Gothic fiction

Strawberry Hill, an English villa in the "Gothic revival" style, built by seminal Gothic writer Horace Walpole

Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story". The effect of Gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror, an extension of Romantic literary pleasures that were relatively new at the time of Walpole's novel. Melodrama and parody (including self-parody) were other long-standing features of the Gothic initiated by Walpole.

Gothic literature is intimately associated with the Gothic Revival architecture of the same era. In a way similar to the Gothic revivalists' rejection of the clarity and rationalism of the neoclassical style of the Enlightened Establishment, the literary Gothic embodies an appreciation of the joys of extreme emotion, the thrills of fearfulness and awe inherent in the sublime, and a quest for atmosphere.

The ruins of Gothic buildings gave rise to multiple linked emotions by representing the inevitable decay and collapse of human creations—thus the urge to add fake ruins as eyecatchers in English landscape parks. English Gothic writers often associated medieval buildings with what they saw as a dark and terrifying period, characterized by harsh laws enforced by torture, and with mysterious, fantastic, and superstitious rituals. In literature such Anti-Catholicism had a European dimension featuring Roman Catholic institutions such as the Inquisition (in southern European countries such as Italy and Spain).

Prominent features of Gothic fiction include terror (both psychological and physical), mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses and Gothic architecture, castles, darkness, death, decay, doubles, madness, Transgression, Excess, secrets, and hereditary curses.

The stock characters of Gothic fiction include tyrants, villains, bandits, maniacs, Byronic heroes, persecuted maidens, femmes fatales, monks, nuns, madwomen, magicians, vampires, werewolves, monsters, demons, dragons, angels, fallen angels, revenants, ghosts, perambulating skeletons, the Wandering Jew and the Devil himself.

Archetypes in the Gothic Novel

Similarities exist between different books of every genre, but perhaps that similarity is most closely connected in Gothic Fiction. Each character in almost every book of the genre can be classified into one archetype or another. As David De Vore states, “The Gothic hero becomes a sort of archetype as we find that there is a pattern to their characterization. There is always the protagonist, usually isolated either voluntarily or involuntarily. Then there is the villain, who is the epitome of evil, either by his (usually a man) own fall from grace, or by some implicit malevolence. The Wanderer, found in many Gothic tales, is the epitome of isolation as he wanders the earth in perpetual exile, usually a form of divine punishment.” Below are classified different stock characters of the Gothic Novel along with examples from popular fiction in the genre.

• Virginal Maiden – young, beautiful, pure, innocent, kind, virtuous. Shows these virtues by fainting and crying whenever her delicate sensibilities are challenged, usually starts out with a mysterious past and it is later revealed that she is the daughter of an aristocratic or noble family.
  • Matilda in The Castle of Otranto – She is determined to give up Theodore, the love of her life, for her cousin’s sake. Matilda always puts others first before herself, and always believes the best in others.
  • Adeline in The Romance of the Forest - “Her wicked Marquis, having secretly immured Number One (his first wife), has now a new and beautiful wife, whose character, alas! Does not bear inspection.” As this review states, the virginal maiden character is above inspection because her personality is flawless. Hers is a virtuous character whose piety and unflinching optimism causes all to fall in love with her.

• Older, Foolish Woman
  • Hippolita in The Castle Of Otranto - Hippolita is depicted as the obedient wife of her tyrant husband who “would not only acquiesce with patience to divorce, but would obey, if it was his pleasure, in endeavouring to persuade Isabelle to give him her hand”. This shows how weak women are portrayed as they are completely submissive, and in Hippolita’s case, even support polygamy at the expense of her own marriage.
  • Madame LaMotte in The Romance of the Forest – naively assumes that her husband is having an affair with Adeline. Instead of addressing the situation directly, she foolishly lets her ignorance turn into pettiness and mistreatment of Adeline.

• Hero
  • Theodore in The Castle of Otranto – he is witty, and successfully challenges the tyrant, saves the virginal maid without expectations
  • Theodore in The Romance of the Forest – saves Adeline multiple times, is virtuous, courageous and brave, self-sacrificial

• Tyrant
  • Manfred in The Castle of Otranto – unjustly accuses Theodore of murdering Conrad. Tries to put his blame onto others. Lies about his motives for attempting to divorce his wife and marry his late son’s fiancé.
  • The Marquis in The Romance of the Forest – attempts to get with Adeline even though he is already married, attempts to rape Adeline, blackmails Monsieur LaMotte.
  • Vathek – Reviewers do not know what to do when a seemingly good character is made evil. It does not often happen in Gothic novels and therefore this reviewer has problems buying it. Furthermore, this reviewer seems to be so accustomed to the idea of only one evil villain that they state there should be a greater difference between the punishments both receive at the end of the novel. “As to Nouronihar, I fear that it may be objected that she becomes too suddenly wicked. Some small discrimination of punishment however between her and Vathek may be somewhat aggravated, the end will be perhaps best answered in that way.”

• The Stupid Servant – acts as comic relief by asking seemingly stupid questions, transitions between scenes, brings news, messenger, moves plot forward
  • Peter in The Romance of the Forest – whenever he brings information to people, he never gets to the point but prattles on and on about insignificant things. “The reader…eagerly follows the flight of LaMotte, also of Peter, his coachman, an attached, comic, and familiar domestic.”
  • Bianca in The Castle of Otranto – a gossip, helps characters get valuable news, provides comic relief

• Clowns – break the tension and act as comic relief
  • Diego and Jaquez in The Castle of Otranto – they appear to talk about random things, and argue foolishly with each other in order to lighten the air of the novel.

• Banditti ‑ Ruffians
  • They appear in several Gothic Novels including The Romance of the Forest in which they kidnap Adeline from her father.

• Clergy – always weak, usually evil
  • Father Jerome in The Castle of Otranto – Jerome, though not evil, is certainly weak as he gives up his son when he is born and leaves his lover.
  • Ambrosio in The Monk – Evil and weak, this character stoops to the lowest levels of corruption including rape and incest.
  • Mother Superior in The Romance of the Forest – Adeline fled from this convent because the sisters weren’t allowed to see sunlight. Highly oppressive environment.

• The Setting
  • One could argue that the setting of the Gothic Novel is a character in itself. The plot is usually set in a castle, an abbey, a monastery, or some other, usually religious edifice, and it is acknowledged that this building has secrets of its own. It is this gloomy and frightening scenery, which sets the scene for what the audience should expect. Without a dark and imposing backdrop, the Gothic Novel would not exist. The importance of setting is noted in a London review of the Castle of Otranto, “He describes the country towards Otranto as desolate and bare, extensive downs covered with thyme, with occasionally the dwarf holly, the rosa marina, and lavender, stretch around like wild moorlands…Mr. Williams describes the celebrated Castle of Otranto as “an imposing object of considerable size…has a dignified and chivalric air. A fitter scene for his romance he probably could not have chosen.” Similarly, De Vore states, “The setting is greatly influential in Gothic novels. It not only evokes the atmosphere of horror and dread, but also portrays the deterioration of its world. The decaying, ruined scenery implies that at one time there was a thriving world. At one time the abbey, castle, or landscape was something treasured and appreciated. Now, all that lasts is the decaying shell of a once thriving dwelling.” Thus, without the decrepit backdrop to initiate the events, the Gothic Novel would not exist.

First Gothic romances

The Castle of Otranto (1764) is usually regarded as the first Gothic novel.

This literary genre found its most natural settings in the very tall buildings of the Gothic style — often spelled "Gothick", to highlight their "medievalness" - castles, mansions, and monasteries, often remote, crumbling, and ruined. It was a fascination with this architecture and its related art, poetry (such as graveyard poets), and even landscape gardening that inspired the first wave of Gothic novelists. For example, Horace Walpole, whose The Castle of Otranto (1764) is often regarded as the first true Gothic romance, was obsessed with medieval Gothic architecture, and built his own house, Strawberry Hill, in that form, sparking a fashion for Gothic revival (Punter, 2004; 177).

