To what extent can both novels be described as gothic
To what extent can both novels be described as gothic? The gothic novel was introduced with the publication of The Castle of Otranto which was written in 1764 by Horace Walpole, although the term ‘gothic’ is actually derived from a Germanic tribe; The Goths, who were notorious for their part in the destruction of the Roman Empire and for the desecration of artefacts and symbols from this time. Walpole’s novel essentially contains all the elements that make up the gothic genre which include a castle setting, suspense, prophecies, omens, supernatural happenings, over-emotion, tyrannical males and the representation of events or emotions by physical occurrences, otherwise known as metonymy. This book also spawned the use of certain dramatic vocabulary that certain gothic novels can be identified by but as with every element mentioned, exclusion of this vocabulary does not necessarily imply that the novel is not gothic. ... Gothic novels also very often contain an element of romance, although this is often either grossly magnified, unrequited or contains extreme tension. ... Heathcliff and Cathy represent the key romance in Wuthering Heights and this certainly fills the criteria of a traditional gothic romance from beginning to end. ... Romance in Beloved takes on a different form, in fact calling the relationship between Sethe and her daughter a ‘romance’ is questionable but because of the intense emotions it arouses and the reason for Beloved’s appearance in the first place, this could be seen as a romance in a gothic sense. A romance because of Beloved’s wooing of Sethe and gothic, because of the way Beloved died, and her reappearance as a possibly supernatural being. ... It is this destructive nature of the love between Sethe and Beloved that turns it from a normal love or romance and turns it in to a gothic romance/love. ... “The Gothic is best distinguished from ‘horror’ by Gothic’s inbuilt morality. Whilst there are macabre and violent acts, no one dies unjustly in a true Gothic…” Hutchinson Encyclopaedia www. ... Whether or not Beloved shows all the characteristics of gothic morality is debatable. It would be hard to tell a tale such as this without some kind of morality because of the shocking incidents within but compared to Wuthering Heights, which seems to treat all the characters in a way that seems morally responsible and therefore shows a gothic sense of morality.