I have written before about how detective fiction (and the mystery genre more broadly) emerged out of the Gothic. I even touched briefly on this particular book. But today I want to give a much more in-depth examination of the Gothic elements in Arthur Conan Doyle’s celebrated Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, first published in serialized form in 1901–2. Continue reading Gothic Tropes in The Hound of the Baskervilles
Tag: tropes
Gothic Tropes: Animate Portraits and Tapestries
The eyes of the portraits are watching you, seeming to follow you no matter where you go.… It’s such a classic scene in horror that we see this moment parodied in nearly every sitcom or children’s cartoon that has a haunted house episode. But where did this trope come from? To an extent, it’s inspired by an actual artistic phenomenon—an optical illusion called “ubiquitous gaze,” in which the artist’s use of perspective makes the subject appear to be looking at the viewer, no matter what angle the viewer approaches it from. In Gothic literature, however, a supernatural explanation is more likely. In fact, in several classic works, the portraits do quite a bit more than merely follow you with their eyes. Below are a few of my favorite examples of portraits and tapestries that come to life:
Continue reading Gothic Tropes: Animate Portraits and Tapestries
Gothic Tropes: Found Document Framing Device
Usually, when discussing tropes in Gothic literature, I talk about certain recurring themes and plot elements (such as madness, prophecies, or burning houses) or character types (like the Creepy Housekeeper, Corrupted Clergy, or First Wife). But the genre also makes use of particular structural or stylistic techniques. One of my favorite stylistic tropes in Gothic literature is the found document framing device.
Continue reading Gothic Tropes: Found Document Framing Device
Gothic Tropes: The Snake Lady
Monstrous women are found throughout Gothic literature. They represent fears and anxieties around female bodies and women’s role in society. But there is one type of monstrous woman we see over and over again, whose symbolism goes back centuries: the snake lady. Part woman and part snake, the snake lady might physically be half and half—like a land-bound mermaid—or she might transform between the two forms. Either way, she inspires both desire and fear—the paradox at the heart of the Gothic.
Gothic Tropes: Corrupted Clergy
“Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned”—But what if the one who is supposed to absolve you is even more guilty? This is an idea explored in quite some depth and from a variety of angles throughout Gothic literature. The Gothic has had a very complicated relationship with religion, and Christianity in particular, from its earliest days. Sincere religious belief is often a virtue of the best Gothic heroes and heroines. But some of the genre’s most debased villains are those who wear the cloth of the Church. Early Gothic novels were highly critical of the horrors committed in the name of religion during the Spanish Inquisition, and these works also reflect Protestant and Anglican fears around Catholicism. But even the most obvious anti-Catholic caricatures were often a bit more nuanced, as many authors relied on the acceptable depiction of evil Catholic clergy to more subtly critique the overreach of religious authorities within their own communities. And no sect is safe! You’ll find dangers in any denomination in later works of Gothic literature. Let’s take a look at how corrupted clergymen (and a few women!) have crept through these novels.
Gothic Tropes: Burning Houses
In Gothic literature, the setting of the story functions almost like a character itself. These castles, estates, and manor houses are given names, along with their own history, personality, and secrets. And as with living characters, sometimes the novel needs to end with their death. In one common trope, house fires are employed as a means of destroying the central setting at the end of the novel, often with symbolic significance. Continue reading Gothic Tropes: Burning Houses
Gothic Tropes: Prophecies and Curses
I often say that the core concept at the heart of the Gothic is the idea of the past haunting the present. One common way that this manifests in stories is through an old prophecy or curse. Prophecies serve to explain how the story’s current action is rooted in some event of the past. In many cases, the prophecy addresses a past wrong and how it might be revenged or righted. Generally, some injustice was committed by a member of a previous generation, and now the perpetrator’s descendants suffer the consequences, recalling the biblical notion that “the sins of the father shall be visited upon the children.” The prophecy can come from a divine source, or can be intentionally inflicted as a curse by a character associated with witchcraft. Prophecies may or may not be paired with other supernatural elements, such as literal hauntings by ghosts, revenants, or doppelgangers. Continue reading Gothic Tropes: Prophecies and Curses
Gothic Tropes: Madness
Madness is the monster that lurks inside our own minds. And in some ways, it is the most terrifying monster of all. Its intangibility means that it cannot be fought, and its irrational nature makes it nearly impossible to understand. Perhaps this is why insanity crops up as one of the most common themes in Gothic literature. I present it in this post as one trope, but madness is explored in many different ways in both the victims and the villains of Gothic literature, and the way it is presented has changed over time. Continue reading Gothic Tropes: Madness
Gothic Tropes: The Creepy Housekeeper
It goes without saying that one of the defining characteristics of Gothic fiction is a creepy setting—a castle falling into ruin, a haunted manor, or some mist-covered moors. But what’s a creepy setting without some creepy inhabitants? One of the most iconic of these, particularly in mansions and manors, is the creepy housekeeper. The creepy housekeeper is usually an older woman with personal ties to the manor itself or its previous inhabitants. Her primary role is generally to make the young female protagonist feel anxious and out of place as a newcomer and to provide either threats or warnings of danger.
Judith Anderson as Mrs. Danvers looms behind the nameless narrator in Hitchcock’s Rebecca.Is Sherlock Goth???—Detective Fiction and the Gothic
Is Sherlock goth???
I talk a lot about how modern horror fiction and paranormal romance have descended from the classic Gothic novel. Well, detective stories are yet another example of a popular genre that rose up from this immensely fecund area of fiction. Many of the earliest detective stories were written by authors of Gothic fiction, or otherwise incorporated Gothic elements. In fact, detective fiction is a relatively young genre, and its origin is generally accredited to one of the greatest gothy patriarchs of all—Edgar Allan Poe. Continue reading Is Sherlock Goth???—Detective Fiction and the Gothic