The Evolution of the Gothic Novel: From Origins to Modern Success

What are the origins of the Gothic novel?

The Gothic Novel was founded by Horace Walpole and it is a genre which took inspiration from the idea of Sublime, like the romantic poetry, where darkness, mysterious atmosphere and fear dominate
It is a reference to the medieval architecture style, the Goth:

- it had set in the Middle Ages, possibly in Catholic countries (Italy, Spain and France). In fact there was prejudices from protestant countries to the catholic ones because they were places where the Church and the Papacy committed incredible crimes like the Inquisition in the Years of Terror.

All this terrible actions were seen favourable for the medieval atmosphere.

To improve this sense of fear another typical places where the stories develop was:

-castles founded on -medieval

Analysis of Gothic Characters

The psychological analysis of characters is not important yet:

- the - the villain who generally persecutes the innocent girl

- the Gothic hero who has to save the girl. He’s generally handsome and dark, with brown hair. His origins are unknown, sometimes we happened to know that he’s aristocratic.

At the beginning the hero behaves as a villain and apparently his actions are bad, then there is the find out that he is the actual hero, but only in the end.

There are many characters that derives from the Gothic hero like the Byronic hero or Dorian Gray.

Influence of Prometheus and Duality

The first overreacher of mythology was Prometheus who stole the fire from the Gods to give it to men. Prometheus was a figure greatly loved by the romantics. (Percy Byshe Shelley wrote a poem intitoled “Prometheus Unbound”)

- two people, one the contrary of the other

-two people with -double personality of the same person

An example can be "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Stevenson.

Horace Walpole and the Castle of Otranto

The creator of this genre, Horace Walpole, wrote in 1764 a novel called the “Castle of Otranto” where you can find all the Gothic elements:

-the -the -set in the -the supernatural element (is a mysterious helmet that can fly and lands on a person killing him in the story, you don’t know where it comes from because is unexplained and this adds mystery to the story)

The first edition was called “The Castle of Otranto, A Story. Translated by William Marshal, Gent. From the Original Italian of Onuphrio Muralto, Canon of the Church of St. Nicholas at Otranto” and, as for Manzoni and his Promessi Sposi, it was built the stratagem with which the narration was found in a manuscript written by Onuphrio Muralto. It was found in the library of a Catholic family in the north of England and it was dated to the Crusade period.

Influence and Success of the Genre

When the novel was published a This genre was incredibly appreciated by women and the writers of science fiction, detective story and horror story derives from it.

A woman in particular, Ann Radcliffe , wrote this stories in this period adopting all the elements of the gothic novels but in the end she always explained the mystery and supernatural elements of the novel in a rational way founding the typical technique of the detective story.