His declared aim was to combine elements of the medieval romance, which he deemed too fanciful, and the modern novel, which he considered to be too confined to strict realism (Punter, 2004; 178). The basic plot created many other Gothic staples, including a threatening mystery and an ancestral curse, as well as countless trappings such as hidden passages and oft-fainting heroines. The first edition was published disguised as an actual medieval romance from Italy discovered and republished by a fictitious translator. When Walpole admitted to his authorship in the second edition, its originally favourable reception by literary reviewers changed into rejection. The romance, usually held in contempt by the educated as a tawdry and debased kind of writing, had only recently been made respectable by the works of Richardson and Fielding (Fuchs, 2004; 106). A romance with superstitious elements, and moreover void of didactical intention, was considered a setback and not acceptable as a modern production. Walpole's forgery, together with the blend of history and fiction that was contravening the principles of the Enlightenment, brought about the Gothic novel's association with fake documentation.

Clara Reeve, best known for her work The Old English Baron (1778), set out to take Walpole's plot and adapt it to the demands of the time by balancing fantastic elements with 18th century realism. The question now arose whether supernatural events that were not as evidently absurd as Walpole's would not lead the simpler minds to believe them possible. It was Ann Radcliffe's technique of the explained supernatural, in which every seemingly supernatural intrusion is eventually traced back to natural causes, and the impeccable conduct of her heroines that finally met with the approval of the reviewers. Radcliffe made the Gothic novel socially acceptable, ironically followed by an abrupt degradation of its renown. Her success attracted many imitators, mostly of low quality, which soon led to a general perception of the genre as inferior, formulaic, and stereotypical. Among other elements, Ann Radcliffe introduced the brooding figure of the Gothic villain, which developed into the Byronic hero. Radcliffe's novels, above all The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), were best-sellers, although along with all novels they were looked down upon by well-educated people as sensationalist women's entertainment (despite some men's enjoyment of them).

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid. I have read all Mrs. Radcliffe's works, and most of them with great pleasure. The Mysteries of Udolpho, when I had once begun it, I could not lay down again; I remember finishing it in two days – my hair standing on end the whole time." [said Henry]

...
"I am very glad to hear it indeed, and now I shall never be ashamed of liking Udolpho myself. " [replied Catherine]

— Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (written 1798)

Radcliffe also provided an aesthetic for the genre in an influential article "On the Supernatural in Poetry" in The New Monthly Magazine 7, 1826, pp 145–52, examining the distinction and correlation between horror and terror in Gothic fiction (Wright 2007: 35-56).

Role of Architecture in the Gothic Novel

Background

Architecture played a pivotal role in the Gothic novel, in terms of setting, as an inspirational source, as an important element of the plot, and as a reflection of the action of the story. The Gothic novel rose to popularity during a time when architecture was dominated by the Gothic Revival style. Both drew heavily on the ideas about the Gothic to elicit strong emotions, such as awe, terror or spirituality. The Gothic architecture of the 18th century has been called the Gothic Revival style, which was seen in both the decorative arts and architecture. Gothic Revival architecture featured elements such as pointed arches, towers, spires, large windows and castellation along the roofline. This revival was more about 18th century ideas about Gothic architecture than the reality of the original Gothic period and buildings built in the Gothic Revival style often drew elements from Gothic churches and used them as decorative elements in 18th century domestic structures. These Gothic Revival architectural elements were associated with the past and with ideas of Romanticism. The style was used because it was believed to evoke feelings of awe, religious sentiment and nostalgia for the past. Two important examples of the Gothic Revival style in architecture were Strawberry Hill, built by Horace Walpole, and Fonthill Abbey, built by William Beckford, both early Gothic novelists. Both structures drew heavily on Gothic motifs, drawing elements from both Gothic period castles and churches to build private homes. While Fonthill Abbey collapsed shortly after its construction, Strawberry Hill is still open for tours today and continues to serve as an important example of the Gothic Revival style. Just as Gothic Revival architecture aimed to draw on historical associations to set a mood, Gothic novels used Gothic architecture toward the same aim and enjoyed an equal level of popularity in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Use in the Gothic Novel

Just as elements of Gothic architecture were borrowed during the Gothic Revival period in architecture, ideas about the Gothic period and Gothic period architecture were often used by Gothic novelists. Architecture itself played a role in the naming of Gothic novels, with many titles referring to castles or other common Gothic buildings. This naming was followed up with many Gothic novels often set in Gothic buildings, with the action taking place in castles, abbeys, convents and monasteries, many of them in ruins, evoking “feelings of fear, surprise, confinement”. This setting of the novel, a castle or religious building, often one fallen into disrepair, was an essential element of the Gothic novel. Placing a story in a Gothic building served several purposes. It drew on feelings of awe, it implied the story was set in the past, it gave an impression of isolation or being cut off from the rest of the world and it drew on the religious associations of the Gothic style. This trend of using Gothic architecture began with the Castle of Otranto and was to become a major element of the genre from that point forward.

Besides using Gothic architecture as a setting, with the aim of eliciting certain associations from the reader, there was an equally close association between the use of Gothic architecture and the storylines of Gothic novels, with the architecture often serving as a mirror for the characters and the plot lines of the story. The buildings in the Castle of Otranto, for example, are riddled with underground tunnels, which the characters use to move back and forth in secret. This secret movement mirrors one of the plots of the story, specifically the secrets surrounding Manfred’s possession of the castle and how it came into his family. The setting of the novel in a Gothic castle was meant to imply not only a story set in the past but one shrouded in darkness.

In The History of the Caliph Vathek, architecture was used to both illustrate certain elements of Vatheks character and also warn about the dangers of over-reaching. Vathek’s hedonism and devotion to the pursuit of pleasure are reflected in the pleasure wings he adds on to his castle, each with the express purpose of satisfying a different sense. He also builds a tall tower in order to further his quest for knowledge. This tower represents Vatheks pride and his desire for a power that is beyond the reach of humans. He is later warned that he must destroy the tower and return to Islam or else risk dire consequences. Vathek’s pride wins out and, in the end, his quest for power and knowledge ends with him confined to Hell.

In the Castle of Wolfenbach the castle that Matilda seeks refugee at while on the run is believed to haunted. Matilda discovers it is not ghosts but the Countess of Wolfenbach who lives on the upper floors and who has been forced into hiding by her husband, the Count. Matilda’s discovery of the Countess and her subsequent informing others of the Countesses presence destroys the Counts secret. Shortly after Matilda meets the Countess the Castle of Wolfenbach itself is destroyed in a fire, mirroring the destruction of the Counts attempts to keep his wife a secret and how his plots throughout the story eventually lead to his own destruction.

The major part of the action in the Romance of the Forest is set in an abandoned and ruined abbey and the building itself served as a moral lesson, as well as a major setting for and mirror of the action in the novel. The setting of the action in a ruined abbey, drawing on Burke’s aesthetic theory of the sublime and the beautiful established the location as a place of terror and of safety. Burke argued the sublime was a source of awe or fear brought about by strong emotions such as terror or mental pain. On the other end of the spectrum was the beautiful, which were those things that brought pleasure and safety. Burke argued that the sublime was the more preferred to the two. Related to the concepts of the sublime and the beautiful is the idea of the picturesque, introduced by William Gilpin, which was thought to exist between the two other extremes. The picturesque was that which continued elements of both the sublime and the beautiful and can be thought of as a natural or uncultivated beauty, such as a beautiful ruin or a partially overgrown building. In Romance of the Forest Adeline and the La Mottes live in constant fear of discovery by either the police or Adeline’s father and, at times, certain characters believe the castle to be haunted. On the other hand, the abbey also serves as a comfort, as it provides shelter and safety to the characters. Finally, it is picturesque, in that it was a ruin and serves as a combination of the both the natural and the human. By setting the story in the ruined abbey, Radcliffe was able to use architecture to draw on the aesthetic theories of the time and set the tone of the story in the minds of the reader. As with many of the buildings in Gothic novels, the abbey also has a series of tunnels. These tunnels serve as both a hiding place for the characters and as a place of secrets. This was mirrored later in the novel with Adeline hiding from the Marquis de Montalt and the secrets of the Marquis, which would eventually lead to his downfall and Adelines salvation.

Architecture served as an additional character in many Gothic novels, bringing with it associations to the past and to secrets and, in many cases, moving the action along and foretelling future events in the story.

