1. Introduction
The term “Gothic” describes, according to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, “a style of literature popular in the 18th century and 19thcenturies, which describes romantic adventure in mysterious and frightening setting.” “Gothic” has come to mean to quite a lot of things by this day and age. It could mean a particular style of art, be in the form of novels, painting, or architecture; It could mean “medieval” or “uncouth”; it could even refer to a certain type of music and its fans. What it originally meant, of course, is “of, relating to or resembling the Goths, their civilization, or their language” (“gothic”)
The Origin of Gothic
“Gothic” originally came from the Goths, an early Germanic tribe, who invaded and occupied almost all Roman between 3 and 5 AD. The Romans scornfully regarded them as barbaric and uncultured, much like the Vandals. Thus, “Gothic” won the meaning- barbaric, vulgar, and uncultured. Later, the usage gradually became extensive. During the period of Renaissance, Italy’s humanists firstly used the word “Gothic”. They called the things from the north of the Alps “Gothic”. People also called those upright buildings with slender columns, sharp Joaquin, and stained glasses and mosaics “Gothic Architecture”. Those buildings, including church construction or construction-related style, can create a formidable poet born and a sense of awe of mystery. The similar styles of sculptures, paintings, including architecture art also are known as “Gothic Art”. Then, “Gothic” was defined as “rudeness, barbaric, obsoleteness, ugliness”.
Gothic Novel
The Gothic novel is a well-known literature genre, in which the prominent features are mystery, doom, decay, old buildings with ghosts, madness, and hereditary curses and so on. The English Gothic novel began with Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1765), which was enormously popular and quickly imitated by other novelists and soon became a recognizable genre. To most modern readers, however, are insipid and flat; the action moves at a fast clip with no emphasis or suspense, despite the supernatural manifestations and a young maiden’s flight through dark vaults. But contemporary readers found the novel electrifyingly original and thrillingly suspenseful, with its remote setting, its use of the supernatural, and its medieval trappings, all of which have been so frequently imitated and so poorly imitated that they have become stereotypes. The genre takes its name from Otranto’s medieval or Gothic setting; early Gothic novelists tended to set their novels in remote times like the Middle Ages and in remote places like Italy(Matthew Lewis’s The Monk, 1796) or the Middle East(William Beckford’s Vathek, 1786).
What makes a work Gothic is a combination of at least some of these elements:
a castle, ruined or intact, haunted or not (the castle plays such a key role that it has been called the main character of the Gothic novel)
ruined buildings which are sinister or which arouse a pleasing melancholy
dungeons, underground passages, crypts, and catacombs which, in modern houses, become spooky basements or attics
labyrinths, dark corridors, and winding stairs
shadows, a beam of moonlight in the blackness, a flickering candle, or the only source of light failing (a candle blown out or, today, an electric failure)
extremely landscapes, like rugged mountains, thick forests, or icy wastes, and extreme weather
omens and ancestral curses
magic, supernatural manifestations, or the suggestion of the supernatural
a passion-driven, willful villain-hero or villain
a curious heroine with a tendency to faint and a need to be rescued- frequently
a hero whose true identity is revealed by the end of the novel
horrifying (or terrifying) events or the threat of such happenings
The Gothic creates feelings of gloom, mystery, and suspense and tends to the dramatic and the sensational, like incest, diabolism, necrophili
