1
Common Terms Associated with Gothic Literature
Angel in the House
A term taken from a late Victorian poem by Coventry Patmore. The "Angel in
the House" describes the Victorian ideal of the perfect woman: a woman who
is patient, kind, self-effacing, non-confrontational, domestic, quietly spiritual,
nurturing, supporting, dependent upon a man, beautiful, and engaged in private
concerns (not public, political issues). Such a woman is considered to be the
complement of a man, and part of her important role for society is to inspire
men to be stronger, dominant, moral, and protective. See ideology of separate
spheres.
Aristotelian Unities
In his Poetics Aristotle defines the elements of tragedy. For example, he
explored the concept of "catharsis" as the purpose of tragedy, the idea of
"mimesis" or literature's imitation of life, the notion of the complex character,
an aesthetic for determining the quality of plots, etc. Aristotle favored what has
become called the Aristotelian "unities":

Unity of Time: the best plays confine themselves to a brief period of
time. The plot of Oedipus all takes place within a few hours.

Unity of Place: the best plays occur in a single location, and do not cut
to different scenes in different places.

Unity of Action: rather than episodic plots in which one adventure
follows another, Aristotle preferred focused and compressed plots.
Bildungsroman
A novel that deals with the development of a young -person, usually from adolescence to maturity; it is
frequently autobiographical. Jane Eyre and Dickens's
Great Expectations are both examples of the
bildungsroman.
Byronic Hero
A later variation of the Villain-Hero, based on the
real historical figure of Lord Byron. Aristocratic,
cosmopolitan, suffering from ennui, suave, moody,
handsome, solitary, secretive, brilliant, cynical,
sexually intriguing (frequently sexually ambiguous
or perverse), and nursing a secret wound, he is
renowned because of his fatal attraction for female
characters and readers and continues to occasion
debate about gender issues. Example: Byron's Childe
Harold, or more recently the Batman (or Darkman)
or film (creepy, handsome, wealthy, secretive,
attractive to women but unable to sustain a
relationship with one, damaged from a deep
childhood wound, and sexually ambiguous (his most
sustained relationships seem to be with Robin and
2
his butler Alfred .. .).(Definition adapted from Paul
Quinnell, Glossary of Literary Gothic Terms at
www.georgiasouthern.edu/~dougt/goth.html)
Deductive and Inductive
Reasoning
Deductive and Inductive Reasoning: Although we
are accustomed to thinking of Sherlock Holmes's
logic as powerful acts of "deduction," it is in fact not
deduction but induction, or reasoning from the best
inferences. In true deduction, no thinking process is
necessary, and the conclusion is laid out for us based
on a series of logic statements. For example,
All Cats are Mammals.
Felix is a Cat.
-Therefore, Felix is a Mammal.
You see? No surprises. Deduction is useful in fields
such as mathematics, but not very useful in detective
fiction. By contrast, Inductive Reasoning allows for
guesses--or "reasoning from the best inferences." In
other words, gathering together evidence and clues
and coming up with the best possible explanation.
See Reading Tips to The Hound of the Baskervilles
for additional information.
Denouement
A term taken from the French word noue (knot).
Literally means the untying. The denouement is
typically the final scene of a detective fiction. In a
stereotypical denouement, the suspects are gathered
together in one room and the detective, one by one,
singles out each character's motives for committing a
crime, explains why he ruled them out, and finally
denounces the true culprit.; In more subtle
denouement scenes, the detective merely explains his
thought process--how he at first suspected but then
excluded different suspects and how he was able to
identify the culprit.
Doppelgänger
Doppelgänger comes from German; literally translated, it means doublegoer. In
literature, a doppelgänger is the double, evil twin, alter ego, or ghostly counterpart of a
character. In analyzing the doppelgänger as a psychic projection caused by unresolved
anxieties, Otto Rank described the double as possessing traits both complementary and
antithetical to the character involved. Frequently the doppelgänger possesses the
qualities that a given character is attempting to repress--but, as Freud notes, we can
never truly repress that which is inside us. One of the driving features of gothic
literature is this very return of the repressed--that which cannot be denied and explodes
(or creeps) onto the pages of the text in the form of a character that haunts or drives the
protagonist. Famous doubles include Jekyll/Hyde, Victor Frankenstein/his monster,
Jane Eyre/Bertha, and the narrator and the woman behind the wall paper in Charlotte
3
Perkins Gilman "The Yellow Wallpaper."
Entrapment
A favorite Gothic horror device in which a
person (frequently a female or an otherwise
powerless figure) is confined or trapped. This
entrapment can take the form of a literal
