The Gothics, Eng Lit

The gothics

The category I have decided to address in “Paper Two” is “The Gothics”. When reading Gothic literature there are two predominant aspects of the story that are similar: the purpose and the characters. The purpose of a lot of Gothic literature is to create terror. Most Gothic stories have a facet of horror within them. In fact, Gothic literature has opened up fiction to the darker side of the human spirit. Aspects of the Gothics birthed what we consider “Horror” genre today (in film and literature). When surveying the Horror literature seen today we look to accomplished authors like “Stephen King” and “Dean Koontz” but “Edgar Allen Poe” was sending shivers down spines before King and Koontz learned their “A, B, C’s”. The character depiction you might see within Gothic literature may include the appearance of ghosts, other supernatural occurrences, characters who disappear mysteriously, an innocent heroine pursued by a lustful villain, and often characters acting from dark emotions: anger, despair, fear, hatred, revenge. In a lot of the Gothic literature we read there was an atmosphere of gloom, terror, and/or mystery. Violence is also a common trend in a lot of the Gothics. The narrative voice and point of view in most Gothics are often trying to make sense of the events transpiring themselves, which is helpful when trying to follow and understand the

disturbed stories. But Gothic literature is not all “blood and guts”. Fred Botting, the author of “In Gothic Darkly: Heterotopia, History, Culture” explains that “if not a purely negative term, Gothic writing remains fascinated by objects and practices that are constructed as negative, irrational, immoral and fantastic.” In this context, the word “Gothic” often refers to a variety of elements and ideas opposed to the wildly popular categorize in the eighteenth century. At that time it signified the lack of reason, morality and beauty of feudal beliefs, customs and works. It was often used derogatorily about general ideas and art that did not conform to the standards of most neoclassical taste. The word “Gothic” can apply to any literature, art or architecture, which attempts to disturb or unsettle the orderly, “civilized” course of society.  

        The Gothics often related and addressed cultural trends of the nineteenth- century. The United States was rapidly expanding, surpassing the Midwest all the way to the Pacific.  Industry was well on its way with the help of the Industrial Revolution. Masses of people were abandoning the farming lifestyle and rushing into urbanized areas with the promise of paid labor. Improvement of daily life was on its way to becoming what the “idea” of America promised. And the looming thought of a Civil War, challenging slavery, which was sadly a dominant factor of the time. Gothic literatures representations of slavery, like Simon Legree's garret in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, show a social depression that has not been silenced. Although the staged haunting of Legree's plantation predates the Civil War, gothic images of slavery constantly recur in American literature today and