Notion LELE Gothic

LELE :

The word « Gothic » first reffered to the architecture of the Middle Ages, and in the 18th century, it was associated to a new genre in litterature, where dark stories took place in gloomy castles.It is the case of the firts novle of the genre , The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. Gothic fiction, wich developed in the 19th century, was also called Dark Romanticism,featuring graveyards, vampires,and supernatural events.

We are therefore dealing here with the theme of imaginary worlds, worlds that exist only in our minds.

We wills ee how the idea of transgression and blurred boundaries are supposed to arouse in the reader the main feeling associated with the Gothic : fear .

I will first focus on the characters, then on the uncanny atmosphere that is elaborated from the landscape and the weather.

I-The characters

The extract from Frankenstein takes places at the moment when the scientist's creature becomes alive.This is a first form of transgression : Doctor Frankenstein wanted to take God's part by giving life to another creature, wich is God's part by giving life to another creature, wich is God's prerogative.The result is a failure-a hideous monster.

In The Oval Portrait, the transgression also occurs when the boundaries between life and death are blurred.Here the portrait of the young woman becomes alive just as she as a sitter dies.Art here has made this transgression possible.

We find another idea about transgression in It with the character of the clown who is supposed to be funny and reassuring and turns here into a scary monster.

II-The uncanny atmosphere

The landscape and the weather contribute to the gloomy and frightening atmosphere of Gothic fiction.

In Frankenstein, there is a storm and it is as we can read « dreary night in november », a dark, gloomy period at the end of the cycle of the year, and of the day.

In the Oval portrait, the geography is confusing, referring both to Italy and to France.Again, it takes place at night.The short story begins with a literal transgression, since the protagonist enters the castle uninvited.

In It , the scene is modernised through the use of a stormdrain but the Gothic elements are still present with «  whirlpool » or « darkness »

The idea of transgression is a key feature of the Gothic in these three texts,as it is what makes the reader scared : We know the rules are going to be broken.This is something we find in many recent films or books , as we could see Stephen King 's it . Fear is still a very popular feeling to arouse !

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