What is Gothic Horror

Gothic often reflects the return of the repressed. This causes psychic thoughts of supernatural forces from the subconscious mind to get into the conscious ego. Gothic is known for having a mysterious, intense effect on readers. Ian Watt argues that placing the audience in a thrilling suspense situation is exactly what horror should make the readers feel. Gothic Horror has many genres, it is often described as being supernatural, horror and sinister.

Gothic horror fiction novels often want to see the relation between the modern world and the past, being uncanny. It is referred to as being sublime. This is means that it is harmonious, beautiful and best enjoyed at a distance. However, some critics say that it is none of that and is far from the fact of being beautiful. It is often terrifying and overwhelming. Gothic is the move to understanding the world.

There are two types of Gothic, one that is natural and the other that is supernatural. The natural gothic seems believable and to some extent a little genuine as well. On the other hand the supernatural gothic expects us to believe it as it is. No questions asked. Examples of supernatural gothic horror is Dracula as vampires are known to be supernatural creatures. Gothic writings increased in the 1790's and continued as a new world from then. Gothic often has hero-villains as the villain is seen as the hero of the novels. Many critics state that gothic novels were the only unlicensed gratification of an imagination that had no morals which was a harmful force.

Gothic can also be seen in Gothic architecture where specific forms, shapes and structures were used on the buildings. During that era landscapes and nature was also seen as sublime and it was widely used in the gothic horror. Nature was considered to be very powerful at that time. It was captured in art and paintings and this was a way of danger without risk. This was very common for he people of the time to see landscapes all over.

Then came the French Revolution, the horror of all the changes and events taking place terrified people as this involved many emotions of horror and terror. Around this time the novel, The Monk was published. It was known to be the most shocking story of the time as the character's soul was sold to the devil. This was most definitely a new from of gothic horror as this was never read of before.

Along with this came the Industrial Revolution where this changed Britain on a large scale by transforming landscapes into Victorian cities, factories and manufacturing cities. This phase introduced scientific technologies that no one had ever seen before. For example, electricity was becoming a new fear and terror as no one had seen it before, no one knew where it came from or even how to use it, therefore a response to this change was Frankenstein. This was the time this book was published keeping in mind the transformation of landscape.

This change was huge and would have been frightening for the people. This is because they would have been used to seeing all nature, fog and now all they see is factories and dark smoke. They witnessed the biggest change in history and would have a million emotions going through them. It seems like the events happening around us determine our desire to feel scared. The horror industry is still doing wonders today and keeps going on and surprises us each time.

Ref:
Kilgour M, 1995. The Rise Of The Gothic Novel. Routledge, London