or disturbingly comic (Cornwell 273. (2) The term grotesque also defines a work in which two separate modes, comedy and catastrophe, are mixed. The result is a disturbing fiction wherein comic circumstances prelude horrific tragedy and vice versa.