The son has to pay for the sins of his father. The protagonist of the Gothic story suffers either from a familial curse or an old prophecy. The Gothic literature has a tendency to speak directly to the subconscious. The repressed past of the characters reappears in the form of visions and nightmares.
The dark, frightening, and foreboding tone, usually very suspenseful, is another key element of Gothic literature. It contributes to the feeling of fear and uneasiness.
Let us consider the creaking sound of the door, the monstrous laughter of the unknown, the mysterious sound of footsteps, and the clinking chains. All these sounds make the tone of the story frightening. These sounds also create an atmosphere of eeriness, suspense, and mystery in the Gothic story. The weather in Gothic literature echoes the mood of the characters.
The storm outside actually signifies the inner storms of the character. It mirrors and magnifies the feeling of the characters. However, the awful weather and fog in Gothic stories enhance the atmosphere of suspense and terror. The fog particularly signifies the obscurity of objects. It has a tendency to reduce visibility and hide the outward appearances of truth.
Thunderstorms and lightning, however, symbolize evil, tragedy and paranormal. In Gothic literature, Christianity and the idea of religion is also explored. The Gothic writers interrogate religion as well as the religious authorities. Gothic novels evince the monastery, the convent, religious life, confessions, nuns, and monks. They envision human beings as sinful and emphasize their untrustworthiness in transmitting information.
The religious institution of the church has lost its supremacy. The monks and priests are represented as the perpetrators of violence. As faith has retreated in gothic fiction, horrors and fears have taken its place.
The Gothic writers manifest this fear with the entrance of the paranormal and horrific. No supreme power is there to save the victims of Gothic horror.
The Gothic world reveals the fallen world. It envisions a fallen man living in fear and alienation. The inner fears and psychological instability of the self is another key element of Gothic fiction. Their inner fears and unforgivable transgressions constantly haunt them. This is evident in the case of Heathcliff who from a passionate lover transformed into a brutal, insane person. The Gothic writers also deal with the concepts of good and evil in their stories.
Initially we find the protagonist as the embodiment of evils but gradually his suppressed goodness overcomes the apparent evil side of his character. In some works we see that the character is torn between the good and evil and ultimately ends up being grey; neither completely good or evil. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde reveal the concepts of good and evil in a very distinctive way.
Besides horror, mystery, death, decay and the supernatural, the Gothic literature also contains romantic elements. Gothic novels also tell the tales of love in vain. The lovers are parted due to the conspiracies of the person opposing their being together. The Gothic novels also evince the theme of Illicit love or lust threatens the virtuous one.
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Follow us. Aristocratic, suave, moody, solitary, cynical and nursing a guilty secret, this darkly attractive and conflicted male figure surfaces everywhere in Gothic fiction. They have committed no crime, but their existence alone is enough. Emotions run high in Gothic literature reflecting a heightened sense of drama. Women have a tendency to swoon and men rage in reflection of unseen inner torments. There are also murders, kidnappings and people going mad. The villain is usually the central character but fate intervenes in the end to ensure good triumphs over evil.
As mentioned above, melodrama is a key element of silent cinema, which lent itself very nicely to gothic and horror-themed stories. The highly stylised, gestural nature of performance made emotions and personalities immediately evident. German silent film. The Gothic novel is enthralled with death and the supernatural contributing to an atmosphere of horror. There is also a Gothic obsession with the bodies of dead women. In nearly every one of his tales, one of the characters has died or is being mourned.
Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, pub. Dr Jekyll is eminently respectable while Mr. Hyde is brutal and ape-like. The twist is that both represent two facets of the same person. By the eighteenth century in England, the term Gothic had become synonymous with the medieval era, perceived as superstitious, barbaric and unenlightened. It morphed into a genre of Gothic literature which had a fascination with death and the supernatural, influencing many art forms that we know today that seek to shock and entertain.
See more images of Gothic inspired fiction and art. See how Gothic literature has inspired film. See Halloween image galleries. Bela Lugosi in costume as Dracula, Tags: Art , History , Culture. Back to Blog. Read More. Art Scandals: Our Top Five — bridgeman blog The art world is full of scandal and, as the 50th anniversary of the attempted murder of Andy Back to top.
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