More Gothic elements

In my previous posts, I have written about the Gothic elements by discussing the tropes that exist in novels. Now, I would like to look at the basic elements that build this genre as a whole.

First, I will start with the Gothic setting. The Gothic novel is an architectural genre that relies on the use of medieval castles, cathedrals, cemeteries, and other haunted settings (such as mansions).

Even in more modern forms of the literature, the “castle” is depicted through the use of the haunted house (mostly because Americans don’t have castles).

Essentially, when Horace Walpole wrote The Castle of Otranto, England was going through a time period known as the Gothic Revival and it was vital to the creation of this form of literature. The castle in Walpole’s novel is used as a tool to drive the plot since the architecture embodies the curse on Manfred’s family and it houses supernatural events throughout the text.

In Stoker’s Dracula, the castle is used to house the vampire in a similar way and it represents an architectural nexus to the past. The Overlook Hotel in Stephen King’s The Shining may not be a literal castle, but it also has the same approach.

Although the Gothic novel heavily relies on the setting, I would also like to discuss the importance of Romanticism in the genre. The Romantic era is a literary period that begins towards the end of the 1700’s and lasts through the 19th Century.

This period is also known to include famous poets like Byron, Coleridge, Keats, and Percy Shelley. In essence, the Romantic era refers to picturesque settings to portray the exotic as well as horror and terror which is seen in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein when Victor ends up in the arctic.

After the setting and Romanticism, I would like to explain the importance of divine power. This element has a lot to do with the apparitions and supernatural powers that are often portrayed in the Gothic genre. In addition, they are used as tools against evil like in Stoker’s Dracula where crucifixes, holy water, and blessed wafers become weapons against the vampire.

Apart from divine power, there is one more part of this genre that creates a sense of awe and fear in each Gothic story. This element is known as Orientalism. The concept of this term was introduced by Edward Said and also written about in Linda Nochlin’s The Imaginary Orient. 

Essentially, it is the idealized portrayal of Eastern, “exotic” cultures by the West in literature and art. Usually, it reinforces negative stereotypes and depicts the East as barbaric and promotes the West. 

For example, this concept is seen in Bram Stoker’s Dracula since the vampire comes from the exotic East and is depicted as violating the West once he shows up in England. By the end of the novel, it is the Westerners that triumph over the Eastern vampire.

Altogether, the Gothic genre is full of several complex elements that have continued to build and add on to this vast collection of literature. I also believe that it is this particular structure that keeps readers like myself enthralled in the world of imagination.

Dreams in Gothic Fiction

Whenever I dream, I always think of little apparitions that come and go whenever I close my eyes. Frequently, I remember these dreams as fragments of multiple narratives that could eventually become a complete story. For Mary Shelley and Stephen King, the same concept seems to be true since both authors famously wrote their novels (Frankenstein and The Shining) while in a dream state.

In Shelley’s case, she often drew inspiration for her writing whenever she indulged “in waking dreams” which she describes as “the formation of a succession of imaginary incidents” (Shelley). Considering her definition of dreams, it is no surprise that Mary Shelley often referred to them when it came to writing her stories.

Even for her novel, Frankenstein, Shelley admits that dreams played a heavy role throughout the creative process. An example of this is written in the novel’s 1831 edition when Shelley describes an “acute mental vision” consisting of a “hideous phantasm of a man” that stirs “with an uneasy, half-vital motion” (Shelley).

In addition, the narrative that Shelley describes, from the dream, is livid enough to create a horror story that delves into the fear of the author’s mind. Personally, I could imagine myself gaining inspiration to write from a dream like this one since the images are so specific and horrifying.

For Stephen King, The Shining portrays an isolated setting that consists of a winter storm forcing a family of three to remain in a Colorado hotel – the end result is Jack Torrance losing his sanity and trying to kill his family.

Although Stephen King’s dream state was drug-induced, I can see a connection between his novel,The Shining, and Shelley’s Frankenstein. Both novels are meant to explore the nightmarish world that the authors experienced in one way or the other.

Even though The Shining is fictional, the idea of being trapped inside a building with an axe-murderer is frightening especially when it is in combination with supernatural occurrences. In other words, Stephen King’s story feels like a projection of the author’s personal nightmares and fears similar to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein which is also grotesque in its own way.

The Importance of Media

In many Gothic novels, media is used to embody modern technology.  This is seen in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which helps to define it as a gothic narrative because of the way that technology is used. When it comes to gothic novels, media is important because it creates a method of dating the texts in certain points of history. For example, Stoker’s novel uses diaries and other ways of journaling ideas to illustrate the narrative in his epistolary collection of documents. In addition, these particular texts are produced by mediums, such as typewriters and phonographs. This becomes a way to show the technologies that were born in the industrialization of the late 19^th Century.

