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extreme weather
● omens and ancestral curses
● magic, supernatural manifestations, or the suggestion of the supernatural
● a passion-driven, willful villain-hero or villain
● a curious heroine with a tendency to faint and a need to be rescued- frequently
● a hero whose true identity is revealed by the end of the novel
● horrifying (or terrifying) events or the threat of such happenings
The Gothic creates feelings of gloom, mystery, and suspense and tends to the dramatic and the sensational, like incest, diabolism, necrophilia, and nameless terrors. It crosses boundaries, daylight and the dark side, life and death, consciousness and unconsciousness. Sometimes covertly, sometimes explicitly, it presents transgression, taboos, and fears-fears of violation, of imprisonment, of social chaos, and of emotional collapse. Most of us immediately recognize the Gothic (even if we don’t know the name) when we encounter it in novels, poetry, plays, movies, and TV series. For some of us, including me safely experiencing dread or horror is thrilling and enjoyable.
Elements of the Gothic have made their way into mainstream writing. They are found in Sir Walter Scott’s novels, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and in Romantic poetry like Samuel Coleridge’s “Chistabel”, Lord Byron’s “The Giaour”, and John Keats’s “The Eve of St.Angnes”. A tendency to the macabre and bizarre which appears like William Faulkner, Truman Capote, and Flannery O’Connor has been called Southern Gothic.
2. Emily Bronte and Gothic Novel
Mentioning Emily Bronte (1818-1848), a, famous British novelist, no one can ignore her masterpiece- Wuthering Heights overflowing with enthusiasm and extremely frightening. What, however, contributes to the author’s success of the work? There are two main reasons.
One is the environmental impact on the author’s growth. Emily Bronte was born in a pastor’s family, her mother died when she was three year’s old. Because of lack of mother’s love and her father’s indifference, in the desolate Yorkshire, she lived a lonely life, which made her born silence and unsociable-ness. And her character was full of contradictions, naturally stubborn ans willful, and gloomy, indignant and intolerant. She, however, had a strong and creative brain filled with eccentric but depressed mighty. Emily was endowed with the unique imagination which a novelist must have. And both her character and her mind were with Gothic color.
Another is the impact of the author’s contemporary academic schools. Emily Bronte had an unhappy childhood during which time she had senses of inferiority, timidness, introversion, and precocity. Thus, books became her best friends. She read not only all kinds of classic literature, but also the magazines of Braidwood and Fraser. And stories in those magazines were full of fantastic, nervous, horrible and moving plot. “She grows with the accompaniment of Mary.Shelly and Hoffman” (Gerin 1971: 215). We can see clearly in Wuthering Heights that Emily was strongly influenced by Gothic tradition.
3. Gothic Depiction Which Plays a Key Role in Wuthering Heights
The permanent charm of literature usually is the most unique and the most inconceivable works and that those can make people feel greatly mysterious, instead of those of the most extensive living space and the most profound scale. Because of Gothic depiction, Wuthering Heights is what a Gothic novel can be. And