Elements of Gothic Literature

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Elements of Gothic Literature
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Gothic Literature

• Gothic literature is characterized by gloomy
  settings such as castles and old, dark houses, in
  which mysterious and sometimes violent or
  supernatural occurrences take place.

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Gothic Literature

• The Gothic creates feelings of gloom, mystery,
  and suspense and tends to the dramatic and the
  sensational, like incest, diabolism, and nameless
  terrors.
• 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.

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Mood

• Mood is the feeling an author deliberately
  creates through the use of language and images,
  particularly in the treatment of the setting (the
  place or location of the story).
• You can think of the mood as an effect that the
  author tries to achieve through a consistent and
  repeated use of similar details in describing the
  place and time in which the story takes place.

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Mystery

• Mystery refers to a quality of writing that makes
  the reader uncertain about the outcome of events,
  and perhaps even uneasy.
• When the emotional effect of mystery crosses over
  into a progressive build-up of uneasiness or
  tension, this effect is more commonly referred to
  as suspense.
• Suspense frequently occurs as the reader tries to
  anticipate the resolution of a story's central
  conflict.

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What makes a work Gothic?

• A combination of at least some of these elements
  
• a castle, ruined or intact, haunted or not
• ruined buildings which are sinister or which
  arouse a pleasing melancholy
• dungeons, underground passages, crypts, and
  catacombs which, in modern houses, become spooky
  basements or attics

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• 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

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• 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 rescuedfrequently
• a hero whose true identity is revealed by the end
  of the novel
• horrifying (or terrifying) events or the threat
  of such happenings

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