The Gothic

gothic belongs under the term terror and was extremely popular in the early 19^th century. Literature was the birth of ‘Gothic’ first being written by Horace Walpole in the novel The Castle of Otranto in 1764. It tells a tale of Manfred, a miserable Prince of Otranto who falls in love with his sons bride to be. The novels starts with the death of the son, who was crushed by a statue, and goes on to tell the story of the castle coming to a supernatural life until it is defeated. This shows the themes that were popular within these times, a link between horror and romance.

The Gothic has no particular elements to put it into a genre, instead it has reoccurring themes, images or literary devices that are known as Motifs.

Walpole, H. (no date). The Castle of Otranto . Available: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12923.The_Castle_of_Otranto. Last accessed 12th February 2015.

Strange places

This is usually found in Gothic Fiction in which a character will find themselves somewhere mysterious and different. This can be many places such as Castles, Prisons, old mansions etc. The characteristics are usually threatening, sometimes sexually enticing. This is clearly seen in Great Expectations with Satis House.

Clashing Time Periods

This is when the Gothic is set during times of transition such as the Georgian era to the Victorian era. Miss Havisham is a clear example of this transition as she ‘stopped time’ during the Georgian Era but lives in the Victorian era. This brings to light the opposition between modern and ancient characteristics and things that you think are in the past come back and causes chaos.

Power and Constraint

This explores the sexual desire, pleasure, power and pain between a character that is great and powerful against the vulnerable women. The gothic can explore these things a lot more than other realistic fiction.

Terror Versus Horror

Ann Radcliffe discovered the difference between the two words when she questioned why readers take pleasure in the description of frightening and horrible events. She describes terror as morally uplifting, it only suggest explicit content it does not show it. She believes this alerts the reader that there is the possibility of something beyond. On the other hand, Horror, shows the explicit content creating excitement in the reader. She believes horror is morally bad and limits the readers mind to the consequences of these horrors.

A World of Doubt

The supernatural and the spiritual are all backed with doubt within the Gothic. There is always uncertainty due to the lack of knowledge and reasoning. Authors like Radcliffe used this doubt within her work but would always explain it with rational evidence.

The Sublime

Edmund Burke a 18^th century philosopher and politician founded the difference between beauty and the sublime in his work “A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. Burke claims beauty is characterised by order, harmony and proportion where as sublime describes the extreme and shocking, not everyday experiences.

Other Key motifs include Sexual power, the uncanny, crisis, the supernatural and the real.

Reference:

Mullan, J. (no date). The Origins of The Gothic. Available: http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-origins-of-the-gothic. Last accessed 11th February 2015.

Bowen, J. (no date). Gothic Motifs . Available: http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/gothic-motifs. Last accessed 11th February 2015.