GOTHIC LITERATURE
What makes a work Gothic is a combination of at least some of these elements:












a castle, ruined or intact, haunted or not,
ruined buildings which are sinister or which stir up a pleasing melancholy
dungeons, underground passages, crypts, and catacombs which, in modern houses, become spooky
basements or attics,
labyrinths, dark corridors, and winding stairs,
shadows, a beam of moonlight in the blackness, a flickering candle, or the only source of light failing (a
candle blown out or an electric failure),
extreme landscapes, like rugged mountains, thick forests, or icy wastes, and extreme weather,
omens and ancestral curses,
magic, supernatural manifestations, or the suggestion of the supernatural,
a passion-driven, willful villain-hero or villain,
a curious heroine with a tendency to faint and a need to be rescued–frequently,
a hero whose true identity is revealed by the end of the novel,
horrifying (or terrifying) events or the threat of such happenings.
The Gothic creates feelings of gloom, mystery, and suspense and tends to the dramatic and the sensational.
Most of us immediately recognize the Gothic (even if we don't know the name) when we encounter it in novels,
poetry, plays, movies, and TV series.
Elements of the Gothic have made their way into mainstream writing. They are found in Sir Walter Scott's
novels, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and in Romantic poetry like
Samuel Coleridge's "Christabel," Lord Byron's "The Giaour," and John Keats's "The Eve of St. Agnes." A
tendency to the macabre and bizarre which appears in writers like William Faulkner, Truman Capote, and
Flannery O'Connor has been called Southern Gothic.
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 quick
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
rain, especially blowing
doors grating on rusty hinges
sighs, moans, howls, eerie sounds
footsteps approaching
clanking chains
lights in abandoned rooms
gusts of wind blowing out lights
characters trapped in a room
doors suddenly slamming shut
ruins of buildings
baying of distant dogs (or wolves?)
thunder and lightning
crazed laughter
The vocabulary of the gothic: The constant use of the appropriate vocabulary set creates the atmosphere of the
gothic. Here are examples of some of the words (in several 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, spirits, strangeness, talisman, vision
Fear,
Terror,
or
Sorrow
afflicted, 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, suddenly
Anger
anger, angrily, choler, enraged, furious, fury, incense, incensed, provoked,
rage, raving, resentment, temper, wrath, wrathful, wrathfully
Largeness
enormous, gigantic, giant, large, tremendous, vast
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE:
Gothic architecture has three distinct characteristics which set it apart from Romanesque; pointed arches,
ribbed vault, and flying buttresses. These developments allowed the architects to make the church much larger
and brighter. By transferring the weight of the ceilings outward thrust to the flying buttresses, they were now
able to place huge stain glass windows in the walls. This allowed the once dim Romanesque Cathedral to be
transformed into a very bright and warm feeling Gothic Cathedral. These churches also reflect the wealth and
influence of the church in the Middle Ages. Many of these churches and cathedrals took over a century to
build.
1. Flying Buttress
2. Pointed Arch
3. Spires
4. Gothic Cathedral
5. Gothic Cathedral Hallway