Developments in continental Europe, and The Monk

Contemporaneously to English Gothic, parallel Romantic literary movements developed in continental Europe: the roman noir ("black novel") in France, by such writers as François Guillaume Ducray-Duminil, Gaston Leroux, Baculard d'Arnaud, and Stéphanie Félicité Ducrest de St-Albin, Madame de Genlis and the Schauerroman ("shudder novel") in Germany by such writers as Friedrich Schiller, author of The Ghost-Seer (1789) and Christian Heinrich Spiess, author of Das Petermännchen (1791/92). These works were often more horrific and violent than the English Gothic novel.

The fruit of this harvest of continental horrors was Matthew Gregory Lewis' lurid tale of monastic debauchery, black magic, and diabolism The Monk (1796). Though Lewis' novel could be read as a sly, tongue-in-cheek spoof of the emerging genre, self-parody was a constituent part of the Gothic from the time of the genre's inception with Walpole's Otranto.

Lewis' tale appalled some contemporary readers; however his portrayal of depraved monks, sadistic inquisitors and spectral nuns, and his scurrilous view of the Catholic Church was an important development in the genre and influenced established terror-writer Anne Radcliffe in her last novel The Italian (1797). In this book the hapless protagonists are ensnared in a web of deceit by a malignant monk called Schedoni and eventually dragged before the tribunals of the Inquisition in Rome, leading one contemporary to remark that if Radcliffe wished to transcend the horror of these scenes she would have to visit hell itself (Birkhead 1921).

The Marquis de Sade used a Gothic framework for some of his fiction, notably The Misfortunes of Virtue and Eugenie de Franval, though the marquis himself never thought of his work as such. Sade critiqued the genre in the preface of his Reflections on the novel (1800) which is widely accepted today, stating that the Gothic is "the inevitable product of the revolutionary shock with which the whole of Europe resounded". This correlation between the French revolutionary Terror and the "terrorist school" of writing represented by Radcliffe and Lewis was noted by contemporary critics of the genre (Wright 2007: 57-73). Sade considered The Monk to be superior to the work of Ann Radcliffe.

Other notable writers in the continental tradition include Jan Potocki (1761–1815) and E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776–1822).

Parody

The excesses, stereotypes, and frequent absurdities of the traditional Gothic made it rich territory for satire (Skarda 1986). The most famous parody of the Gothic is Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey (1818) in which the naive protagonist, after reading too much Gothic fiction, conceives herself a heroine of a Radcliffian romance and imagines murder and villainy on every side, though the truth turns out to be much more prosaic. Jane Austen's novel is valuable for including a list of early Gothic works since known as the Northanger Horrid Novels:

• The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest (1794) by 'Ludwig Flammenberg' (pseudonym for Carl Friedrich Kahlert; translated by Peter Teuthold)
• Horrid Mysteries (1796) by the Marquis de Grosse (translated by P. Will)
• The Castle of Wolfenbach (1793) by Eliza Parsons
• The Mysterious Warning, a German Tale (1796) by Eliza Parsons
• Clermont (1798) by Regina Maria Roche
• The Orphan of the Rhine (1798) by Eleanor Sleath
• The Midnight Bell (1798) by Francis Lathom

These books, with their lurid titles, were once thought to be the creations of Jane Austen's imagination, though later research by Michael Sadleir and Montague Summers confirmed that they did actually exist and stimulated renewed interest in the Gothic. They are currently all being reprinted by Valancourt Press (Wright 2007: 29-32).

Another example of Gothic parody in a similar vein is The Heroine by Eaton Stannard Barrett (1813). Cherry Wilkinson, a fatuous female protagonist with a history of novel-reading, fancies herself as the heroine of a Gothic romance. She perceives and models reality according to the stereotypes and typical plot structures of the Gothic novel, leading to a series of absurd events culminating in catastrophe. After her downfall, her affectations and excessive imaginations become eventually subdued by the voice of reason in the form of Stuart, a paternal figure, under whose guidance the protagonist receives a sound education and correction of her misguided taste (Skarda 1986).

The Female Gothic and the Supernatural Explained

Characterized by its castles, dungeons, gloomy forests and hidden passages, from the Gothic novel genre emerged the Female Gothic. Guided by the works of authors such as Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley and Charlotte Brontë, the Female Gothic permitted the introduction of feminine societal and sexual desires into Gothic texts. The Medieval society, in which Gothic texts are based, granted women writers the opportunity to attribute “features of the mode [of Gothicism] as the result of the suppression of female sexuality, or else as a challenge to the gender hierarchy and values of a male-dominated culture”.

Significantly, with the development of the Female Gothic came the literary technique of explaining the supernatural. The Supernatural Explained - as this technique was aptly named - is a recurring plot device in Radcliffe’s The Romance of the Forest. The novel, published in 1791, is among Radcliffe’s earlier works. The novel sets up suspense for horrific events, which all have natural explanations.

An eighteenth-century response to the novel from the Monthly Review reads: “We must hear no more of enchanted forests and castles, giants, dragons, walls of fire and other ‘monstrous and prodigious things;’ – yet still forests and castles remain, and it is still within the province of fiction, without overstepping the limits of nature, to make use of them for the purpose of creating surprise.”

Radcliffe’s use of Supernatural Explained is characteristic of the Gothic author. The female protagonists pursued in these texts are often caught in an unfamiliar and terrifying landscape, delivering higher degrees of horror. The end result, however, is the explained supernatural, rather than terrors familiar to women, such as rape, incest, ghosts or haunted castles.

In Radcliffe’s The Romance of the Forest, one may follow the female protagonist, Adeline, through the forest, hidden passages and abbey dungeons, “without exclaiming, ‘How these antique towers and vacant courts/ chill the suspended soul, till expectation wears the cast of fear!”

The decision of Female Gothic writers to supplement true supernatural horrors with explained cause and effect transforms romantic plots and Gothic tales into common life and writing. Rather than establish the romantic plot in impossible events Radcliffe strays away from writing “merely fables, which no stretch of fancy could realize.”

English scholar Chloe Chard’s published introduction to The Romance of the Forest refers to the “promised effect of terror”. The outcome, however, “may prove less horrific than the novel has originally suggested”. Radcliffe sets up suspense throughout the course of the novel, insinuating a supernatural or superstitious cause to the mysterious and horrific occurrences of the plot. However, the suspense is relieved with the Supernatural Explained.

For example, Adeline is reading the illegible manuscripts she found in her bedchamber’s secret passage in the abbey when she hears a chilling noise from beyond her doorway. She goes to sleep unsettled, only to awake and learn that what she assumed to be haunting spirits were actually the domestic voices of the servant, Peter. La Motte, her caretaker in the abbey, recognizes the heights to which her imagination reached after reading the autobiographical manuscripts of a past murdered man in the abbey.

“‘I do not wonder, that after you had suffered its terrors to impress your imagination, you fancied you saw specters, and heard wondrous noises.’ La Motte said.

‘God bless you! Ma’amselle,’ said Peter.

‘I’m sorry I frightened you so last night.’

‘Frightened me,’ said Adeline; ‘how was you concerned in that?’

He then informed her, that when he thought Monsieur and Madame La Motte were asleep, he had stolen to her chamber door... that he had called several times as loudly as he dared, but receiving no answer, he believed she was asleep... This account of the voice she had heard relieved Adeline’s spirits; she was even surprised she did not know it, till remembering the perturbation of her mind for some time preceding, this surprise disappeared.”

While Adeline is alone in her characteristically Gothic chamber, she detects something supernatural, or mysterious about the setting. However, the “actual sounds that she hears are accounted for by the efforts of the faithful servant to communicate with her, there is still a hint of supernatural in her dream, inspired, it would be seem, by the fact that she is on the spot of her father’s murder and that his unburied skeleton is concealed in the room next hers”.

The supernatural here is indefinitely explained, but what remains is the “tendency in the human mind to reach out beyond the tangible and the visible; and it is in depicting this mood of vague and half-defined emotion that Mrs. Radcliffe excels”.

Transmuting the Gothic novel into a comprehendible tale for the imaginative Eighteenth Century woman was useful for the Female Gothic writers of the time. Novels were an experience for these women who had no outlet for a thrilling excursion. Sexual encounters and superstitious fantasies were idle elements of the imagination. However, the use of Female Gothic and Supernatural Explained, are a “good example of how the formula [Gothic novel] changes to suit the interests and needs of its current readers”.

In many respects, the novel’s “current reader” of the time was the woman who “lay down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame,” according to Jane Austen, author of Northanger Abbey. The Gothic novel shaped its form for female readers to “turn to Gothic romances to find support for their own mixed feelings”.

