With Valentine’s Day around the corner, we’ve all got a bit of romance on the mind. And what could be more romantic than an entire genre that was originally called “Gothic Romance”? Of course, the term “romance” has meant different things over the course of the genre’s history, and each iteration of the Gothic utilizes romantic elements in different ways. Let’s take a brief look at the role romance has played in Gothic fiction.
The earliest Gothic novels were called “Romances” in a literary sense—referring to the genre of Chivalric Romance popular among aristocratic circles in the High Medieval period, which featured the adventures of a heroic knight-errant on various quests. The similarity in name to the modern romance genre makes sense, since romantic love often played a significant role in these stories—usually in the form of the hero rescuing a damsel in distress or wooing a beautiful maiden. Early Gothic works mimicked these medieval elements. The very first Gothic novel, Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764), features a young man named Theodore who turns out to be the long-lost heir to Otranto’s throne. He teams up with the story’s heroines in their struggle against the villain Manfred. After his first sweeping romance with Manfred’s daughter ends in tragedy, Theodore marries the main heroine Isabella in a fairy-tale ending. Following in this tradition, another prominent Gothic author became particularly known for the romantic tendencies and happy endings in her stories: Ann Radcliffe. In fact, two of her novels—A Sicilian Romance (1790) and Romance of the Forest (1791)—emphasize these elements by including the word “romance” in their titles. In these tales, the seemingly supernatural elements that lend the story its Gothic atmosphere are ultimately proven to have a rational explanation and the hero and heroine triumph together over the Gothic villain.
Matthew Lewis’s The Monk (1796), however, represents a backlash against the romantic tendencies of early Gothic literature. In this shocking and salacious tale, romantic love is replaced with lust, seduction, and coercion. Instead of a happily-ever-after, the heroines are subject to violence and death. While a side plot of the novel featuring young lovers Agnes and Raymond can almost be considered a romance, albeit a rather tragic and non-traditional one, the main plot of the story is anything but romantic: the monk Ambrosio is seduced by a sorceress, who then helps him use black magic to overpower, rape, and murder the virtuous young heroine Antonia. The closest this story gets to a happy ending is Ambrosio suffering a drawn-out death after learning that his soul is damned for eternity.
While early Gothic novels featured traditional romance plots that were presented as in conflict with the story’s Gothic elements—or else rejected romance altogether—the Brontë sisters created stories in which the romances themselves were Gothic. Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847) and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847) helped to pioneer the popular trope of the Byronic hero as male love interest—a mysterious and brooding character who is deeply flawed and at times more resembles an anti-hero or even a villain than the traditional pure-of-heart hero. The heroines must navigate the darkness within their romantic relationships rather than just the dangers that stand in the way of it.
Today, neo-Gothic stories tend to draw most heavily from the Brontë approach, while incorporating earlier elements and adding new twists. These stories are often romances in the modern sense, focusing on the development of a romantic relationship between the protagonists and ending with some sort of happily ever after. It’s almost a universal trait of the genre now to give male love interests a Byronic flair, though he may still team up with the heroine to fight against external Gothic elements, as well. One of my favorite examples of this is Strangely Beautiful by Leanna Renee Hieber, in which Miss Percy Parker falls for her brooding, black-clad professor and while navigating the complex power dynamics of their own relationship, they work together to defeat the lord of the underworld.
Romance has always been a central part of the Gothic genre, though exactly what that means has shifted over time. Regardless, I think a nice Gothic novel will always make an excellent Valentine’s Day gift for your loved ones. What are your thoughts on romance in the Gothic? Let me know in the comments!
Gothic Romances are the romance books I enjoy best. I like that the relationships aren’t perfect and often things don’t tie up perfectly at the end of the story. My favorites, besides the classics, are the mid-century (1940-70s) ones.