The Gothic Period1764-1840

What is Gothic Literature

• A genre of late-18th-century literature that featured brooding, mysterious settings and plots and set the stage for what we now call “horror stories.”

• Horace Walpole’s Castle of Otranto, set inside a medieval castle, was the first major Gothic novel.

What is Gothic Literature

• Generally Combines horror and romance – yes, an odd combination.

• Later, the term “Gothic” grew to include any work that attempted to create an atmosphere of terror or the unknown, such as Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories.

Writers’ Motivation

• Writers like Poe and Hawthorne responded to the optimistic vision of the romantics with a darker vision.

• The industrial revolution brought ideas that the "old ways" of doing things are now irrelevant and out of this came the exploration of the supernatural, being at the mercy of forces beyond human control, and the nature of good and evil. It is out of the gothic writers that the contemporary genre of horror springs.

Characteristics

• Overall feeling of darkness• Horror stories or ghost stories• Supernatural - apparitions, phantoms,

demons, and necromancers• An atmosphere of brooding gloom

Setting

• 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.

Setting

• Includes wild and desolate landscapes, ancient buildings such as ruined monasteries, cathedrals, castles with dungeons, torture chambers, secret doors, and winding stairways

Did you ever think of Scooby Doo as Gothic Lit

Characters

• Characters - youthful, handsome heroes and fainting heroines

• Female characters are threatened by powerful or impetuous male figures

Archetypes

– Virginal maiden– Old fool– Hero– Tyrant– Stupid Servant

Archetypes

– 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.

Archetypes

– The Stupid Servant and Clowns – act as comic relief by asking seemingly stupid questions, transitions between scenes, brings news, messenger, moves plot forward

Gothic Art

Famous Gothic Authors

• Mary Shelly and Frankenstein• Edgar Allen Poe and…all his stuff • Fyodor Dostoyevsky• Emily Bronte and Wuthering Heights• Charlotte Bronte and Jane Eyre

Urban Gothic Authors

• Robert Louis Stevenson and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

• Oscar Wilde and The Picture of Dorian Gray • Bram Stoker and Dracula• Gaston Leroux and The Phantom

of the Opera

Uplifting huh?