Following the characteristic Gothic Bildungsroman-like plot sequence, the Female Gothic allowed its readers to graduate from “adolescence to maturity,” in the face of the realized impossibilities of the supernatural. As female protagonists in novels like Adeline in The Romance of the Forest learn that their superstitious fantasies and terrors are replaced with natural cause and reasonable doubt, the reader may understand the true position of the heroine in the novel:

“The heroine possesses the romantic temperament that perceives strangeness where others see none. Her sensibility, therefore, prevents her from knowing that her true plight is her condition, the disability of being female.”

Another text in which the heroine of the Gothic Novel encounters the Supernatural Explained is The Castle of Wolfenbach (1793) by Gothic author Eliza Parsons. This Female Gothic text by Parsons is listed as one of Catherine Morland's Gothic texts in Austen's Northanger Abbey. The heroine in The Castle of Wolfenbach, Matilda, seeks refuge after overhearing a conversation in which her Uncle Weimar speaks of plans to rape her. Matilda finds asylum in the Castle of Wolfenbach: a castle inhabited by old married caretakers who claim that the second floor is haunted. Matilda, being the courageous heroine, decides to explore the mysterious wing of the Castle.

Bertha, wife of Joseph, (caretakers of the castle) tells Matilda of the "other wing": "Now for goodness sake, dear madam, don't go no farther, for as sure as you are alive, here the ghosts live, for Joseph says he often sees lights and hears strange things."

However, as Matilda ventures through the castle, she finds that the wing is not haunted by ghosts and rattling chains, but rather, the Countess of Wolfenbach. The supernatural is explained, in this case, ten pages into the novel, and the natural cause of the superstitious noises is a Countess in distress. Characteristic of the Female Gothic, the natural cause of terror is not the supernatural, but rather female disability and societal horrors: rape, incest and the threatening control of the male antagonist.

The Romantics

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus (1818) has come to define Gothic fiction in the Romantic period. Frontispiece to 1831 edition shown.

Further contributions to the Gothic genre were provided in the work of the Romantic poets. Prominent examples include Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Christabel and Keats' La Belle Dame sans Merci (1819) and Isabella, or the Pot of Basil (1820) which feature mysteriously fey ladies (Skarda and Jaffe 1981: 33-5, 132-3). In the latter poem the names of the characters, the dream visions and the macabre physical details are influenced by the novels of premiere Gothicist Anne Radcliffe (Skarda and Jaffe 1981: 132-3). Percy Bysshe Shelley's first published work was the Gothic novel Zastrozzi (1810), about an outlaw obsessed with revenge against his father and half-brother. Shelley published a second Gothic novel in 1811, St. Irvyne; or, The Rosicrucian, about an alchemist who seeks to impart the secret of immortality.

The poetry, romantic adventures and character of Lord Byron, characterised by his spurned lover Lady Caroline Lamb as 'mad, bad and dangerous to know' were another inspiration for the Gothic, providing the archetype of the Byronic hero. Byron features, under the codename of 'Lord Ruthven', in Lady Caroline's own Gothic novel: Glenarvon (1816).

Byron was also the host of the celebrated ghost-story competition involving himself, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, and John William Polidori at the Villa Diodati on the banks of Lake Geneva in the summer of 1816. This occasion was productive of both Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) and Polidori's The Vampyre (1819). This latter story revives Lamb's Byronic 'Lord Ruthven', but this time as a vampire. The Vampyre has been accounted by cultural critic Christopher Frayling as one of the most influential works of fiction ever written and spawned a craze for vampire fiction and theatre (and latterly film) which has not ceased to this day. Mary Shelley's novel, though clearly influenced by the Gothic tradition, is often considered the first science fiction novel, despite the omission in the novel of any scientific explanation of the monster's animation and the focus instead on the moral issues and consequences of such a creation.

A late example of traditional Gothic is Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) by Charles Maturin which combines themes of Anti-Catholicism with an outcast Byronic hero (Varma 1986).

Victorian Gothic

Edgar Allan Poe was an important reinterpreter of Gothic fiction.

By the Victorian era Gothic had ceased to be the dominant genre (in fact the form's popularity as an established genre had already begun to erode with the success of the historical romance popularised by Sir Walter Scott). However, in many ways, it was now entering its most creative phase. Recently readers and critics have begun to reconsider a number of previously overlooked Penny Blood or Penny Dreadful serial fictions by such authors as G.W.M. Reynolds who wrote a trilogy of Gothic horror novels: Faust (1846), Wagner the Wehr-wolf (1847) and The Necromancer (1857) (Baddeley 2002: 143-4). Reynolds was also responsible for The Mysteries of London which has been accorded an important place in the development of the urban as a particularly Victorian Gothic setting, an area within which interesting links can be made with established readings of the work of Dickens and others. Another famous penny dreadful of this era was the anonymously authored Varney the Vampire (1847). The formal relationship between these fictions, serialised for predominantly working class audiences, and the roughly contemporaneous sensation fictions serialised in middle class periodicals is also an area worthy of inquiry.

Influential critics, above all John Ruskin, far from denouncing mediaeval obscurantism, praised the imagination and fantasy exemplified by its Gothic architecture, influencing the Pre-Raphaelites.

An important and innovative reinterpreter of the Gothic in this period was Edgar Allan Poe who believed 'that terror is not of Germany, but of the soul'. His story "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839) explores these 'terrors of the soul' whilst revisiting classic Gothic tropes of aristocratic decay, death, and madness (Skarda and Jaffe 1981: 181-2). The legendary villainy of the Spanish Inquisition, previously explored by Gothicists Radcliffe, Lewis, and Maturin, is revisited in "The Pit and the Pendulum" (1842). The influence of Ann Radcliffe is also detectable in Poe's "The Oval Portrait" (1842), including an honorary mention of her name in the text of the story.

The influence of Byronic Romanticism evident in Poe is also apparent in the work of the Brontë sisters. Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1847) transports the Gothic to the forbidding Yorkshire Moors and features ghostly apparitions and a Byronic hero in the person of the demonic Heathcliff whilst Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847) adds The Madwoman in the Attic (Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar 1979) to the cast of Gothic fiction. The Brontës' fiction is seen by some feminist critics as prime examples of Female Gothic, exploring woman's entrapment within domestic space and subjection to patriarchal authority and the transgressive and dangerous attempts to subvert and escape such restriction. Charlotte's Jane Eyre and Emily's Cathy are both examples of female protagonists in such a role (Jackson 1981: 123-29). Louisa May Alcott's Gothic potboiler, A Long Fatal Love Chase (written in 1866, but published in 1995) is also an interesting specimen of this subgenre.

Elizabeth Gaskell's tales "The Doom of the Griffiths" (1858) "Lois the Witch", and "The Grey Woman" all employ one of the most common themes of Gothic fiction, the power of ancestral sins to curse future generations, or the fear that they will.

The gloomy villain, forbidding mansion, and persecuted heroine of Sheridan Le Fanu's Uncle Silas (1864) shows the direct influence of both Walpole's Otranto and Radcliffe's Udolpho. Le Fanu's short story collection In a Glass Darkly (1872) includes the superlative vampire tale Carmilla, which provided fresh blood for that particular strand of the Gothic and influenced Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). According to literary critic Terry Eagleton, Le Fanu, together with his predecessor Maturin and his successor Stoker, form a sub-genre of Irish Gothic, whose stories, featuring castles set in a barren landscape, with a cast of remote aristocrats dominating an atavistic peasantry, represent in allegorical form the political plight of colonial Ireland subjected to the Protestant Ascendancy (Eagleton 1995).

The genre was also a heavy influence on more mainstream writers, such as Charles Dickens, who read Gothic novels as a teenager and incorporated their gloomy atmosphere and melodrama into his own works, shifting them to a more modern period and an urban setting, including Oliver Twist (1837-8), Bleak House (1854) (Mighall 2003) and Great Expectations (1860–61). These pointed to the juxtaposition of wealthy, ordered and affluent civilisation next to the disorder and barbarity of the poor within the same metropolis. Bleak House in particular is credited with seeing the introduction of urban fog to the novel, which would become a frequent characteristic of urban Gothic literature and film (Mighall 2007). His most explicitly Gothic work is his last novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870). The mood and themes of the Gothic novel held a particular fascination for the Victorians, with their morbid obsession with mourning rituals, Mementos, and mortality in general.

Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) was a classic Gothic work of the 1880s, seeing many stage adaptations.

The 1880s, saw the revival of the Gothic as a powerful literary form allied to "fin de siecle" decadence, which fictionalized contemporary fears like ethical degeneration and questioned the social structures of the time. Classic works of this Urban Gothic include Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), George du Maurier's Trilby (1894), Richard Marsh's The Beetle: A Mystery (1897), Henry James' The Turn of the Screw (1898), and the stories of Arthur Machen. The most famous Gothic villain ever, Count Dracula was created by Bram Stoker in his novel Dracula (1897). Stoker's book also established Transylvania and Eastern Europe as the locus classicus of the Gothic (Mighall 2003).

In America, two notable writers of the end of the 19th century, in the Gothic tradition, were Ambrose Bierce and Robert W. Chambers. Bierce's short stories were in the horrific and pessimistic tradition of Poe. Chambers, though, indulged in the decadent style of Wilde and Machen (even to the extent of having a character named 'Wilde' in his The King in Yellow).

Elements of Anti-Catholicism

Historical Context

England’s conversion from Catholicism to the Church of England stemmed from political, not religious causes. King Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon because she had only bore him one female heir, Mary, and he had fallen in love with Anne Boleyn. However, Pope Clement VII refused to annul his marriage as it was against Catholic doctrine. To remedy this problem, Henry VIII changed England’s official religion from Catholicism to the Church of England. In 1543, King Henry VIII pronounced himself Supreme Head of the Church of England. This reformation started a trend of anti-Catholicism in England. Because the king was head of the church and state, it was considered treasonous to oppose the Church of England. In late 16th century, many worried that the pope sought to regain control of England. As Steven Bruce states, anti-Catholicism is used to “defend the socio-economic and political position of Protestants against opposition that threatens it; and as a rationalization to justify and legitimize both the privileged position and any conflict with those who challenge and weaken it”. The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 eased discrimination of Catholics by allowing them to build cathedrals and practice their religion. However, a strong sense of anti-Catholicism can be seen in Gothic literature.

Specific Examples of Anti-Catholicism in Gothic Literature

In general, Gothic novels are placed in countries strongly associated with Catholicism, such as Spain and Italy. In the eyes of the readers, the characters are immediately associated with this religion; to the reader, the character’s flaws are directly associated with their Catholic beliefs. This is especially prevalent in characters more directly associated with the church such as priests, monks, and friars. Because these characters are supposed to be a direct representation of the church and they are supposed to be characters of high moral standards, many authors write these religious characters to be especially egregious. The pattern of anti-Catholicism in Gothic literature can be seen through many characters in specific.

The Castle of Otranto

In this short novel, Horace Walpole paints a grim picture of Catholicism through his character, Friar Jerome. Many sinful happenings revolve around Friar Jerome. Manfred, the lord of the Castle of Otranto, wants to divorce his wife so he will be able to marry the young and beautiful Isabella. In hopes of getting all he desires, Manfred tries to persuade Friar Jerome to find religious justification for divorce and convince his wife, Hippolita to give her consent to divorce. The reader later discovers that Friar Jerome has a son – Theodore. This brings to question the friar’s religiosity. If friars are supposed to be chaste, how did Theodore come into existence? For sure, Friar Jerome had to have become a friar without his chastity.

Zeluco

John Moore spends much of the novel addressing the animosity between Protestants and Catholics. Zeluco, being a Sicilian, is no doubt a Catholic. Zeluco is devoid of morals. He only cares about his own interests. He abandons Countess Brunella’s niece after impregnating her. Zeluco’s first wife dies of a broken spirit once he marries her for her money. His atrocious actions continue throughout the novel, culminating in the brutal murder of his own son. Moore has other immoral characters that are more closely connected to the Catholic Church. These other prominent Catholic characters include Laura and her family, Father Mulo and Father Pedro. Anti-Catholic sentiments can be seen in the interactions between Catholic and Protestant characters. Colonel Seidlits, a Catholic, was married to Madame de Seidlits, a Catholic. Both are strong in their religious convictions. Colonel Seidlits strongly believes it would be morally wrong to make an attempt to convert his wife to Protestantism. Madame de Seidlits, urged by Father Mulo, attempts to convert him to Catholicism on multiple occasions. The Colonel remains firm in his beliefs and remains a Protestant to his death. Father Mulo is unnecessarily long-winded implying that he is partly incompetent. Competent individuals are able to verbalize their opinions quickly and succinctly.

Father Pedro, although intelligent when it comes to manipulating people, is incompetent in regards to proper moral conduct. Zeluco doesn’t have trouble in bribing Father Pedro to become an accomplice in his malicious plans. Because he is the confessor of Laura, Madame de Seidlits, and the rest of that family, Father Pedro is able to manipulate each of them with ease. Father Pedro tragically convinces Laura to marry Zeluco. The man who made an oath to prevent spiritual, emotional, and physical harm from coming to an individual when possible ultimately brought the opposite to Laura. Without Father Pedro’s intervention, Laura most likely wouldn’t have married Zeluco and her son would not have been brutally strangled.

John Moore more directly addresses the debate between Catholicism and Protestantism while Zeluco is a plantation owner in Cuba. Two characters, the physician and the priest, show a drastic distinction between the two types of people. The Cuban priest is depicted as nothing short of a blundering idiot. Most of what this character does and says does not follow the laws of reason. Much of what he does is based on emotion or falsehoods. The physician provides a stark contrast to this character. The physician is the one who engages in a debate with Zeluco in regards to slavery and the way Zeluco treats his slaves. Each time the priest is made to be a fool, the physician steps in to provide a voice of reason and logic.

A much more minor character in Zeluco, George Buchanan is an anti-Catholic voice. He unremittingly tries to prevent any sort of relationship between his master, Mr. N—and Laura because while Laura is a Catholic, Mr. N—is a Protestant. Buchanan, who happens to be an Englishman, detests the thought of his master marrying a Catholic. There is no doubt that George Buchanan’s sentiments on this subject reflect the prevailing belief in England. Moore’s English readers of the time connect with this character because of this.

The Monk

Matthew Lewis creates one of the most anti-Catholic characters in Gothic literature. In the first few pages of the novel, the reader learns of a much revered, pious monk named Ambrosio. He soon falls into sin when Matilda, dressed as a boy, reveals her true identity. Upon seeing her “beauteous orb” exposed as she threatens suicide if she can’t have his love, he is thrust into a downward spiral into sin and his own destruction. Ambrosio is nearly killed when a snake bites him while he is in the garden with Matilda. This snake can be seen as a representation of the devil and the scene as a depiction of the monk’s descent into sin. Ambrosio says “surely Heaven sent that Serpent to punish”.

Nuns provide yet another representation of anti-Catholic sentiments in Lewis’ novel. The first is Agnes. While visiting a nearby convent, Ambrosio discovers a letter from Agnes’ lover, Don Raymond de las Cisternas. In it, Ambrosio and later the Prioress of the Convent of St. Clare learn of Agnes’ plan to escape the confines of the convent to be with her lover. She is driven by her lustful desires to sin. When she entered the convent, Agnes made a solemn oath to God; to break this oath would be a terrible sin. The second character representing anti-Catholic sentiments is the Bleeding Nun. Destroyed by lust, she was murdered by her lover and doomed to remain in unrest until her bones can be laid to rest. Indeed, the Bleeding Nun is yet another representation of an immoral Catholic. These two women are meant to draw a contrast between the morally upright Protestants of England and the morally devoid Catholics.

Shakespeare and the Gothic

Introduction

The connections between Shakespeare and Gothic fiction may not be directly obvious upon first consideration; yet, the Gothic genre of literature has been influenced to a great extent by Shakespearean characters and themes, as well as by Shakespeare’s own personal views and beliefs. John Drakakis argues that at the most basic level of commonality, "Shakespeare’s investment in the resources of the supernatural, his predilection for spectres, graveyards, the paraphernalia of death, moving statues, magical transformations, and the emphasis on the ‘non-rational’ as a category of human experience all render his plays open to the descriptive term 'Gothic'". But, beyond the supernatural alone, both Shakespeare and the Gothic share collective anxieties concerning ponderous themes of identity, marriage, and the role of women, among others. These anxieties, Chris Baldick argues, are a result of Gothic fiction’s characteristic obsession "with old buildings as sites of 'human decay' ... with the material evanescence of human life," and the works of Shakespeare address a congruent obsession. Both Shakespeare and the Gothic present this decay of humanity through archetypical characters and common themes, and Gothic writers continually referenced Shakespeare both directly and indirectly in their own works. Ann Radcliffe has been deemed the "Shakespeare of Romance Writers" for her treatment and referencing to Shakespeare’s works. In her novels, particularly The Italian, which includes direct quotes from Shakespearean plays at the beginning of many of its chapters, Radcliffe consistently uses Shakespeare to further her narratives and to stimulate and excite reader comprehension.

