The Ingredients of Gothic Fiction

The Ingredients of Gothic Fiction

I recently edited a novel with a heavy Gothic influence, and it got me thinking about the ingredients of Gothic fiction. In the short video above (1:43 seconds long), I list some of the key ingredients, but by no means all. This posts delves deeper into the topic.

Gothic fiction is a popular genre with roots stretching back centuries. As a genre, it includes a wide variety of story types, often due to the ability of the Gothic aesthetic to marry so well to other genres like romance, crime, suspense, etc. Hence, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Rebecca are Gothic narratives, alongside Dracula, Frankenstein, Interview with the Vampire, The Turn of the Screw, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Fall of the House of Usher, and even a modern novel like Ira Levin’s The Stepford Wives (which I have written about before).

Of course Gothic fiction also includes the likes of narrative poetry and film.

The origins of Gothic

Before discussing the origins of Gothic narratives, it’s important to address where the Gothic aesthetic comes from. It really starts with the Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages. The style was prevalent from the late 12th century until the 16th, though it persisted longer in some areas. The roots are in Picardy and the Ile de France and it would not be referred to as Gothic until much later, during the more classically-inspired Renaissance period.

The key feature of Gothic architecture was the pointed arch, and would go on to include flying buttresses and stained glass windows. It was a style applied to religious buildings like cathedrals, abbeys, and churches, but also to castles, palaces, and civic buildings. Already it’s possible to get a sense of why Gothic fiction is tied to this architecture – vaulted ceilings, monasteries, abbeys (especially ruined buildings), castles, etc, would all become popular locations in Gothic fiction.

The style fell out of favour with the Renaissance belief that classical architecture was best and Gothic harked back to the barbarous Germans who helped bring down the Roman Empire and destroyed ancient buildings when they sacked Rome. Their replacement style was now looked down upon.

The blame for Gothic style would later be laid at the feet of ‘the Saracens’ by the likes of Christopher Wren who refused to put a Gothic roof on the new St Paul’s Cathedral. However, the pointed arch existed in Europe before the Holy War, so Wren’s chronology is incorrect. While the Moors may have had an influence via Spain, Romanesque architecture was a definite influence on the development of Gothic.

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is one of the most famous examples of French Gothic. The building is also intimately tied to the French Gothic novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) by Victor Hugo.

The Gothic Revival

While some buildings, especially universities and religious buildings, were still built in the Gothic style long after the classical style had taken over, the beginning of the revival goes back to the late 17th century. But it was a slow rise in interest, until it finally broke through in the 19th century into what is often referred to now as Victorian Gothic. Yet again it was in favour until it began to wane later in the century.

There were religious and political connections to the revival, while, in art, the medievalism can be seen in the Arts and Crafts movement and also in the Pre-Raphaelites. In literature, Tennyson’s Idylls of the King looked back to the medieval period, while in fiction old castles, cathedrals, ruined monastries, and other medieval and Gothic settings offered powerful backdrops to enthralling and suspenseful storytelling.

Gothic literary beginnings

There are older narratives, predating the late eighteenth century works of Horace Walpole and Ann Radcliffe, which feature Gothic elements. Some of Shakespeare’s plays – Macbeth being one of the best examples with its witches, stormy weather, and omens – would influence later Gothic writers. Milton’s Paradise Lost was an influence. But there were other stories – I recently re-read a story from Marguerite de Navarre’s 16th century Heptameron, featuring a visitor to a German castle. There he is shocked to see the lady of the house drink from a cup made from a human skull.

So there was nothing new about the creepy ingredients of what would later be termed Gothic, but the threads really came together to form the genre in the late eighteenth century. Perhaps it was a kickback against the classical preference of that century. The trend was moving towards the Romanticism of the early 19th century that would produce the likes of Byron, Shelley, and Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.

The first novel to actually be described as Gothic was Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764):

The first edition actually promoted the story as a 16th century manuscript. The true authorship was only later revealed, along with the new subtitle – A Gothic Story. There was a backlash from some readers disappointed that a modern writer had written a supernatural story in the age of reason. Nevertheless, the novel was popular and kicked off a new literary genre. And while more writers emerged to copy the style, it was Ann Radcliffe who dominated by the 1790s, particularly with her most famous novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794). Below is an illustration. Her Romance of the Forest (1791) was also very popular.

