In each of these texts the Gothic influence is used to shape the literature in differing ways, creating different effects. In this essay I will highlight these influences and explain reasons why the Authors chose to use the ‘Gothic’ devices. The earliest of these is Austin’s Northanger Abbey. This Austin’s first published Novel is often referred to as a "Gothic parody"1 because it satirizes the form and conventions of the Gothic novels that were popular during the time. A number of Gothic novels are mentioned in the book, including most importantly The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Italian by Ann Radcliffe.
A variety of sources affected the character and development of the Gothic genre. In literature, the fantastical nature of certain Shakespeare plays proved inspirational to the Gothic novelists. Ideas on poetry and aesthetics, particularly those espoused by Richard Hurd and Edmund Burke, were also influential, as were the melancholic musings of the Graveyard school of poets. In painting, the works of Salvatore Rosa, Claude Lorraine and Nicolas Poussin helped to define the topography of the Gothic story. The Castle of Otranto - The Original Gothic Novel Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto is generally regarded as the first Gothic novel.
Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey: a Gothic Parody The Gothic fiction is a literary genre that combines elements of both horror and romance. It flourished in England during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as a “reaction against the rigidity and formality of other forms of Romantic literature. [1]” It has often been said that the first true Gothic romance was The Castle of Otranto, written by Horace Walpole and first published in 1764. Although during this period many of the highly regarded Gothic novelists published their writings and much of the novel’s form was defined, this genre is not limited to this time whatsoever. Indeed, the Gothic can still be found nowadays in the
Gothic has been described as “excess: excess in moral terms, excess of realism into the supernatural, [and] formal excess” (Becker, 1999:1). Discuss this view of the Gothic mode in specific relation to The Castle of Otranto, and M.R. James’s stories. When Horace Walpole published his Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto, in 1764, he became the first author credited with changing the meaning of the Gothic genre forever. With his tale of corrupt patriarchy filled with mystery, romance, and tragedy, Horace Walpole bridged the gap between the wantonly romantic and the excessively realistic (Scott 11); filling the space with dark settings, stark characters and tangled narratives.
Vincent Senechal Mme McRae EAE4U Monday September 26 2011 The living dead or the dead alive: Gothicism in marry Shelly’s Frankenstein Marry shelly has written several novels within her time. Her novels focus mainly on theme. Gothicism is a theme that returns often. In Frankenstein Gothicism is represented through characters and their actions. The main theme of marry Shelly’s Frankenstein is Gothicism.
Primarily the first flow has discussed how this minor genre of literature starting in England in the 18th century was Americanized and brought to the New World as a unique expression of the terror and horror experienced in the frontier between the settled land and the wilderness. The Americanization of European Gothic apparatus and devices as an old castle, a well, a letter, an abbey, into the wilderness, a cave, a great swirl, a somber residence; an "Indian," and murder impelled by madness have been widely researched. The search for the transformation of the original Gothic to fit in the American culture leads to the conclusion that "the Gothic novels in Europe were born as a backlash of the authors against the outer world, the overwhelming power of church and nation, and also as a counter-reaction against the rationalism and the archaism up to the 18th century, while the American Gothic was imported to create an original genre in the background of political and
Coleridge was an author during the 1700/1800’s where society was rapidly changing, with many people starting to question, what was once law and religion, to discover the unknown, with gothic literature stemming from this period. Coleridge’s works reflected the issues, especially his gothic ballad “Rime of the ancient Mariner, with the discovering of unknown. In the ballad Coleridge questioned concerns like Christianity vs. God in nature, death and life in death, romantic tradition and voyagers in the new world. Among this emerging conventions of gothic literature were also portrayed, for example the weather, characters, setting and the supernatural. In the time where there was an incorruptible belief in God as the Supreme Being, Coleridge challenged it with the thought of God in nature.
In the Victorian era, the Gothic genre had ceased to be the dominant genre because of the successful influence of the historical romance. However, it was not abandoned by some writers such as Elizabeth Gaskell with her ghost story, “The Old Nurse’s Story” (1852) or Charles Dickens, among others. Nonetheless, it was not until the end of the 19th century (Fin de Siècle), that a complete revival of the Gothic genre was carried out by some authors, such as Henry James and his novel, “The Turn of the Screw” (1898). Thus, it can be said that the Gothic genre, with its revival with Ghost Stories, serves as a point of transition between centuries. In this sense, I would like to contrast and compare the two pieces of writing mentioned above in order to reach an idea of the different elements that compose the Gothic genre characteristic of the Victorian period, such as the setting, the dark atmosphere, and the fear and horror feeling, and the new ones that were added when introduced the ghost stories narratives, such as those of orphan children, the supernatural and the past, among some others.
Language is a key element of The Lady of The House of Love which lends itself to the gothic genre. Through the endless connotations of light and dark, and the use of symbolism, Carter shapes a gothic short story by utilising key gothic conventions portrayed by the complex use of language. One way Carter uses language to not only reveal character but elicit gothic convention is through the description of the Countess; presented to us wearing "an antique bridal gown" trapped in a "chateau." The idea the Countess is wearing a bridal gown reiterates Miss. Havisham in Great Expectations; where the readers are introduced to a woman trapped in time, and unable to let go.
The mad man killed the old man and then cut him up and put him under the floorboards of the house. In 'The Tell Tale Heart' the main character remains nameless, genderless, and ageless, he thinks that he has done the right thing by killing the old man and that he got rid of the 'evil eye'. The main character is very confident about what he has done and think that he had a very good reason for killing the old man which was, he didn't like the way his eyes looked and because he thought that the one eye was evil. We can see evidence of that in lines 10 - 14 where he says: 'I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this!