1. The Gothic novel Performer - Culture & Literature
James Ward, Gordale Scar, 1814,
London, Tate Gallery
The Gothic novel
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Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella,
Margaret Layton © 2012

2. 1. The origin of the name
It came to popularity at the end of the 18th century
The adjective ‘Gothic’
three connotations
Medieval, linked
to the architecture
of the 12th-14th
centuries
Irregular,
barbarous,
opposed to
Classicism
Wild, supernatural,
in the sense of
mysterious
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3. The 18th-century society
2. Influences
Industrial exploitation
Destruction of the single human being.
Man as a slave to forces he could not control.
Gothic symbols as denunciation of social problems.
The 18th-century society
As a celebration of terror.
As a rejection of constraints and limits.
As exploration of forbidden areas.
The ‘sublime’
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4. 3. The Gothic setting
Great importance given to terror, characterised by obscurity and uncertainty, and horror, caused by evil and atrocity.
Darkness, a necessary ingredient for the mysterious, gloomy atmosphere.
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5. 3. The Gothic setting
Ancient settings isolated castles and mysterious abbeys with hidden passages, underground cellars, secret rooms.
Catholic countries as the setting for the most terrible crimes, due to Protestant prejudices against Catholicism.
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6. 4. The characters
Characters dominated by exaggerated reactions in front of mysterious situations or events.
Supernatural beings: vampires, monsters and ghosts.
Sensitive heroes: they save heroines.
Heroines stricken by unreal terrors and persecuted by the villains.
Satanic, terrifying male characters, victims of their negative impulses
Henry Fuseli (Johann Heinrich Füssli),
The Nightmare, 1781, Goethe Museum, Frankfurt
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7. The Gothic novel
5. The language
Gothic writers chose vocabulary that referred to emotions and feelings, capable of evoking anxiety, fear or horror.
Semantic areas
Words
Mystery
enchantment, ghost, haunted, infernal, magic, secret, spectre, vision
Fear / Terror / Sorrow
agony, anguish, apprehensions, despair, dread, fearing, frightened, hopeless, horror, melancholy, miserable, panic, sadly, scared, shrieks, sorrow, tears, terror, unhappy, wretched
Haste
anxious, breathless, frantic, hastily, impatient, running, suddenly
Anger
anger, enraged, furious, rage, resentment, wrath
Largeness
enormous, gigantic, large, tremendous, vast
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8. 6. Metonimy
Metonymy: a subtype of metaphor, in which something is used to stand for something else. The following metonymies for doom and gloom suggest elements of mystery, danger, or the supernatural and are common in Gothic novels.
Elements of nature
wind, especially howling; gusts of wind blowing out lights
rain, especially blowing
thunder and lightning
Setting
doors grating on rusty hinges
clanking chains
lights in abandoned rooms
doors suddenly slamming shut
ruins of buildings
barking of distant dogs / wolves
Characters
sighs, moans, howls, strange sounds
characters trapped in a room
footsteps approaching
crazed laughter
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9. 7. First Gothic authors Horace Walpole  The Castle of Otranto (1764)
Ann Radcliffe  The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794)
Matthew Lewis The Monk (1796)
Mary Shelley Frankenstein (1818)
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10. 8. Popularity
Great interest during the 18th century common to all strata of society.
The features of Gothic novels preserved in modern and contemporary descendents of this genre in the works of:  Charlotte Brontë  Edgar Allan Poe  Robert Louis Stevenson  Bram Stoker
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