Gothic Literature
The term “gothic” as it was applied to literature does not so much apply to the ancient Germanic tribes of Western and Eastern Europe, so much as it does to what they represent metaphorically. Gothic as an adjective is meant to signify the baser human emotions, or the decay and collapse of human creations, i.e., the crumbling Gothic architecture of Europe. Intense human emotions, such as despair, love, and horror, are the main ingredients of gothic fiction. As defined, Goth literature is a combination of romance, horror, and historical fiction. With one of the first, or at least the most prominent and well remembered examples of Goth literature, Horace Walpole wrote The Castle of Otranto in 1764. He combined romance and terror to creating a different sort of effect on readers that began to take hold, thus emerged the new genre.
The featured setting of gothic literature are usually castles, strict academies, haunted mansions, ruins, dungeons; during the scenes are situations of psychological and physical terror, death, magic, witches, Gothic architecture, madness, orphans. The characters in gothic fiction are wandering maids, amnesiac mysterious women with exotic features, ostracised royalty, noblemen with secrets, etc. The villains could be ghosts, sorcerers, vampires, murdering dukes or earls, skeletons, or werewolves. The ideas and undertones in the novels could range from Roman Catholic criticism over the Spanish Inquisition, to melodrama, to the romantic mysteries of having an ancient medieval past.
Margaret Drabble, editor of the Oxford Guide to English Literature, suggested that Horace Walpole, as the author was using the word Gothic as synonymous with medieval. It’s the fashion of Gothic architecture that he built his home on Strawberry Hill. The started the trend that soon turned into the Gothic revival. In what is known as the first fully developed gothic novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho, is Ann Radcliffe’s flawed gothic villain; the brooding, menacing male maintain sex appeal and a stoic character. This later developed into the Byronic hero; a hero with a personality similar to that of Lord Byron the poet and writer. Even the prolific author and notable madman, the Marquis de Sade was a fan of Gothic literature; his work is considered to have gothic elements, though not being entirely of the genre. Sade, though a fan of both authors, believed Gregory Lewis, author of The Monk –a tale of debauchery, and black magic in a monastery, –to be superior to Ann Radcliffe. The genre stretched to continental Europe as well, and flourished. However, the work outside of England was generally more horrific than that of the English Gothic novel. The genre grew to include Gothic satire, and during the Victorian era, evolved to penny dreadfuls; smaller novellas of more lurid subject matter. Despite centuries between this time and the premier of Gothic literature, the genre is still as best-selling as it ever was.