Stupid Servants

Both Shakespeare and Gothic writers rely heavily on stock characters, like the “stupid servant,” to forward the narrative. These characters are stereotypical, one-dimensional, and very predictable. They generally function as comedic relief, which tends to occur in the most dramatic of moments. Shakespeare was well known as deviating from classical tradition in his use of characters for comedic relief. In Macbeth, the drunken porter’s scene serves as comedic relief in the midst of the play’s most dramatic event, Macbeth’s murdering of King Duncan. Gothic fiction also often uses lower class characters as both comic relief, and to move the plot forward. In Ann Radcliffe’s The Romance of the Forest, Peter is talkative, foolish, and comedic. His attempt to relate a particular story to his master takes an extended length of time, with his master constantly urging, "Is it impossible for you to speak to the point?" and "Do be less tedious, if it is in thy nature," to which Peter responds with an even lengthier delay. Similarly, The Castle of Wolfenbach uses stock characters for both comedic effect and to forward the narrative. Pierre and Jacqueline’s main role in the novel is to set up the story. They are the true believers in the haunting of the castle, and they refer Matilda Weimar to Bertha and Joseph before they disappear from the story altogether, having served their purpose. Bertha and Joseph, in turn, lead to Matilda’s introduction to the Countess of Wolfenbach. Bertha meets a timely death once she has served that purpose, but not before providing a bit of comedic relief. Her confident assertion that she is safest from the castle ghosts on the ground floor since they, "were some of high gentry, I warrant, who never went into kitchens," is purely comic. Similarly, Matilda’s servant, Albert’s, excessive fear of the ghosts leaves him comically "buried under his clothes ... drops of perspiration down his face" and unable to sleep, the complete opposite of masculinity. This use of stock characters for comic relief and plot development originated with the works of Shakespeare, and was imitated in Gothic fiction.

Female Empowerment and the Fiendlike Queen

Judith Cook argues that "women in Shakespeare’s plays ... defy their families and marry for love, disguise themselves as boys and follow their hearts, play a decisive part in determining their own fate". Though somewhat more submissive, the women in Gothic fiction inherit similar traits. Matilda Weimar, in The Castle of Wolfenbach, though a damsel in distress, is still an empowered Gothic heroine. She is honest and courageous in defying her lecherous uncle, braving the supernatural threat of ghosts, helping to rescue the Countess of Wolfenbach, and ultimately marrying her true love, the Count de Bouville. In Matthew Lewis’s, The Monk, Matilda (first known as Rosario), dresses as a man in order to enter the monastery and gain the confidence of Ambrosio, the object of her affection. Her character parallels Shakespeare’s Rosalind, in As You Like It. Both women disguise themselves as boys in order to get to the man they love, and to achieve their most ardent desires. However, Lewis takes Matilda’s power even farther, giving her supernatural abilities and a superior wickedness to any man. Matilda’s character in The Monk represents another common archetype between Shakespeare and the Gothic, the “fiendlike queen”.

Identified by Judith Cook, the “fiendlike queen” originated with Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth. Cook describes Lady Macbeth as “a great, bad woman who we hate, but whom we fear more than we hate,” whose most disastrous traits are the “excess of that strong principle of self interest and family aggrandisement not amendable to the common feelings of compassion, failure and justice”. Cook goes on to define Lady Macbeth’s “greatness” in terms of her sheer “courage and force of will-not intellect". Lady Macbeth is the villain the reader loves to hate, and, to some extent, can also identify with as an emblem of female empowerment. Like The Monk’s Matilda, and Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth, Vathek’s Carathis, directly mirrors Lady Macbeth. Her control over her son, Vathek, is just as strong and damning as Lady Macbeth’s control over her husband. She is a woman well versed in “occult” magic, and possessing the same destructive ambition as Lady Macbeth. Even after being damned to the depths of hell, Carathis uses her last moments of leisure to assert herself as queen. After speaking to Elbis, “she assembled all the choirs of Genii, and all the dives to pay her homage ... thus marched she, in triumph, through a vapor of perfumes," attempting to dethrone Hell’s agents and unrelenting in her pursuit of knowledge until her “haughty forehead” becomes “corrugated with agony ... her right hand on her heart, which was to become a receptacle of eternal fire”. Though reduced to anguish in the end, Carathis, like Lady Macbeth and other Gothic heroines, still embodies a strong female character, empowered and ambitious.

The Marriage Plot

The marriage plot began to appear in literature in eighteenth century England, as a result of ongoing debates concerning the regulation of marriage. The Marriage Act of 1753 made marriage ceremonies within the church mandatory, and helped prevent clandestine, or invalid, marriages as deemed by the state. The act contained “nullity provisions that allowed the state to override the church-sanctioned vow” if they deemed it necessary. Many argued that the state had no right to regulate a “sacred Christian right” and “that the act shored up oligarchy by creating barriers to marriages between the rich and the poor and among the population at large." As a result, these new regulations spurred the use of the marriage plot as a focus for both reflection and entertainment in 18th and 19th century literature, with Shakespeare being one of the earliest writers to employ the marriage plot in his works.

Each of Shakespeare’s plays either focuses on, or contains a subplot, concerning the development of the lovers’ relationship and their subsequent fate. Characteristically, the lovers in Shakespeare’s plays must either end up married or dead. Romeo and Juliet die for their love, while Ferdinand and Miranda, in The Tempest, are united in marriage. The overarching goal is always a marriage, even if it is an undesired marriage. Sometimes one lover is even substituted for another. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the young lovers are entangled in a triangle in which, due to Puck’s mistake, magic causes Lysander’s love for Helena and his abandoning of his first love, Hermia. Much of Gothic fiction employs the same use of the marriage plot in its works, with the romantic couple either marrying, dying, or substituting for another lover. Like A Midsummer Nights Dream. in The Castle of Otranto, one female lover is substituted for another. Here, however, it is not the result of a magical mistake, but rather a solution to the death of Theodore’s original lover, Matilda. Marcie Frank argues that much of Gothic fiction involves this kind of “melancholy marriage” in which marriage must be met by some means, whether the union is desired or undesired, and that marriage remains a “hallmark convention supplying a certain degree of coherence across the genre." Following the premise A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Theodore replaces his original love for another simply for the sake of being married by the end of the novel. After briefly mourning Matilda’s death, he settles for marrying her best friend, Isabella, “with whom he could forever indulge the melancholy that had taken possession of his soul." The novel is referencing, and poking fun at, both Shakespeare and the legal intervention regarding marriage in the 18th and 19th centuries. In The Monk, while Agnes and Don Raymond eventually marry, Antonia and Lorenzo’s marriage is thwarted by Antonia’s death. After being raped by Ambrosio, Antonia’s virtue is no longer intact for her marriage to Antonio, and the only other option is for her to die. In these novels, marriage becomes the primary and most important achievement, while those who cannot marry must meet death instead.

Distrust of the Church

The cultural and religious aftermath of the Protestant Reformation left their mark on Gothic fiction. Gothic novels tended to be set in countries outside England, primarily in Italy or Spain, known to be the centers of the Catholic Church. The settings, as well as the archetypical “evil clergy,” directly connect the failures and flaws of the characters to their religious beliefs, and perpetuates the anti-Catholic sentiments often articulated in Gothic literature.