entrapment (as in The Monk when Agnes is
trapped in the catacombs of the nunnery). It can
also take the form of a more psychological
entrapment, as when Truman Capote's Miriamthe-elder finds herself increasingly without
options, as if the walls were closing in, and
powerless to break out of social, emotional, and
psychological patterns and constraints.
Epistolary Fiction
Female Gothic
Frankenstein has a convoluted plot structure, one
that might be compared to a set of Russian nesting
dolls. First we have Captain Walton's narrative,
and we are to believe that the entire novel is an
epistolary fiction (written in the form of letters--or
epistles-- to his sister). Next, Victor Frankenstein
tells about his own history and the creation of the
creature . . . up to the point where he describes
meeting the creature on the "sea of ice" beneath
Mont Blanc. Then, the creature tells his own story,
and part of his story is the story of the Delacy
family. In short, the story is a series of three men's
autobiographies (authored by a woman!). At a
certain point, we must wonder how reliable can
any of these stories be--or, are all of these stories
increasingly internalized narratives of pain and
sufferings in which repeated traumas are replayed
and replayed until we reach the heart of things . . .
or perhaps become so lost in our own sorrows that
we cannot find a way out. What does it mean that
the final audience of the story is female, Capt.
Walton's sister? Why is the DeLacey family's tale
in the very heart of the series of frames? See also
unreliable narrator and framework story.
One of the earliest forms of Gothic literature, the Female Gothic often implicitly
-expresses criticism of patriarchal, male-dominated structures and serves as an expression
of female independence. This form is often centered on gender differences and
oppression. Female Gothic works usually include a female protagonist who is pursued,
trapped, and persecuted by a villainous patriarchal figure in unfamiliar settings and
4
terrifying landscape. While achieving a considerable degree of terror and chills, the
Female Gothic usually eschews the more overt and graphic scenes of violence and sexual
perversion found in the literature of horror, and instead focuses on the psychological
effects of powerlessness and entrapment.This kind of fiction first achieved controversial
prominence in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.
Framework
Story
A story inside a framework, a story inside a story. In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, for
-example, the Prologue introduces a group of travelers making a pilgrimage. This general
introduction might be considered the framework of the tales, the individual tales that each
traveler recounts become the framework stories. Frankenstein is a frame-tale, because the
story of Victor Frankenstein, his creature, and the de Laceys are all included within Capt.
Robert Walton's letters to his sister. In many movie and stage versions of the novel,
Captain Walton is simply omitted from the tale, and the dramatic action begins with
Frankenstein's childhood. Captain Walton, however, is not a superfluous character--he
has many similarities to Frankenstein and to the creature, and he must learn from
Frankenstein's story when he makes his own decisions about whether or not to pursue his
scientific dreams over and above caring for the lives of others.
Gothic Revival
A reaction against the symmetry and regularity of Palladian and classical styles off
architecture. Gothic revivalists, such as Walpole with his work on Strawberry Hill,
recreated aspects of the high middle ages in their mansions, such as towers, cloisters,
battlements, flying buttresses, hidden chambers, armouries, gothic staircases, vaulted
ceilings, and dim passageways. The gothic revival in architecture continued from the
middle of the eighteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth century. Many
churches and university buildings, for example, have been designed to evoke the middle
ages (massive stonework, imposing features that seem to overpower the approaching
visitor, gardens and gates that create a sense of enclosure).
Satanic / Promethean / Faustian / Byronic
hero
This "hero" figure in Romantic era literature is a charismatic figure
who often drives the action of the story and is frequently selfabsorbed, megalomaniacal, demonic, nefarious, sophisticated, and
compelling. Different variations of this Romantic hero have been
identified:

Satanic Hero: a Villain-Hero whose nefarious deeds and
justifications of them make him a more interesting
character than the rather bland good hero. Examples
include Charlotte Dacre's Zofloya; Beckford's Vathek,
Radcliffe's Montoni, Polidori's Ruthven and just about any
vampire.

Promethean Hero: a Villain-Hero who has done good but
only by performing an overreaching or rebellious act.
Prometheus from ancient Greek mythology saved mankind
but only after stealing fire and ignoring Zeus' order that
mankind should be kept in a state of subjugation. Mary
Shelley's Frankenstein is tellingly subtitled the "Modern
Prometheus."

