๐ฟ๐๐ ๐พ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐พ๐๐๐๐
๐๐ฑ๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ค๐ข ๐๐ญ๐๐ ๐ข๐ฐ
Essential in creating gothic atmosphere and unsettling the reader, gothic narratives are traditionally set in the โstrangeโ โ places that are unfamiliar and faraway. Think crumbling castles, ancestral homes, religious dwellings, and long ago. Think places distant in time and space.
๐๐ด๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ซ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐๐ด๐ข๐ข๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ฏ๐ฑ๐ฐ
The stereotypical gothic heroine is inquisitive and brave, and voraciously reads. She has beauty and purity and is thus a target. Whether a victim to fashion (those tight-laced corsets) or the female condition (I hope my tone is clear here), her defence in danger is the delicate swoon. Though she is likely to suffer, she is usually saved.
๐๐ฒ๐ฃ๐ฃ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐๐๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ฐ
Whether saviour to a swooning heroine (see above) or on adventures all their own, the gothic favours the anti-hero for its male lead. Often intellectual, perhaps academic, for him the human condition is heavy to bear. This long-suffering figure is flawed and doomed and may just reveal the monstrous in man.
๐๐ฅ๐๐ก๐ฌ๐ด๐ถ ๐๐ฑ๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ๐ฐ
Though gothic villains are slow to uncloak themselves, their mould has since been truly set. The shadowy stranger epitomises the fear of โotherโ. Often autocrat, aristocrat, male, and undefined โforeignโ, he is a man out truly for himself.
๐๐ฒ๐ค๐ค๐ข๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ข๐ก ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ ๐ฑ๐ฏ๐ข๐ฐ
All sorts of creatures make their home in gothic literature. There are ghosts, spirits, and apparitions; demons, the devil, and the dead returned; vampires, zombies, and apparent monsters. The supernatural may be metaphorical โ a tool for subversion. It is frequently suggested as one thing and revealed to be otherwise, if there at all.
๐๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ข๐ซ๐ฐ๐ข
The gothic tone is of fear: terror or horror, and halted breath. It is dread that creeps and suspicion that grows. Suspense builds in uncanny spaces, where everything is unnerving and nothing is as it seems. Often at odds with logic, rational thought is invited to leave as heightened senses are startled by the wind.
๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ข๐ญ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฐ๐ฐ ๐๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ฉ๐ฐ
Just as the narrative fiction aims to unsettle the mind of the reader, gothic protagonists are similarly disturbed. Nighttime casts shadows on certainty. Sleep, if achieved, is addled with nightmares. Waking hours, in turn, are similarly plagued. The concept of reality is toyed with as sanity and truth can no longer be presumed.