THE GOTHIC NOVEL
Second half of the 18th century
Interest in INDIVIDUAL CONSCIOUSNESS
marked by a taste for:
an impulse for freedom and escape from the ugly world
the fear of the triumph of evil and chaos over good and order
the strange and the mysterious
'GOTHIC' was an adjective first applied to architecture
It was used for the first time in a literary context by Horace Walpole - The Castle of Otranto - A Gothic Story (1764)
inspired by his miniature castle at Strawberry Hill
Features:
intended to arouse FEAR in the reader
reflecting the historical moment
disillusionment with Enlightenment rationality
bloody revolutions (America, France)
SETTING:
isolated castles, abbeys, convents with dungeons
night and darkness to create gloomy atmospheres
characters perceiving others as hostile
GOTHIC HERO:
voluntarily or involuntarily isolated
GOTHIC HEROINE:
afflicted with unreal terrors
persecuted by a villain (=evil)
an outcast in exile as divine punishment
PLOTS:
complicated, with supernatural beings and suspense
Novels:
The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole
The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Ann Radcliffe
The Monk (1796) by Matthew Gregory Lewis
Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley
On the Supernatural in Poetry (1826) - Ann Radcliffe
Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker
LATER:
Vlad the Impaler - 15th century in Moldavia
turned into a vampire named Dracula ('devil' in Wallachian) by the author
told through journals and fragments of letters
4 parts:
2nd. In England, Dracula seduces and destroys Lucy Westenra
3rd. Dr Van Helsing and others join to fight Dracula
1st. Jonathan Harker's trip to Count Dracula's castle and meeting with 3 female vampires
4th. Dracula is destroyed within his castle
The Woman in Black (1983) by Susan Hill
A ghost story about Arthur Kipps who attends the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow and catches a glimpse of a young woman dressed in black.