Faustian Hero: like the figure of Faust, whose
5
overweening ambition and desire for knowledge drives
him to make a bargain with the devil, this type of hero is
self-absorbed, ambitious, and in a powerful position. His
ambition is often his tragic flaw, and to achieve his ends he
makes bad decisions--such as Faust's bargain with the
devil. Lewis's Ambrosio follows the path of the Faustian
hero (and is useful to remember that Lewis translated
Goethe's play Faust).

The Gothic
Byronic Hero: a later variation of the Villain-Hero, based
on the real historical figure of Lord Byron. Aristocratic,
cosmopolitan, suffering from ennui, suave, moody,
handsome, solitary, secretive, brilliant, cynical, sexually
intriguing (frequently sexually ambiguous or perverse),
and nursing a secret wound, he is renowned because of his
fatal attraction for female characters and readers and
continues to occasion debate about gender issues.
Example: Byron's Childe Harold, or more recently the
Batman (or Darkman) or film (creepy, handsome, wealthy,
secretive, attractive to women but unable to sustain a
relationship with one, damaged from a deep childhood
wound, and sexually ambiguous (his most sustained
relationships seem to be with Robin and his butler Alfred ..
.).(Definition adapted from Paul Quinnell, Glossary of
Literary Gothic Terms at
www.georgiasouthern.edu/~dougt/goth.html)
-The Gothic is notoriously difficult to define--literary works that inspire
shivers of terror and the toe-curling delight of reading a scary book, late at
night, in an empty house . . . However, we can say that gothic works include
the following, typical elements:

conventions of Gothic: haunted or decayed structures (castles,
mansions, abbeys, etc.), obsession with the past, the supernatural,
entrapment and confinement (especially of the Gothic heroine),
terror, horror, family lineage, curses.

additional elements and concerns: unreliable or compulsive
narrators, displaced cultural or social anxiety, concerns with "bad
parenting" and "bad education" practices, nightmares, embedded
texts and embedded narratives (including frame narratives),
fascination with liminal states (often signaled by a literal
threshhold), boundary transgression.
The Gothic almost always focuses on a confrontation with an uncanny other,
and the genre is shaped by history to a surprising extent because Gothic
writings seem to become increasingly popular at times of great social stress
and economic uncertainty. (Heller 4-5)
As we read important gothic works from the very first Gothic novel, Horace
Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1765) to a twentieth-century work, Daphne
DuMaurier's Rebecca, we will continue to refine our definition of the
6
Gothic.
The Literature of Terror
versus the Literature of
Horror
Many critics rely upon a sharp division between the literatures of terror and
horror.

Works of terror create a sense of uncertain apprehension that leads
to a complex fear of obscure and dreadful elements (see the
sublime). The essence of terror stimulates the imagination and
often challenges intellectual reasoning to arrive at a somewhat
plausible explanation of this ambiguous fear and anxiety.
Resolution of the terror provides a means of escape.

Works of horror are constructed from a maze of alarmingly
concrete imagery designed to induce fear, shock, revulsion, and
disgust. Horror appeals to lower mental faculties, such as curiosity
and voyeurism. Elements of horror render the reader incapable of
resolution and subject the reader's mind to a state of inescapable
confusion and chaos. The inability to intellectualize horror inflicts a
sense of obscure despair.
Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho and Matthew Lewis' The Monk
illustrate this divide between terror and horror and helped establish the
distinction. The former causes the reader to imagine and cross-examine
those imaginings; the latter causes shock and disgust; the former aspires to
the realm of high literature; the latter wallows in the low. But this distinction
is not always clear in works that follow in the gothic tradition, and this
uncertainty fuels critical debates about these works. (definition adapted
from Betty Rigdon, Glossary of Literary Gothic Terms at
www.georgiasouthern.edu/~dougt/goth.html).
As Stephen King suggests in Danse Macabre (London: Future, 1986), there
are three levels of horror fiction: the most significant is that which calls up
the terror of things unseen but suggested to the mind of characters and
readers. The second level is that of fear and the horrific. Such tales invite
physical reactions in the reader but are not as finely wrought as the first
level. The third level is the tale of mere revulsion, a tale that is designed to
create repulsion.
Unreliable
Narrator
Anyone telling a story is the narrator. An unreliable narrator is one whose perception and
interpretation of what he or she narrates is questionable, and the reader seeks to qualify the
narrator’s statements of fact and judgment. A similar type of narrator is the "naive narrator." This
type of narrator is not so much unreliable/untrustworthy as gullible. The implications of the
narration are more clear to the reader than they are to the narrator of the story.