In her novels, Ann Radcliffe continually quotes Shakespearean passages to both further her narrative and excite reader recognition and response. In The Italian, Radcliffe uses Shakespeare to reinforce her own distrust of the Catholic Church. Chapter V of The Italian opens with, “What if it be a poison, which the friar subtly hath ministered?-----,” a direct quotation from Act IV, Scene III of Romeo and Juliet during which Juliet is afraid the friar has poisoned her sleep potion. These direct references to Shakespeare by Radcliffe show the immense influence which he had over Gothic fiction and its writers. “As it stands, the quotation appears to bolster and reinforce the anti-Catholic sentiments of [Radcliffe’s] novel,” and “implies that Shakespeare shares with Radcliffe [and other writers of Gothic fiction] a distrust of the motives and actions of Catholic friars,“ while displaying the strength of Shakespeare’s influence on Gothic fiction.

Post-Victorian legacy

Pulp magazines such as Weird Tales reprinted and popularized Gothic horror from the prior century.

Notable English twentieth century writers in the Gothic tradition include Algernon Blackwood, William Hope Hodgson, M. R. James, Hugh Walpole, and Marjorie Bowen. In America pulp magazines such as Weird Tales reprinted classic Gothic horror tales from the previous century, by such authors as Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Edward Bulwer-Lytton and printed new stories by modern authors featuring both traditional and new horrors (Goulart 1986). The most significant of these was H. P. Lovecraft who also wrote an excellent conspectus of the Gothic and supernatural horror tradition in his Supernatural Horror in Literature (1936) as well as developing a Mythos that would influence Gothic and contemporary horror well into the 21st century. Lovecraft's protégé, Robert Bloch, contributed to Weird Tales and penned Psycho (1959), which drew on the classic interests of the genre. From these, the Gothic genre per se gave way to modern horror fiction, regarded by some literary critics as a branch of the Gothic (Wisker 2005: 232-33) although others use the term to cover the entire genre. Many modern writers of horror (or indeed other types of fiction) exhibit considerable Gothic sensibilities—examples include the works of Anne Rice, as well as some of the sensationalist works of Stephen King (Skarda and Jaffe 1981: 464-5, 478; Davenport-Hines 1998: 357-8). The Romantic strand of Gothic was taken up in Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca (1938) which is in many respects a reworking of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Other books by du Maurier, such as Jamaica Inn (1936), also display Gothic tendencies. Du Maurier's work inspired a substantial body of 'Female Gothics,' concerning heroines alternately swooning over or being terrified by scowling Byronic men in possession of acres of prime real estate and the appertaining droit de seigneur.

Gothic Romances of this description became popular during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, with authors such as Phyllis A. Whitney, Joan Aiken, Dorothy Eden, Victoria Holt, Barbara Michaels, Mary Stewart, and Jill Tattersall. Many featured covers depicting a terror-stricken woman in diaphanous attire in front of a gloomy castle. Many were published under the Paperback Library Gothic imprint and were marketed to a female audience. Though the authors were mostly women, some men wrote Gothic romances under female pseudonyms. For instance the prolific Clarissa Ross and Marilyn Ross were pseudonyms for the male writer Dan Ross and Frank Belknap Long published Gothics under his wife's name, Lyda Belknap Long. Another example is British writer Peter O'Donnell, who wrote under the pseudonym Madeleine Brent. Outside of companies like Lovespell, who carry Colleen Shannon, very few books seem to be published using the term today.

William Faulkner's novels and short stories exemplified the Southern Gothic genre.

The genre also influenced American writing to create the Southern Gothic genre, which combines some Gothic sensibilities (such as the Grotesque) with the setting and style of the Southern United States . Examples include William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Harper Lee, and Flannery O'Connor (Skarda and Jaffe 1981: 418-56). Contemporary American writers in this tradition include Joyce Carol Oates, in such novels as Bellefleur and A Bloodsmoor Romance and short story collections such as Night-Side (Skarda 1986b) and Raymond Kennedy in his novel Lulu Incognito. The Southern Ontario Gothic applies a similar sensibility to a Canadian cultural context. Robertson Davies, Alice Munro, Barbara Gowdy, and Margaret Atwood have all produced works that are notable exemplars of this form. Another writer in this tradition was Henry Farrell whose best-known work was the Hollywood horror novel What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1960). Farrel's novels spawned a sub-genre of 'Grande Dame Guignol' in the cinema, dubbed the 'Psycho-biddy' genre.

Other notable contemporary writers in the Gothic tradition are: Susan Hill, author of The Woman in Black (1983); Patrick McGrath, author of The Grotesque (1989); Poppy Z. Brite, author of Lost Souls (1992) and Exquisite Corpse (1996); and Caitlin R. Kiernan, author of Silk (1998) (Davenport-Hines 1998: 377-8; Baddeley 2002: 84-7).

The themes of the literary Gothic have been translated into other media. The early 1970s saw a Gothic Romance comic book mini-trend with such titles as DC Comics' The Dark Mansion Of Forbidden Love and The Sinister House of Secret Love, Charlton Comics' Haunted Love, Curtis Magazines' Gothic Tales of Love, and Atlas/Seaboard Comics' one-shot magazine Gothic Romances.

There was a notable revival in twentieth century Gothic horror films such the classic Universal Horror films of the 1930s, Hammer Horror, and Roger Corman's Poe cycle (Davenport-Hines 1998: 355-8). In Hindi cinema, the Gothic tradition was combined with aspects of Indian culture, particularly reincarnation, to give rise to an "Indian Gothic" genre, beginning with the films Mahal (1949) and Madhumati (1958).

Twentieth century rock and roll music also had its Gothic side. Black Sabbath's 1969 debut album created a dark sound different from other bands at the time and has been called the first ever "Goth-rock" record (Baddeley 2002: 264). Themes from Gothic writers such as H. P. Lovecraft were also used among gothic rock and heavy metal bands, especially in black metal, thrash metal (Metallica's The Call of Ktulu), death metal, and gothic metal. For example, heavy metal musician King Diamond delights in telling stories full of horror, theatricality, satanism and anti-Catholicism in his compositions (Baddeley 2002: 265).

Prominent examples

• Vathek, an Arabian Tale (1786) by William Thomas Beckford (Full text at Project Gutenberg)
• Zeluco (1789) by John Moore
• Things as They Are or The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794) by William Godwin (Full text at Project Gutenberg)
• The Castle Spectre (1797) by Matthew Gregory Lewis (Full text)
• The Horrors of Oakendale Abbey (1797) by Mrs Carver
• Wieland (1798) by Charles Brockden Brown
• St. Leon: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century (1799) by William Godwin
• The Children of the Abbey (1800) by Regina Maria Roche
• The Manuscript Found in Saragossa (1805) by Jan Potocki
• Zastrozzi (1810) by Percy Bysshe Shelley
• St. Irvyne; or, The Rosicrucian (1811) by Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus (1818) by Mary Shelley
• Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) by Charles Robert Maturin
• Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821) by Thomas de Quincey (Full text at Project Gutenberg)
• The Adventure of the German Student (1824) by Washington Irving
• The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824) by James Hogg (Full text at Project Gutenberg)
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) by Victor Hugo
• "Young Goodman Brown" (1835) by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• "The Minister's Black Veil" (1836) by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Edward Randolph's Portrait (1838) by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) by Edgar Allan Poe
• The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1839) by Edgar Allan Poe
• The Phantom Ship (1839) by Frederick Marryat
• "Bela" and "Tamanj" (short stories) in a Hero of Our Time (1840) by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov
• "The Tell-Tale Heart" (1843) by Edgar Allan Poe (Full text at Wikisource)
• The Quaker City; or, the Monks of Monk Hall (1844) by George Lippard (full text at openlibrary.org)
• Villette (1850) by Charlotte Brontë
• The House of the Seven Gables (1851) by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• What Was It? (1859) by Fitz-James O'Brien
• The Mummy's Foot (1863) by Théophile Gautier (Full text at Wikisource)
• Uncle Silas (1864) by Sheridan Le Fanu
• The Horla (1887) by Guy de Maupassant (Full text at Wikisource)
• The Death of Halpin Frayser (1891) by Ambrose Bierce
• The Yellow Wallpaper (1892) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Full text at Project Gutenberg)
• The Yellow Sign (1895) by Robert W. Chambers
• Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker
• The Real Right Thing (1899) by Henry James
• The Monkey's Paw (1902) by W. W. Jacobs (Full text at Project Gutenberg)
• The Willows (1907) by Algernon Blackwood
• The House on the Borderland (1907) by William Hope Hodgson
• The Phantom of the Opera (1910) by Gaston Leroux (Full text at Project Gutenberg)
• The Return (1910) by Walter de la Mare
• "Afterward" (1910) by Edith Wharton
• The Lair of the White Worm (1911) by Bram Stoker (Full text at Wikisource)
• "The Call of Cthulhu" (1926) by H.P. Lovecraft (Full text at Temple of Dagon.com)
• The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis (1932) by Clark Ashton Smith

