Romantic Gothic Literature

The Rise of the Romantic Gothic

Haunted castles. Runaway brides. Mad women in the attic. Monsters. Nightmares blurred with reality. Isolation from the real world. These are the first ideas that pop into someone’s head when they read the term ‘Gothic.’ But what is Gothic Fiction? How does it tie into the Romantic Age of literature? Why were so many authors interested in this genre at the time of the Romantic period? These are all questions that will be answered in this article. The Gothic genre is a vast and beautiful subject, bursting with imagination so dark and gritty, that you cannot help but want to stay with it, and it certainly stays with you. So, how to describe this genre? Horace Walpole’s publication The Castle of Otranto, in 1764 initiated the category of the Gothic, setting up an entire new discourse, which influenced many authors and poets, and became a very successful type of writing. Gothic fiction characterises the elements of fear and horror, often using dark, isolated, unrealistic settings. Characters are placed in these settings, usually experiencing loneliness, a solitude from society, out of touch with reality, grief-stricken, and possibly a dark, brooding love interest (often tragic, of course). Romanticism is a movement in literature of the 18th and 19th century, involving inspiration, nature, and was heavily concerned with expressing an individual’s deep emotions and feelings. These were represented in many ways, such as unrealistic characters and plots. This links nicely with the supernatural and sublime in the Gothic genre, as the excel of beauty and excellence is mirrored in those manifestations of the paranormal, elevating the representation of high imagination or emotions. However, some critics argue that the Gothic and the Romantic Age do not pair well:

“There is a persistent suspicion that Gothicism is a poor and probably illegitimate relation of Romanticism, and a consequent tendency to treat it that way. There are those, indeed, who would like to deny the relationship altogether." (Robert Hume, “Gothic Versus Romantic,” p.282)

This makes an interesting argument, as Romantic and Gothic literature usually overline, but can also be compared against one another. Is Gothicism just a calamitous lens to view Romanticism? Professor Bridget M. Marshall seems to think so, and touches on the ‘key issue’ of the sublime, and how it is ‘long predating the Gothic,’ although it was a notion that grew alongside the rising genre of the Gothic in literature.

Exploring Romantic Gothic Literature

As mentioned previously, Horace Walpole established this genre with The Castle of Otranto. His story was filled with tragic love, terrifying settings, forbidden love, death, and ancient prophecies. Aren’t you just itching to open these pages? Gothic fiction utilises dark subjects such as these, and this genre possibly became so popular due to the state of the political, economic and social world. It was a time of inequality, poverty, disease and riots in places like France. Perhaps readers and writers turned to such a bleak, distorted, terror-filled style of writing to gain some control over these events in their own way, manifest their feelings of fear, or escape to a world full of impossible, but fascinating thoughts. Some Gothic heroines tend to use the idea of the supernatural to cope with grief and the incredibly misogynistic world they lived in, so we could view these authors and poets as doing something similar. Who doesn’t love using reading to escape? Look at the state of our world now. I’d prefer vampires and ghouls.

Key Examples of The Genre

In this section, I will introduce some prominent features of the Romantic Gothic, including repeating figures, hidden meanings, motifs and what they represent. During the rise of the Gothic, there were influences onto author’s writing, meaning some texts include similar events and symbols. Here are some examples from some extraordinary Gothic works:

Ann Radcliffe- The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794)

Emily’s emotions are depicted through her ever-changing view of nature, one melancholic day causes ‘the features of nature’ to become ‘colourless and without form.’ (pg.84) Usually, the symbol of the sublime in Gothic Romance, the distressed heroine’s state of mind is mirrored through her inability to truly see its beauty. On the other hand, Radcliffe’s text is known for being full of extensive detail to the beauty of nature, a key Romantic feature. Emily’s personality and psyche flowers in Radcliffe’s incredible descriptions, the ‘wild wood-walks, that skirted the mountain’s stupendous recesses, where the silence and grandeur of solitude impressed a sacred awe upon her heart,’ the character of Emily is revealed whilst also providing us with a perfect example of the female Gothic trope- isolation, a deep connection to nature, and wildness (much like the moors of Emily Bronte’s worlds). Here is another example of Radcliffe encapsulating the Gothic Romance incandescently:

‘The cottage-lights now seen, and now lost- were circumstances that awakened her mind into effort and led to enthusiasm and poetry.’ (p.6)

Mary Shelley- Frankenstein (1818)

Frankenstein and his monster. A classic. He is mirrored with his Creature, who is the embodiment of Frankenstein’s inner self, his fears and morality manifested into a ‘monster,’ of pure horror. It is interesting to learn that in Gothic fiction, the figure of the monster is usually a symbolic manifestation, another reason as to why this genre rose, and remains popular to this day. It’s a fascinating one, don’t you think? The moon is a prominent figure in gothic fiction, illuminating heroines to their destined path, or in Shelley’s text, ‘the broad disk of the moon arose and shone full upon his ghastly and distorted shape,’ (p.220). The feminine figure is used to reveal the ghastly Creature which Frankenstein crafted with his bare hands, the shame and fear casted out from the shadows. The paranormal from the Gothic works hand in hand to frame the emotions from the Romantic.

Charlotte Bronte – Jane Eyre (1847)

Bronte perfectly encapsulates the female gothic, she makes use of the sublime, supernatural, fairy tales and interesting feminist theories (for the period). When first published, husbands did not like seeing their wives put Jane Eyre on their shelves, due to the ideas of independence and influential women with their own minds, Bronte challenged hegemonic and patriarchist values, which those misogynistic men did not approve of. A perfect example of challenging views is the renowned meeting of Rochester and Jane, where the hero and damsel in distress dynamic is reversed, setting in motion their perfectly unconventional, law-breaking relationship: ‘Man and horse were down.’ Rochester leans on Jane for support, making her the fairy-tale knight in shining armour. There is also the ‘madwoman in the attic,’ Bronte comments on the imprisonment of women to their wives due to the patriarchal culture, using the trope of the mysterious third floor to reveal her. Bertha Mason is the embodiment of the fury caused by the oppression and silencing of women, whereas Jane is the pure, but not entirely silenced woman. Jane is likened to fairy creatures, whereas Bertha is dehumanised with repetitive comparisons of animals such as a tiger and a beast (interestingly, Jane is also named a ‘mad cat’ by her abusive cousin so there are comparisons as well as differences in their suffering).