1. Of or relating to a late 18th-and early 19th-century style of fiction characterized by the use od medieval setting, a murky atmosphere of horror and gloom, and macabre, mysterious, and violent incidents.
2. Of or relating to a literary style or an example of such style characterized by grotesque, macabre, of fantastic incidents or by an atmosphere or irrational violence, desolation, and decay. In the mid-20th century, the term Southern Gotic was used to describe such a style as it was adapted by several writers of the American South to portray their vision of the South at that time. The word is sometimes capitalized.
Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature
Gothic Novel has maintained its appeal during a few centuries. Difficult as it always is to explain the main characteristics of a genre, we will try to answer why gothic novel has been so interesting as a genre since Horace Walpole published his book "The Castle of Otranto" in 1764, and established gotic fiction as a genre.
Gothic novels were higly fashionable during the first three decades after the 1790 in the United Kingdom. During this period, the most famous author was A. Radcliffe with his works "The Romance of the Forest" and "The Mysteries of Udolpho", along with M.G. Lewis and his novel "The Monk" (1796). This novel was popularized mainly because of an incestuous rape and diabolism described in the book.
The term "Gothic" means "medieval" in literature context. In the 18th century it was used to describe the centuries before the englightened Protestant era (from the 1689).
It is commonly said that Daphne du Maurier first set the structure for the modern Gothic novel with "Rebbeca". When analysed, the story of Rebbeca borrows the plot from fairytales, with its heroine in a huge and hostile castle, a villain who turns into a prince at the end of the story, and of course, a governess who is a main villain together with Rebbeca. Rebbeca stans for the strangehold that the past has upon the present. Being a mysterious and a beautiful woman who died in doubtful circumstances, she comes back from the past as an echo and asphyxiates the prince, impedes him to be happy in the present. Isn't it delightful? Isn't this something many of us would prefer reading in a cold winter evening next to the fire and a mug of hot coffee? True, maybe not all of us, but a huge mayority is widely attracted to dark, the unknown and inexplicable. It is a nature of a human.
In the gothic context, the surrounding and the setting is essential. Many cliches can be found in this genre; family secrets, women in black gowns, ghosts, black cats and secret chambers are very common in this type of novels. For this, during a long time, this genre was mocked and perceived as cheap literature. Clearly, this might be discussed once you bear in mind that Bleak House, The Turn of the Screw, Great Expectations, Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein all belong to gothic novel.
Varma, Summers and Tompkins divided the genre into three types:
1. the historical Gothic
2. the terror Gothic
3. the horror Gothic
Regardless the type, all gothic novels try to produce a certain response in a reader. Fear and shivers are much appreciated in Gothic, even though fear is one of the falsest emotions in literature and it involves an ocean of badly written novels. There is a concern among the majority of gothic authors about giving a more realistic twist to a story which sometimes makes the story itself taste false. A prototype of an author who has avoided making this mistake would be Henry James with his novel "The Turn of The Screw". No explanation, no realistic twist, no realistic narration. The truth lies somewhere beyond or so it should be. The same happened with Maurier´s Rebbeca when she gave us that splendid ending of a story that was just starting to be slightly obsessed by a more realistic explanation of the plot. It is simply that in all genres which deal with mystery, there should be some extra space for the inexplicable.
In relation to American Gothic writing, it is impossible not to mention Poe's hysterical style in his short stories which combine gothic elements with terror, frequently bringing up the topic of paranormal activities.
During the period of the late Victorian Gothic tradition, W. Collins's "The Woman in White", Le Fanu's "Uncle Silas" and E. Gaskell's novels and short stories can be caracterized as real Gothic novels. Indeed, Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Stoker's "Drakula" and Conan Doyle's "The Hound of the Baskervilles" were all written in the period between 1886 and 1902, which could be decribed as a revival period of the Gothic Novel.
Bleak House
Charles Dickens's Bleak House is simply a masterpiece that has to be mentioned in an article about Gothic Novel. Bleak House is clearly less gothic in a sense of a setting. Nevertheless, the setting is not the principal characteristic of the gothic novel, even though it is a dominant one. Bleak House, in a highly masterful and supreme manner, unites all elements and conventions of the Gothic fiction into one novel. In its core lies the everlasting Dickens´s obsession of a great modern city, which then again is a refreshment after all those novels that develope the plot in a rural setting. In his novels, the characters and the settings are usually entwined and inseparable. Therefore, in a way, the city of London becomes what an old, gloomy castle was in Gothic Novel before Dickens. The city itself and all its houses emerge as one and create an exceptionally different setting for a gothic fiction.
The illustration of London mourning "for the death of the sun", where you light a candle in the middle of the day, sets us in a dense gothic surrounding, much varied and diverse that any castle. His skillfulness is remarkable when introducing the aspects of social criticism into a clearly gothic novel and gives a touch of a higher purpose to a gothic story.
In Bleak House one meets many deaths, horrible and bizzare deaths and madness among characters. London is as isolated as any gothic rural castle, full of dark creatures and lost souls.
Gothic Repetitive Nature
If there is a characteristical feature of the Gothic Fiction, then its repetitive, circular narration would surely be one of the most distinguished marks. Gothic novels are told through a series of eerie flashbacks from the past. The past is a thick tissue, so thick that the present sometimes has little importance in a story. The past becomes an intruder that impedes the progress of protagonist's everyday reality. Through past we contemplate and we beat a path for a foggy mystery or a terror which will prevail in the present. The message is that traumas must be relived and, finally, resolved. Traumas from the past make it impossible for the character to move on, they have to resolve and enlighted the shadow that follows them. For this, the Gothic Fiction has won its fame for being unvarying as a genre.
On the other hand, repetition in fairy tales gives the opportunity to the character to defy his/her own destiny. Nevertheless, in folk stories, the subject moves forward through time whilst in Gotic this is hardly possible.
Repetition has become a necessity in Gothic Novel and so it has stayed until the 20th century. In any case, how can one be haunted if not in a repetitive manner? The only difference is that Gothic repetitive forms lead us to a usually darker future and the majority of heroes and heroines feel their own downfall.
In Gothic there is no future.
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