These Victorian forms of media also represent communication since the characters are able to journal about their lives. An instance of this is seen when Mina Murray Harker describes having to put “every item” of the documentation, pertaining to the encounters with the vampire, “in chronological order” by using the typewriter (Stoker 198).

Mina also describes the process when saying that she “began to typewrite from the beginning of the seventh cylinder” which refers to the physical work that is required in order to create this documentation (Stoker 198). Apart from the use of the typewriter, the novel goes on to describe Dr. Seward as using a phonograph to record his diaries about his zoophagous patient, Renfield, since there are odd behaviors that the doctor must report. Considering these modes of documentation, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, represents the Victorian age of technology through dated forms of media, while also expressing the ways in which technology of that time could be the way to outdo the mystical foe (aka, the vampire).

The same approach is seen in Horror novels, such as Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho.

For instance, Patrick Bateman, the protagonist in the novel, journals his thoughts and experiences and refers to late Twentieth Century forms of media, such as television.

Throughout the novel, Bateman expresses his thoughts on programs like The Patty Winters Show and he talks about pop music from the 1980’s (including a full chapter about Genesis) while regularly listening to it on his Walkman.

In other words, technology and media surround Bateman’s life because he lives in an era that is based on materialism and consumption. As a whole, American Psycho uses media to express the psychotic thoughts of the main characters as well as the advancements of technology for that era.

Terror in the Gothic novel

In Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, certain elements are used in order to establish the motifs of a gothic romance while providing scenes that evoke terror within the individual characters. According to Barbauld, terror is described to be a part of tragedy – a concept that is administered in the first chapter of Walpole’s novel. 

Essentially, chapter one of The Castle of Otranto begins with the tragic death of Manfred’s son, Conrad. In addition, Walpole uses this scene to introduce the supernatural side of the Gothic novel through the presence of a gigantic falling helmet which happens to land on Conrad, killing him instantly.

Apart from this bizarre death, Walpole presents his readers with an ancient prophecy that foreshadows the tragic and terrifying events of the novel which says “That the castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it” (Walpole 14).

By introducing this prophecy, Walpole establishes the impending doom that is about to strike the people that dwell in the castle of Otranto. With the combination of prophecy and tragedy, Horace Walpole fills his novel with terror through the representation of danger and fear.

With the idea of claustrophobia in mind, Walpole is able to induce panic within Manfred’s mind since his sense of freedom is confined within his own walls. On the other hand, Isabella experiences her own share of dread since she is being chased by the prince of Otranto and she too loses freedom since she is forced to flee from the castle. Between the two characters, Manfred and Isabella experience what Barbauld would describe as “the pain of terror” which promotes widespread fear throughout Horace Walpole’s novel (213).

Apart from Conrad’s death scene, The Castle of Otranto quickly moves on to another situation that evokes a feeling of terror through the use of gothic props. For example, when Manfred is pursuing Isabella, he comes across an apparition that leads him into a chamber and traps him inside it. This entrapment allows Walpole to generate fear in Manfred since the concept of claustrophobia, as well as a feeling of powerlessness to the extraordinary events around him, are overwhelming.

Introduction and meaning of “gothic”

I love reading books. Particularly, I enjoy reading books from the Gothic genre. But, whenever I say the word “gothic,” the response that I usually get is “what are you talking about?” or “do you mean those people with heavy make up and black hair?”

Although I do not blame anyone for this assumption, I would like to shed some light on the word’s actual meaning especially when it is applied to literature.

First, I would like to talk about the history of the term by answering the following questions: Where does the word “gothic” come from? And, how does this background provide the foundation for the genre?

To answer the first question, the word “gothic” comes from a Germanic tribe that migrated from south Sweden during the 3rd and 4th Centuries. Around that time, the Goths had become influential in world events since they brought down the Roman Empire and the Huns. 

Later on, the Visigoths  went on to rule Spain and France before they eventually disappeared during the Middle Ages. From the Goths, an entire art and architectural movement took over in Europe which led to the construction of cathedrals and paintings.

By the 19th Century, this medieval style resurfaced in England during a movement called the Gothic Revival. 

Within the same period, Horace Walpole went down in literary history after he published the first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto. 

It is Walpole’s story that began the genre’s tradition and it inspired later novels, like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Even today, this form of storytelling resurfaces again and again in several types of media (including books, movies, shows, etc). 

On this blog, I want to discuss Gothic novels as well as the elements that help shape the entire genre. In addition, I would like to see how these tropes change over time.