Rebekka Westermeyer
ENG Comp 1
McGough
3/12/2015
The Gothic Novel
In the late eighteenth, early nineteenth century, gothic fiction arose as a new genre in the literary field. Functioning as cult literature gothic literature compels readers to think, and really consider the immense emotion writers could stimulate. Often overly dramatic with its supernatural, horrific, and suspenseful material, this melancholy form of literature prompted the use of darkness and mystery in order to spawn feelings of obscurity, secrecy, and trepidation. Gothic literature operates as a pulp genre that was often seen as an intense type of romance with its stylized, non-realistic, idealized or emblematic tales presented in the form of an adventure through the use of a discovery quest. Yet its evocative powers of horror and terror explore the gratification and titillations of shockingly perverse. Before being applied to the context of a literary form the term gothic originally referred to an ancient Germanic tribe that derived from what is now known as southern Sweden, before migrating to the shores of the Baltic Sea known as the Goths. This tribe eventually split into two factions that would be known as the Visigoths or West Goths and the Ostrogoths or East Goths. Centuries would pass before the term gothic would once again emerge this time with a different meaning. Sometime during the renaissance Greco-Roman culture was rediscovered by Europeans. In this rediscovery the term “gothic” now referred to certain types of architecture that was built in the middle ages. Strange however that the term would not be applied to these structures for any visible connection to the Goth tribes but because the style of these structures were a far cry from the classical style so admired during the time. Once again the term gothic would again fade from society before once again emerging with yet another meaning applied to it. Gothic would now be applied to a new kind of art in the form of the written word. This new genre known as gothic literature or “Gothicism” is a form of romantic literature or Romanticism that was quite popular during the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. Just as its original form Gothicism came about in part as a reaction to Neoclassicism. Yet by merging the rudiments of horror with that of romance this new literary genre deliberately sets out to plunge readers into a swirling vortex of spine chilling mysteries coupled with blood-curdling acts of villainy so vile and depraved, while littered with murder and supernatural elements so as to plunge readers into a physical and psychological ecstasy of terror. With its impulsively imaginative use of such terror novels of the gothic form are normally set within the eerily spacious gothic structures of castles, monasteries and mansions that seem to be outfitted with never ending passages, panels, and unsettling trapdoors, or the jarringly haunting, mysterious landscape of ruins.
The first literary work that brought about the gothic genre was Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story (1765). In its originality readers found the novel to be electrifyingly and thrillingly suspenseful. So with its flourishes of isolated settings and supernatural elements, Walpole's novel gained massive recognition, other novelists of the time promptly emulated Walpole’s design thus starting a new genre. However though Horace Walpole may have begun this exciting new genre it is his respected follower renowned novelist Anne Radcliffe whose works are considered superlative models of the genre. Radcliffe wrote some of the most electrifying novels of her time. Her descriptions of landscapes and long travel scenes are exceptional portrayals of her romantic style. She is able to excite and beguile readers through her masterful use of suspense, painting a strongly evocative atmosphere, within landscapes filled to the brim with intriguingly multifaceted, horrendous villains and courageous heroines.
Born July 9th 1764 as Ann Ward to working class parents, she was exposed to progressive liberal and politically conservative views and was part of the 1790s progressive, Enlightenment culture. She later married journalist William Radcliffe and live what is speculated to be an ideal marriage. Though considered a popular writer during her time very little is really known about Anne Radcliffe and her life. In May 1823, the Edinburgh Review published these words about Radcliffe:
The fair authoress kept herself almost as much incognito as the Author of Waverly; nothing was known of her but her name on the title page. She never appeared in public, nor mingled in private society, but kept herself apart, like the sweet bird that sings its solitary notes. (Miles, 21)
As she kept to herself many apocryphal accounts of Radcliffe’s life ran rampant through the rumor mill. Reports of her being mad and having to be committed to an asylum as a cause of her frightful imagination, she was being held captive in Paris on charges of being a spy, before retiring in the evenings she would consume raw meat in order to stimulate nightmares. Before her death on February 7th, 1823, she was falsely reported dead a number of times.