Writing of Ann Radcliffe and The Mysteries of Udolpho, Walter Scott said:

“The very name [Udolpho] was fascinating, and the public, who rushed upon it with all the eagerness of curiosity, rose from it with unsated appetite. When a family was numerous, the volumes flew, and were sometimes torn from hand to hand.”

If Ann Radcliffe was the pre-eminent female voice of 1790s English Gothic, Matthew Lewis was the pre-eminent male writer with his novel, The Monk (1796).

While all of this applied to the English end of the genre, there were also developments on the Continental mainland, especially Germany and France.

In time though the extremes of the genre would come to be ridiculed and satirised. Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey (1818) is a famous example.

The Romantics

While Byron never wrote a Gothic novel, or any novel for that matter, his influence is still huge in the genre. Particularly through John Polidori’s use of Byron as the inspiration for his Lord Ruthven in The Vampyre (1819). This would launch the vampire genre, not to mention a thousand Byronic heroes and anti-heroes. But Byron was also the inspiration for Lady Caroline Lamb’s title character, Glenarvon (1816).

Perhaps Byron is most famous for his participation in the famous ghost story night at the Villa Diodati which would give birth to both The Vampyre and Frankenstein (1818), two of the most influential books in the history of horror, Gothic, vampire fiction, and science fiction.

Other writers would come along, including Walter Scott, while in Germany ETA Hoffman’s The Devil’s Elixirs (1815) included something that would become a new ingredient in Gothic fiction – the doppelganger. In Scotland, James Hogg’s metaphysical novel, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, also featured a double or doppelganger. The Gothic novel was developing in different countries.

Rise of the Gothic short story

Thanks to the likes of American writer Edgar Allan Poe, when Gothic novels began to wane in popularity, the genre was kept alive in the short story. These stories appeared in chapbooks or magazines, an early precursor of the twentieth century’s genre magazines like Weird Tales. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote numerous short stories, like The Body Snatchers, and his Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), a novella, is a classic of the genre.

In the twentieth century there would be influential writers like Lovecraft and others.

Gothic Romance

The wild and stormy moors of Wuthering Heights (1847) was a perfect setting for Emily Bronte’s Gothic romance. And in Heathcliffe there was a ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’ anti-hero. Likewise her sister Charlotte’s Jane Eyre (also 1847) featured a mysterious Byronic employer, strange noises in the middle of the night, a mad woman in the attack, and dark secrets.

In the twentieth century, there would be classic Gothic romance in the form of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca (1938) – featuring another young woman out of place in a large house which is full of dark secrets.

Urban Gothic

Wild lonely moors, abandoned ruins, or gloomy mansions are not your only Gothic location options. Dark urban environments work equally well. For example, the old narrow and grim streets in the poorest districts of a city like Victorian London. Think of Charles Dickens’ novels Bleak House (1852-53) and Great Expectations (1860-61). In the case of the latter, Miss Havisham is a great example of a classic Gothic character.

Vampire fiction

Thanks to Polidori, vampires are a staple of Gothic fiction. They’d later turn up in Varney the Vampire, and literary classics like J Sheridan LeFanu’s Carmilla (1872) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897). Modern writers like Anne Rice would carry on the strongly Gothic tradition of vampire stories.

Ghost stories

One of the most important subgenres of Gothic fiction is the ghost story. Here, common themes like death, decay, secrets, haunting, the past, the supernatural, darkness, night (when ghosts most commonly appear in fiction), terror, and revelations are staples of this fiction. In Gothic there is a sense of threat, an oppressive atmosphere hanging over the main character(s) and the location.

Common ingredients in Gothic fiction

While some writers have played with the genre, offering their own twists, there are some common repeating ingredients and themes. While there are different Gothic schools, partly due to regionalism – like US Southern Gothic – many of the ingredients are near universal:

