Gothic Elements

1
Gothic Elements
2
Gothic Origins

• The scary stories that we enjoy today had their
  first flowering in English literature in the
  beginning of the l9th century.

3
Gothic Origins

• At that time, such scary stories and novels were
  termed Gothic to refer

back to the Middle Ages, a time seen as barbaric
(the original meaning of gothic), unlike the
enlightened time of the present.
4
Gothic Elements

• The following elements were likely to be found
  in the l9th century.

You can expect to find this sort of thing in most
of Edgar Allen Poes work, including his
detective stories.
5
Supernatural elements
6
Spooky effects and haunting specters
7
Demonic powers
8
Oppressive atmosphere of doom
9
Setting

• Wild and desolate landscapes

10
Setting

• Ruined abbeys
• Feudal halls
• Medieval castles with dungeons
• graveyards

11
Setting

• Secret passages
• Winding staircases
• Sliding panels
• Torture chambers

12
Underground rooms and tombs
13
A Catholic or feudal society
14
Characters

• Priests
• Monks

15
A heroine with a trembling sensitivity and her
impetuous lover
16
Heroines and heroes in incredible danger
17

• Wicked tyrants
• Evil witches
• Tyrannical older men

18
Subjects

• Sleep
• Dream and death-like states

19
Live burial
20
Doubles/twins
21

• Discovery of obscure family ties
• Incest

22
Unnatural silences unspeakable ideas and events
23
Guilt and shame and the effects of them
24
Secret and undecipherable writings
25

• Cats
• Bats
• Wolves

26
Murder
27
Blood
28
Moonlight
29
Vampires