Ann Radcliffe is an established force behind the gothic novel. She displays an innovation to her writing through her use of suspense as the structure of a novel. Her use of reasoning and elucidation of outwardly bizarre supernatural occurrences within her works launched a new form of gothic novel and facilitated the cultural acceptance of the gothic novel.
By emphasized the action within her novels in such a way as to provoke trepidation, craft ambiguity, and incite astonishment. Yet the greatest literary element Radcliffe infused her work with was that of mystery. By establishing a sense of obscurity she is able to establish a sense of mystery within the world of her characters that is developed through the bizarre events taking place through the use of their unfamiliarity with their own dwelling. Radcliffe furthers the sense of mystery by implementing the sensation of anonymity of the transcendent through the use of vague noises, baffling activities, and dimly-perceived figures to validate the misery and disquiet of the characters. Radcliffe was also a pioneer of the proto-cinematic description technique known as word-painting. For instance in her novel The Mysteries of Udolpho, Radcliffe fashions a core perception that she shifts precisely so as to pan across the scene created by her narrative. The following passage demonstrates such an occurrence but done so in a way so as to ascertain the location and course of the narrative:
On the pleasant banks of the Garonne, in the province of Gascony, stood, in the year 1584, the chateau of Monsieur St. Aubert. From its windows were seen the pastoral landscapes of Guienne and Gascony, stretching along the river, gay with luxuriant woods and vines, and plantations of olives. To the south, the view was bounded by the majestic Pyrenées, whose summits, veiled in clouds, or exhibiting awful forms, seen, and lost again, as the partial vapours rolled along, were sometimes barren, and gleamed through the blue tinge of air, and sometimes frowned with forests of gloomy pine, that swept downwards to their base. These tremendous precipices were contrasted by the soft green of the pastures and woods that hung upon their skirts; among whose flocks, and herds, and simple cottage, the eye, after having scaled the cliffs above, delighted to repose. To the north, and to the east, the plains of Guienne and Languedoc were lost in the mist of distance; on the west, Gascony was bounded by the waters of Biscay. (Radcliffe, 1)
By playing with gothic stock conventions such as these she is able to increase the potential prospects of her audience, such as her use of unexplained heritage as is the case with her heroine Emily. Though Radcliffe unveils that Emily’s identity is secure at the end of her novel, Radcliffe raises several inquiries concerning Emily’s parentage. (N. Smith, 590) Radcliffe also seems to also willfully refer to her heroine as a heroine (N. Smith, 588) thus placing her idealism in an exceedingly authentic situation to test. For example Montoni threatens to “remove his protection” (Radcliffe, 385), after Emily rebels against him. He also mocks her when he states, “you speak like a heroine…we shall see whether you can suffer like one”. (Radcliffe, 381)
Dubbed a “female gothic” as critics have hailed her work as a “tradition of romance writing produced by women for women” (Miles, 106), due its distinguishing characterization of the elucidation of the supernatural which “evokes a spiritual world through unexplained ghostly visions and sounds, yet finally provides a natural origin for all the effects”. (Milbank, 157) However, Radcliffe does not absolutely discharge the use of supernatural elements within her work in favor of rationality as she frequently includes indications of a divine supernatural through the spiritual experiences of her characters. (Milbank, 158) Her characters Emily and Lady Blanche for example despite their recognition of the natural world as a work of a “deity,” they are disenchanted by their certainty in paranormal incidences such as ghosts; according to Milbank, this but Radcliffe’s way of exposing the “false supernatural,” in order to divulge the “true supernatural” from the characters connection to “non-human nature”. (58)