• Old Garfield's Heart (1933) by Robert E. Howard
• Rebecca (1938) by Daphne du Maurier
• Black Bargain (1942) by Robert Bloch
• Malpertuis (1943) by Jean Ray (Hadji 1986: 350)
• Dragonwyck (1945) by Anya Seton
• The Lonesome Place (1948) by August Derleth
• Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948) by Truman Capote
• The Girl with the Hungry Eyes (1949) by Fritz Lieber
• "The Lottery" (1951) by Shirley Jackson
• The Fog Horn (1951) by Ray Bradbury
• A Visit (1952) by Shirley Jackson
• Long Distance Call (1953) by Richard Matheson
• The Vanishing American (1955) by Charles Beaumont
• Gormenghast (1946–1959) by Mervyn Peake
• I am Legend (1954) by Richard Matheson
• A Stir of Echoes (1958) by Richard Matheson
• The Haunting of Hill House (1959) by Shirley Jackson
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1963) by Shirley Jackson
• Rosemary's Baby (1967) by Ira Levin
• Last Summer (1968) by Evan Hunter
• Not After Midnight (1971) by Daphne du Maurier
• Troubles (1970) by J. G. Farrell
• The Events at Poroth Farm (1972) by T.E.D. Klein
• The Stepford Wives (1972) by Ira Levin
• The Bloody Chamber (1974) By Angela Carter
• The Chocolate War (1974) By Robert Cormier
• Salem's Lot (1975) by Stephen King
• Julia (1975) by Peter Straub
• Interview with the Vampire (1976) by Anne Rice
• The House Next Door (1976) by Anne Rivers Siddons
• The Shining (1977) by Stephen King
• Bellefleur (1980) by Joyce Carol Oates
• The Elementals (1981) by Michael McDowell
• The Keep (1981) by F. Paul Wilson
• The Woman in Black (1983) by Susan Hill
• Beloved (1987) by Toni Morrison
• Vastarien (1987) by Thomas Ligotti
• Endless Night (1987) by Karl Edward Wagner
• The Secret History (1992) by Donna Tartt
• Tales of Sesqua Valley (1997) by W.H. Pugmire
• My Heart Laid Bare (1998) by Joyce Carol Oates
• House of Leaves (2000) by Mark Z. Danielewski
• The Shadow of the Wind (2001) by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
• Uzumaki (2002) (English translation) by Junji Ito
• The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red (2002) by Ridley Pearson and Stephen King
• The Little Friend (2002) by Donna Tartt
• Shutter Island (2003) by Dennis Lehane
• Shadowmancer (2004) by G. P. Taylor
• The Thirteenth Tale (2006) by Diane Setterfield
• Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) directed by Tim Burton
• "The House on Black Lake" (2010) by Anastasia Blackwell

Gothic satire

• Nightmare Abbey (1818) by Thomas Love Peacock (Full text at Project Gutenberg)
• The Ingoldsby Legends (1840) by Thomas Ingoldsby (Full text at The Ex-Classics Website)

See also

• American Gothic Fiction
• Dark romanticism
• Suburban Gothic
• Southern Ontario Gothic
• Tasmanian Gothic
• Gothic Blue Books
• List of Gothic Fiction works

References

• Baddeley, Gavin, (2002) Goth Chic. London: Plexus.
• Baldick, Chris (1993)Introduction, in The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Birkhead, Edith (1921). The Tale of Terror.
• Bloom, Clive (2007). Gothic Horror: A Guide for Students and Readers. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Botting, Fred (1996). Gothic. London: Routledge.
• Brown, Marshall (2005). The Gothic Text. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP.
• Charnes, Linda (2010). Shakespeare and the Gothic Strain. Vol. 38, pp. 185
• Clery, E.J. (1995). The Rise of Supernatural Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Cook, Judith (1980). Women in Shakespeare. London: Harrap & Co. Ltd.
• Davenport-Hines, Richard (1998) Gothic: 400 Years of Excess, Horror, Evil and Ruin. London: Fourth Estate.
• Davison, Carol Margaret (2009) Gothic Literature 1764-1824. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
• Drakakis, John & Dale Townshend (2008). Gothic Shakespeares. New York: Routledge.
• Eagleton, Terry (1995). Heathcliff and the Great Hunger. NY: Verso.
• Fuchs, Barbara, (2004), Romance. London: Routledge.
• Gamer, Michael, (2006), Romanticism and the Gothic. Genre, Reception and Canon Formation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Gibbons, Luke, (2004), Gaelic Gothic. Galway: Arlen House.
• Gilbert, Sandra and Susan Gubar (1979). The Madwoman in the Attic. ISBN 0-300-08458-7
• Goulart, Ron (1986) "The Pulps" in Jack Sullivan (ed) The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural: 337-40.
• Grigorescu, George (2007) . Long Journey Inside The Flesh. Bucharest, Romania ISBN978-0-8059-8468-2
• Hadji, Robert (1986) "Jean Ray" in The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural edited by Jack Sullivan.
• Haggerty, George (2006). Queer Gothic. Urbana, IL: Illinois UP.
• Halberstam, Judith (1995). Skin Shows. Durham, NC: Duke UP.
• Horner, Avril & Sue Zlosnik (2005). Gothic and the Comic Turn. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Jackson, Rosemary (1981). Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion.
• Kilgour, Maggie, (1995). The Rise of the Gothic Novel. London: Routledge.
• Medina, Antoinette, (2007). A Vampires Vedas.
• Mighall, Robert, (2003), A Geography of Victorian Gothic Fiction: Mapping History's Nightmares. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Mighall, Robert, (2007), "Gothic Cities", in C. Spooner and E. McEvoy, eds, The Routledge Companion to Gothic. London: Routledge, pp. 54–72.
• O'Connell, Lisa (2010). The Theo-political Origins of the English Marriage Plot, "Novel: A Forum on Fiction". Vol. 43, Issue 1, pp. 31–37.
• Punter, David, (1996), The Literature of Terror. London: Longman. (2 vols).
• Punter, David, (2004), The Gothic, London: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Sabor, Peter & Paul Yachnin (2008). Shakespeare and the Eighteenth Century. Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
• Salter, David (2009). This demon in the garb of a monk: Shakespeare, the Gothic and the discourse of anti-Catholicism. Vol. 5, Issue 1, pp. 52–67.
• Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky (1986). The Coherence of Gothic Conventions. NY: Methuen.
• Shakespeare, William (1997). The Riverside Shakespeare: Second Edition. Boston, NY: Houghton Mifflin Co.
• Skarda, Patricia L., and Jaffe, Norma Crow (1981) Evil Image: Two Centuries of Gothic Short Fiction and Poetry. New York: Meridian.
• Skarda, Patricia, (1986) "Gothic Parodies" in Jack Sullivan ed. (1986) The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural: 178-9.
• Skarda, Patricia, (1986b) "Oates, Joyce Carol" in Jack Sullivan ed. (1986) The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural: 303-4.
• Stevens, David (2000). The Gothic Tradition. ISBN 0-521-77732-1
• Sullivan, Jack, ed. (1986). The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural.
• Summers, Montague (1938). The Gothic Quest.
• Townshend, Dale (2007). The Orders of Gothic.
• Varma, Devendra (1957). The Gothic Flame.
• Varma, Devendra, (1986) "Maturin, Charles Robert" in Jack Sullivan (ed) The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural: 285-6.
• Wisker, Gina (2005). Horror Fiction: An Introduction. Continuum: New York.
• Wright, Angela (2007). Gothic Fiction. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

External links

• CALIGARI - German Journal of Horror Studies
• Gothic Poets and Writers Literary Club
• The Gothic Literature Page by Zittaw Press
• Gothic Fiction Bookshelf at Project Gutenberg
• Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies
• Literary Gothic: A Web Guide to Gothic Literature
• "Typical Elements of American Gothic Fiction"
• House of Pain E-Zine Archives: Modern Gothic Fiction
• Gothic Author Biographies
• The Sickly Taper: A Gothic bibliography on the web