The description Wuthering being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather" immediately creates the a dark and desolate image which would provoke a sense of fear within 19th century readers. They would visualise this gothic setting, and foreshadow that dark and mysterious events will unfold here. This element of pathetic fallacy can be identified through the description of the "gaunt thorns" surrounding the house and "a grotesque carving lavished over the front" since both of these reinforce the idea of entrapment and claustrophobia; something that a modern day audience could identify as being an irrational fear. The house is enveloped in an air of mystery, it's inhabitants, most likely Heathcliff, are renowned for being recluses to life away from the moors. The most poignant chapter that highlights pure unadulterated terror, is chapter 3.
In chapter five of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the creature is given life. The opening paragraph makes excellent use of pathetic fallacy, using the weather to set the scene. The first lines of the chapter “it was a dreary night in November” and “the rain pattered dismally against the windowpanes” make obvious use of traditional gothic horror scenery. Victor Frankenstein seems to have mixed emotions at the time of the creature’s birth. He is nervous yet scared and disgusted at the out come of his long toil.
Byronic heroes were used to describe Lord Byron by his jilted lover, Lady Caroline. She would describe him as “mad, bad and dangerous to know” (Wikipedia). The term reflects a flawed character and has some of the same characteristics of a Gothic character, with more of Byron’s “negative” characteristics thrown into the mix. Such character istics would include: bipolar, hates social norms, outcast, sexuality (homosexual, prostitute), cynical, loner, and self-destructive (Wikipedia). The features of Gothic fiction are both psychological and physical.
Another element is an atmosphere of mystery and suspense. Throughout the novel readers are kept wondering about different situations such as Lucy’s fate, Dracula’s next victim, and Renfield’s purpose. Presence of the supernatural is an element as well. Dracula is a vampire which is supernatural. The next element is a woman or women in distress.
The main theme of marry Shelly’s Frankenstein is Gothicism. Within marry Shelly’s novel Frankenstein we see elements of gothic and the supernatural, sometimes represented through the grotesque. The gothic supernatural is described as being real and disturbing according to Linda Bayer. In fact it can be described as simply being something we are used to and implementing it in the world around us making it more immediate, more believable. Within this theme we see the reoccurring element of gothic villains where “the exaggeration of just one aspect of the beautiful can produce the hideous,” (Bayer 80) in this case it is literal and can be applied to the monster where this is achieved with “combinations of the normal or even beautiful through an unexpected fusion of different realms.
The weather conditions when they meet can all be linked with the theme of chaos and disorder, which foreshadows their role within the play as it is their predictions which awaken the seeds of ambition within Macbeth. The fact that they cannot be trusted is also implied in this first scene as their speech is full of antithesis and this foreshadows the equivocation they use to confuse Macbeth and fill him with a false sense of security, “When the battles lost and won” “Fair is foul, and foul is fair;” When we next meet the witches, the setting is again chilling in that they meet in thunder. Again, the supernatural powers that the witches have are highlighted as they wreak their revenge on a sailor, whose wife refused to give one of them chestnuts. Their power to control the experiences of the poor sailor is established and they explicitly discuss their ability to
In it the idea of a traditional ghost story is suggested which shows us forewarning for the rest of the novel. A ghost story relies on atmosphere, often shown through weather and the gothic genre. The weather is a huge signal throughout the novel, which is used as a signal to when terrible things are about to happen. For example, the nine lives causeway is described as ‘submerged and untraceable’, this suggests that Eel Marsh house is miserable and that everything is hidden. From this the reader can see that Susan Hill has explored the theme by creating it as a forewarning through the weather and setting.
In the most important aspects of Frankenstein; Frankenstein is compelling in and of itself. This book has stories that surround other stories, setting them up in one way or another. Frankenstein is a gothic novel that focuses on mysterious or supernatural features. It takes place in dark, often exotic settings. Readers feel uneasy and in terror after reading the novel.
Already there is an implication of supernatural powers and evilness from the witches’ behalf, since they have the power to create storms and other gloomy atmospheric disturbances. “When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?” is the opening line. The enumeration indicates that this type of dark weather accompanies the witches wherever they go. It also immediately draws the audience and captures their imagination, as the supernatural world fascinated people in Elizabethan England.
The primary objective of Gothic novelists is to rouse the reader into eliciting emotional responses such as shock or fear (Hume 284). In keeping with this theory, Walpole both begins and ends Otranto with unexpected deaths that are violent in nature, and designed to shock the reader. It begins with the death of the primary antagonists son, Conrad, who is “dashed to pieces” beneath the weight of an enormous helmet directly before he is to be married (Walpole 28). The shock arises not only from the unexpectedness of the incident, seeing as it happens so early in the novel, but also from the violence and the apparently supernatural element of it. He finishes the novel with the unintentional filicide of