Despite writing under this new literary form known as gothic fiction there were some distinct differences between the gothic of Ann Radcliffe’s works and that of the genre one being her use of terror rather than horror. By evading positive horror scenes within her writing Radcliffe was able to privilege the imagined evils over genuine, corporeal coercion in concurrence with the premise of the sublime as “terror expands our mind through imagination, while horror contracts it through earthly fears”. (Norton, 198) This difference between terror and horror can clearly be seen when comparing the phantoms of Radcliffe’s narratives and the works of fellow gothic novelist Mathew Lewis. As Radcliffe utilizes the ghosts of her work to “expose the origin of imaginative and emotional excess,” while also employing “subtle and implied terror,” whereas Lewis “focuses on the explicit physicality of horror” (A. Smith, 147). An example of this can be seen within Radcliffe’s novel The Mysteries of Udolpho, as audiences are disturbed with the prospect of what could be lurking behind the black veil, and are thus alarmed by both Emily’s account of what she saw and her response to it. For the readers are merely conscious of that which lurks behind the veil causes the heroine to faint and is “no picture”. (Radcliffe, 249) Lewis on the other hand relies on physical descriptions that border the pornographic. (A. Smith, 147). Which not only displays the differences between the style of gothic literature between not just Radcliffe’s writing but it also highlights a clear difference between that of the female gothic form of terror and the male gothic of horror. (A. Smith, 147). This however is not the only distinction between Radcliffe’s displays of gothic fiction as unlike many of gothic counterpoints she chose to rely on the imagination of her readers. By holding back her use of gothic imagery so that she never really crossed truly ghoulish. This left her to place more import on that of the trepidation and sinister atmospheres of her works.
In spite of her amazing pictorial scene descriptions critics of Ann Radcliffe have made note of her use of smudging and replicating of characters and plots. As can be seen between her characters of Blanche and Emily, the nature of these two characters is nearly identical so, much so that it would seem as if the character of Blanche where a double of the heroine Emily. (Kilgour, 124) Yet in her book entitled The Rise of the Gothic Novel, Maggie Kilgour explains this replication as a possible assault on the notion of individuality as blight on society. (114) It is also argued that this method of repetition can be seen as narrative technique as circularity is an important aspect of plot of The Mysteries of Udolpho:
There are four excursions over the mountains in carriages… There are two shootings of Valancourt, two attempts to kidnap Emily, and two trips to the castle (along with corresponding departures). All of these repeated incidents ‘mirror or blur into one another,’ just as the characters do. We perceive them as both similar—as repetitions—and as different. The tension between similarity and difference is sufficient to produce the uncanny effect. (Albright, 58)
Whatever the reason for this strange yet unique technique Radcliffe’s audience is ensnared within the abnormally unclear world that like a dream is both bizarre and familiar, greatly enhances the mystifying and peculiar sense of her novel. Over time the term gothic though originally applied to the barbaric tribes of Germany, has now come to be in possession of several different meaning. The term is now applied to works of art in the form of paintings and sculptures, forms of architecture, a genre of music, even an entire subculture within today’s modern society. Yet the most profound form the term gothic can be applied to is that of the written word. Arising in the late eighteenth, early nineteenth century gothic literature has become a literary field to behold. With works that display overly dramatic, supernatural, horrific and suspenseful material this melancholy form of literature evokes a sense of darkness and mystery in order to spawn feelings of obscurity, secrecy, and trepidation within its audience. This new genre has redefined the forms of terror and horror, through such works as those presented by renowned novelist Ann Radcliffe. Whose works tackle the sensibility and tangibility of what one perceives, within the darkness found in the human mind, while taking readers on an unparalleled journey that both frightens and fascinates.

Work Cited

Albright, Richard S. “No Time Like the Present: The Mysteries of Udolpho.” Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies 5.1 (2005): 49-75. Project MUSE.

Kilgour, Maggie. The Rise of the Gothic Novel. London: Routledge, 1995

Milbank, Alison. “Gothic Femininities.” The Routledge Companion to Gothic. Ed. Catherine Spooner and Emma McEvoy. London: Routledge, 2007. 155-63.

Miles, Robert. Ann Radcliffe: The Great Enchantress. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1995. Print.
Norton, Rictor. Mistress of Udolpho: The Life of Ann Radcliffe. London: Leicester UP, 1999. Print

Radcliffe, Ann. The Mysteries of Udolpho. London: Dent, 1959. Print.
Smith, Andrew. “Hauntings.” The Routledge Companion to Gothic. Ed. Catherine Spooner and Emma McEvoy. London: Routledge, 2007.

Smith, Nelson C. “Sense, Sensibility and Ann Radcliffe.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 13.4 Nineteenth Century (Autumn, 1973). JSTOR..