Importance of location – remember the architectural roots of the original Gothic authors who set their stories against Gothic buildings, and also ruined buildings like abbeys, castles, etc
Those locations can often include secret tunnels, false walls, hidden rooms
Isolated locations are common in Gothic fiction. Characters are cut off from the outside world and exist instead in a claustrophobic environment. This could be a location isolated from the nearest settlement. Or it could be the kind of isolation experienced in the modern Gothic novel, Flowers in the Attic, where the children are locked away
The outdoors also takes on Gothic aspects in the form of wild moors and forests with towering canopies of trees (reminiscent of the vaulted ceilings of Gothic churches)
Weather and season play an important part in Gothic fiction. Wild and stormy weather, overcast and gloomy skies are common in British Gothic
Weather can influence mood, heighten tension, or act as an extra antagonistic force
On the whole, traditional British and Irish Gothic flourishes in darker and gloomier settings, and also in nocturnal settings and scenes
Main female characters can be damsels in distress or women determined to unravel secrets
Monsters (vampires, etc) can also be main characters
Heroes can often have a Byronic nature – ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’
Doomed love – sometimes a feature of the secret past the heroine or hero discovers in the course of the novel
Villains can be mad scientists, monsters (vampires, werewolves, etc) or more human antagonists like the grandmother in Flowers in the Attic of Mrs Danvers in Rebecca
Unexpected legacies or inheritances are another common trope
Secrets are important to Gothic fiction, including family secrets and hidden secrets of old buildings or objects (like paintings, old diaries, jewellery)
A past, hidden crime or murder is another trope
Heightened emotion, hysteria, anxiety, fear, terror, etc, are important – though too much can tip a story into melodrama
Omens and taboos
Madness and incest – Virginia Andrews mined this territory in her popular Gothic novels, starting with Flowers in the Attic
Suspense is incredibly important to Gothic fiction, pumping up the tension and providing higher stakes. Readers worry about characters in danger, turning the page to find out what happens next
Doppelgangers and doubles are another Gothic trope
Good versus evil
Revenge
Frame narratives
Found manuscripts, letters, diaries, etc, are a common ingredient in Gothic fiction

Importance of sensory details

In order to fully immerse your reader in the world of your story, include vivid sensory details in all five senses. It’s not just visual details, but smells, sounds, touch, and taste. In Gothic fiction, this really helps the reader inhabit the main character’s viewpoint. And sensory details can further bolster location, weather, and other details.

Sensory details are also important to establish a sense of threat, danger, or the presence of the supernatural.

Lastly, sensory details can show emotional and psychological states more clearly. Check out The Emotion Thesaurus by Puglisi and Ackerman.

Examples of Gothic Fiction

Dracula by Bram Stoker
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Carmilla by J Sheridan Le Fanu
Shadow Over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Shining by Stephen King
Flowers in the Attic by Virginia Andrews
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

It’s also worth checking out Latin American Gothic. But the Gothic genre as a whole is too large and geographically spread to do the international and non-anglophone spheres justice.

Conclusion

Gothic fiction has a rich and vibrant past. It’s woven into the very fabric of architectural history, as well as intersecting with other art forms like poetry and art/painting. Through ecclesiastical architecture and settings, it can also tie in with religious themes, and some Gothic fiction, like Interview with the Vampire, explore existential themes like the meaning of life or the existence or non-existence of God.

The genre has waxed and waned since its inception, yet it continues to have a loyal following, with twentieth century Gothic horror writers, and a Gothic romance genre featuring women in long dresses fleeing gloomy castles. Virginia Andrews and Anne Rice offer different interpretations of Gothic, while other writers like Sarah Waters, Donna Tartt, Stephen King, and more, have added to the development of the genre.

Cinema has created a new catalogue of Gothic stories. Just recently, there was an adaptation of a section of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, focused on the ship’s log section of the novel. The Last Voyage of the Demeter features gloomy and stormy weather, confined spaces, an isolated location, dark secrets regarding the boxes in the hold, a monster lurking about and picking people off, death and decay, and vampirism.

The Underworld series of vampire films are another example of cinematic Gothic, where the vampires even dress like modern Goths and the coven is like a secret Goth club. The colour palette, costumes, hidden past, vampires and werewolves, and the gritty urban settings all combine to deliver a powerful Gothic vision.

Need feedback on YOUR Gothic novel?

If you’re working on a Gothic novel, whether it’s Gothic romance, Gothic horror, a vampire novel, or a literary Gothic novel, I have openings in my editorial calendar. I can give you detailed feedback and suggestions on plot holes, character issues, the wrong tone (for a dark novel), advice on pacing and suspense, and more. You have the following options:

A critique and developmental edit of your novel outline – I’ve worked with very detailed outlines as well as shorter ones
A manuscript critique – I have different package tiers for different budgets. The highest tier can deliver very long and detailed reports, but without the expense and time of a full developmental edit
Developmental edits are the most expensive and extensive editorial service – but again, I offer different tiers and levels of feedback to fit different budgets

I offer a free sample developmental edit.

Feel free to email me at karen@indiecateditorial.com or check out my main services page below. You can click on the buttons there to check out each specific service.

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