Gothic literature

In order to provoke Horror and Terror, and sustainably mark the reader, the Gothic writer has developed literary features that allow them to do so. One of these features concerns the use of narrative settings and its effects on the reader. Writers such as Mary Shelley, or Angela Carter, claim that the gothic is about “the curdling of the blood of the reader” and creating unease”. It can also be stated that the gothic is an assault to the senses.

In front of such statements, the obvious question may be : How does the use of narrative setting and its effects in gothic novels provoke on the reader a feeling of curdling of the blood and assault to the senses?

First, the two expressions must be defined in order to understand what’s to be discussed. The curdling of the blood sends back to the idea of Horror and Terror, the first one being a sudden fright and loathing of something so strong that all rationality is lost, and the latter being the construction of a constant fear caused by the possibility of danger and presence of monstrosity.

Narrative setting, on its own, concerns all the elements in a narration that are to accompany the plot and events. This includes the description of the weather, of the landscape and surroundings, of the presence or absence of characters. In order to set a scene, the writer uses tools such as the five senses and long descriptions.

The setting of the plot in Gothic novels, can be used as an ustensile in order to create a sense of suffocation on the reader, a fear of the unknown from the surroundings that is so strong, that it feels as if one is lacking air or any way to escape, or in other words, an assault to the senses.

This is strongly felt in passages of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, such as in chapter eight, as soon as the protagonist leaves Sybil Vane in a state of despair, thus committing his first “sin”. Dorian enters a world of the unknown, and Wilde plays with settings to show how unwelcoming it is :

“Where he went to, he hardly knew. He remembered wandering through dimly-lit streets with gaunt blackshadowed archways and evil-looking houses. Women with hoarse voices and harsh laughter had called after him. Drunkards had reeled by cursing, and chattering to themselves like monstrous apes. He had seen grotesque children huddled upon door-steps, and had heard shrieks and oaths from gloomy courts. “

In this description, the five senses are highly stimulated in a harsh way. The empilement of elements in the setting, moreover, creates a feeling of overwhelming.

Oscar Wilde first plays with the lightning of the setting, plunging the reader into darkness in order to emphasize the wanted effect of fear of the unknown, invisibleness of the surroundings and the possibility of the presence of characters in those surroundings, through the depiction of the streets as “dimly lit”, the archways as “blackshadowed” and the courts as “gloomy”.

Furthermore, the stimulation of hearing is heavily present as can be heard  “women with hoarse voices”[...]“harsh laughter”, “drunkards [...] cursing [...] chattering to themselves like monstrous apes” , “shrieks and oaths”. It can be remarked that a certain violence accompanies the described sounds, which characterizes them as oppressing ones on the reader, and the accumulation of these, gives a feeling of them coming from all parts, as though Dorian Gray, and by extension, the reader, were circled by the sources of these sounds.

Through these simultaneous stimulations, which constitute a synesthesia of the senses, the audience is cast in an unwelcoming and overwhelming environment, potentially dangerous. In fact, the elements discussed earlier, as well as many others, are negatively connoted with epithets such as “grotesque”, “gaunt”, and “evil looking” and give a sense of insecurity.

Once again, always in the Picture of Dorian Gray, this feeling of being overwhelmed, almost oppressed by the environment, is found later on in chapter 16, where as Dorian Gray vouches in the East London’s streets, the surroundings are eerily described, creating a sense of assault and fear. In fact, in “The moon hung low in the sky like a yellow skull. From time to time a huge misshapen cloud stretched a long arm across and hid it. The gas-lamps grew fewer, and the streets more narrow and gloomy. [...] The sidewindows of the hansom were clogged with a grey-flannel mist.”, the scene is set in the dark once again^[a] with the “moon hanging low”, the cloud stretching an arm to hide the only source of light, and the scarcity of gas lamps, thus introducing the reader in a world of mystery and danger caused by the unknown things that may be hidden in those “gloomy” streets. The fear of the unknown is thus created by setting, which in turn provokes a sense of suspense very much present, and finally, terrifies the reader as it reaches its climax. Moreover, the reader feels oppressed, entering a world of imprisonment because of the description. A feeling of suffocation is caused by proportions and position, with the moon hanging low, “the streets more narrow and gloomy”, and later on “the way [seeming] interminable, and the streets like the black web of some sprawling spider”. The setting here creates a lack of possibilities to escape from the scene, as the reader is imprisoned both from the top by the moon, and by all directions because of the streets, being compared to a web. By consequence, panic, stress and fear are caused to be felt by the reader.

This characteristic is moreover found in Angela Carter’s Erl King (p140) where the wood is compared to an inescapable Chinese boxe and described so : “The woods enclose. You step between the first trees and then you are no longer in the open air; the wood swallows you up. There is no way through the wood any more” it is also to be remarked how the wood is set with human traits through the word “swallows”, so the setting of an environment, mixed with human like traits, and thus intentions, may be discussed to be one aspect of the use of setting to add a feeling of overwhelming, of omnipresence of the evil, of Horror and fright caused by inanimate things that are normally conceived as ordinary.

The writer may as well play with the senses, stimulating some at times, others at other times to focus and enhance some elements of the setting. This participates to stimulate curiosity and wonder as the reader wills to know what’s surrounding the character of the plot.

In chapter thirteen of Wilde’s novel, we are cast in darkness again as it is night. Following the cold murder of Basil Hallward, the sense of hearing is emphasized through descriptions of the sounds and of the silence as darkness makes the sense of sight unavailable. Whereas a basic novel would have described the dead body of the victim, or the feelings of the murderer, the gothic writer decides to show what could be perceived by the murderer.

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