The Gothic genre is one of the most misunderstood genres in all of literature. I’ve seen and heard just about every misconception – including the idea that Gothic and Horror are the same, Gothic writing is evil, Gothic literature is about the paranormal, Gothic books are “dark” (whatever that means) and every other false idea out there. And the truth is made more confusing by fact that Gothic literature sometimes includes some or all of the above. But it doesn’t have to, because those aren’t the definition of what makes something Gothic.
To be fair, there was a time in my life when I didn’t know anything about the genre. I didn’t even know that the first adult book I had come to love – Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier – was in the Gothic genre. My English teacher had assigned the book. I began reading it and, almost instantly, fell into the deep well of dark Romanticism and spine-tingling pleasure that is Gothic literature.
As I grew, I read just about every book I could find. I loved the Horror genre as well, but I found myself particularly drawn to certain types of books: Wuthering Heights, The Turn of the Screw, and Jane Eyre, among so many others. Eventually I learned enough to know that much of what I loved most was in the Gothic genre.
But the conundrum came when I tried to define the genre. What is Gothic literature? Trying to research the subject is a long journey into superficiality. Many people seem to love the genre, but few can articulate what defines a Gothic novel beyond the tropes themselves. And it makes sense. Gothic writing is very compelling largely because it is so deep, because its themes are generally transcendent, sometimes even numinous. But that fact – what makes this genre so appealing – also makes it harder to qualify.
Regardless, after reading and studying it for several decades, I’m going to attempt to do just that.
But first, let’s clear up the most prevalent misconception about Gothic writing: that its the Gothic tropes that make a book Gothic.
Misconception: Gothic tropes are what makes a book Gothic.
Gothic tropes are awesome. They’re the things that I want to see when I read a Gothic novel, at least on the surface. They’re the things like:
- A crumbling estate or castle
- Characters who are insane or otherwise mentally ill
- Dark and stormy, or gloomy weather
- A helpless heroine
- Terror, or dread
- Melodrama
- Sometimes elements of romance
- Family secrets
- Supernatural elements – ghosts, werewolves, vampires, etc.
- Forlorn landscapes
- Isolation
There are a lot more, of course. And most Gothic writing incorporates at least one or two of these elements. Mr. Rochester keeps his mad wife in the attic, Heathcliff wanders the desolate moors, the ghost of Peter Quint haunts the new governess in The Turn of the Screw.
And I love all of these things. I love a dark and stormy atmosphere and lots of dark subterfuge. But if those things alone make a book Gothic then we have a problem. Because there are plenty of Gothic works that use few if any Gothic tropes.
If you’ve read Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, or We’ve Always Lived in the Castle, books that are also categorized as Gothic, you may have noticed that most of the stereotypical Gothic tropes are absent from her writing. So what makes it Gothic?
How about The Picture of Dorian Gray? Oscar Wilde employs a strong sense of terror, but besides that, it’s hard to argue that any of the traditional Gothic elements are present. The main character can’t even rightly be said to be mentally ill. If anything, he’s tormented by a self-inflicted weight of guilt. Then why is that book described as Gothic?
What about Poe? Have you ever read his poem, The Raven? It’s one of the most recognizably Gothic works. Many lovers of the Gothic genre think of The Raven and Gothic as synonymous. The poem is beautiful. And tragic. And emotionally gripping. But there’s nothing horrifying about it. There’s no madness. No dark crimes. No intrigue. No family secrets. Just a man haunted by the sadness he carries after losing his beloved Lenore. It’s a poem about loss and the shadow it casts over us.
Given the preponderance of evidence to the contrary, Gothic literature must be something so much more than barren, foggy landscapes and locked doors and dark predilections.
So then, what is it?
History of Gothic Literature
To answer that question, we need to start with a quick history lesson. The first work of Gothic literature is generally considered to be The Castle of Otranto, written by Horace Walpole in 1764. Like many firsts, it’s horribly awkward. But it broke ground in the genre and it paved the way for all of the subsequent works that we have today.
But what predicated the book? What was going on in the world at that time? Because that’s the very answer that will help us understand what is truly Gothic. And what isn’t.
Walpole wrote his book during the height of the Age of Reason. If you know much about philosophy, you know that the Age of Reason, among other things, promoted the belief that nothing can be said to be true if it can’t be proved through reason and/or empirically, meaning through the five senses. So, if you can’t touch it, see it, taste it, etc. it can’t be true. Therefore, the Age of Reason was extremely disdainful of any spirituality of any kind. For obvious reasons. If your God can’t be reasoned to exist, your beliefs can’t be true.
The same can be said to be true of a lot of psychological conditions.
Into the midst of that climate, Walpole ushered in the Gothic genre. A genre that deals with what some scholars call “the irrational.” The word “irrational” stems from the Latin words “in” meaning “not” and “rationalis” meaning “rational” or “able to be reasoned.” So, with respect to Gothic writing, “irrational” means those things that can’t be reasoned. Within the Gothic genre, we find a rebuttal to the Age of Reason.
The Age of Reason said, if it can’t be reasoned or known empirically, it doesn’t exist. Gothic literature says, there are spiritual and psychological truths that we can’t see or touch. What makes a book Gothic is that it features an irrational theme – themes that are generally spiritual and/or psychological in nature.
Examples
For example, consider the theme of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, that explores the dangers of playing God and how destructive that can be. Or Salem’s Lot by Stephen King. In that book, King demonstrates that the characters who prevail over evil are those who are willing to acknowledge that evil exists, whereas those who try to ignore it are destroyed by that evil. Consider The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty, which presents a horrifying case that God, the Devil and evil do exist and that we would be unwise to discredit the power of any of the above. Or look at Shirley Jackson’s books – like We Have Always Lived in the Castle – that deal with the evils of the collective against the individual.
In all of these, we can see irrational themes, those that can’t be reasoned. Themes that are spiritual or psychological in nature.
The Gothic tropes that we mentioned earlier – things like crumbling old houses, isolation and family secrets – exist to support and clarify those themes. In subsequent posts, we’ll examine many examples of how these tropes are used. For instance, we’ll talk about the kinds of themes that vampires have been used to demonstrate. Or how and why we might use terror versus horror to support a Gothic theme. Or why and when dark and stormy weather has been used.
But those things aren’t the reason the book is Gothic. They’re just the supporting actors on the Gothic stage. The book is Gothic if it contains a Gothic theme, an irrational one. Stay tuned for a lot more examples.
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