Tales of the Gothic: The Castle of Otranto

Unlike Robert Louis Stevenson or Oscar Wilde, Horace Walpole is not a name readily recognized. However, he goes down in history for his significant contribution to the literary field. His attempt to combined elements of ancient Romanticism and modern realism into a new writing style were very effective; his most famous novel – The Castle of Otranto – is considered the very first Gothic novel.

Written in 1764, The Castle of Otranto sets the standards for the Gothic fiction. Components of the novel would later define the genre, including:

Gothic architecture

Lines of succession

The decline and fall of an ancient bloodline

Doppelgangers

Psychological terror

Questions of incest

Fantastical horror and supernatural events

Tyrannical patriarchal power

Threatened female

Ancient prophecy

Dark omens

With these elements Walpole skillfully sets the stage for generations of Gothic fiction to come. And yet we can see how the foundations of the genre pull from older literary works. For example, I think one of the most interesting things about The Castle of Otranto is its Shakespeare overtones. Walpole draws heavily on Shakespeare’s works – specifically Hamlet and Macbeth. From characters inspired by King Claudius and Malcolm, the son of a slain king, to ancient prophecies and ghostly appearances, Otranto echoes many of the dark mysteries in Shakespeare’s work.  

I personally deem The Castle of Otranto one of the most fascinating ghost stories I've ever read. It’s mysterious and Gothic, full of ghosts and villains – not to mention a tragically beautiful love story. If you've never read it before, I’d highly recommend it. Especially during this darkest time of year . . .

Tales of the Gothic: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Next up on the list of Gothic novels is The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I think it only fitting that it should follow The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde, as the two share a notable theme – mankind’s dual nature and the torment of a soul divided.

As I previously discussed, the pieces of a man’s soul in Stevenson’s masterpiece are quite literally split into two different personas – Jekyll and Hyde. In Wilde’s novel on the other hand, we see the soul divided between a man, Dorian Gray, and his portrait. Upon seeing the youth and beauty eternally captured within the painting, Dorian longs for it, rather than his own features, to alter with time, offering up his own soul as payment. Unfortunately, he gets his wish. With his conscience stripped away, Dorian is able to indulge in pleasure and debauchery without suffering the consequences of his actions, for it is his portrait rather than his physical form that bears the manifestations of his sins. However, he cannot escape his guilt entirely. The fissures in his psyche become more and more pronounced with each visit to the painting. As he obsessively watches the “most magical of mirrors” to his soul become increasingly grotesque, it becomes clear that he remains tethered to his guilt by the portrait’s constant presence.

Apart from its Gothic tone, I think the most interesting thing about Dorian Gray is the question of reality within the text – namely, the reality of the altered portrait. Does the painting really change, or is it a figment of Dorian’s imagination? Apart from Dorian himself, no one ever sees the alleged changes; his account of the portrait’s increasingly mutilated features is never corroborated. It’s not until his death that anyone other than Dorian lays eyes on the painting, only to find it in the exact same condition as the day it was completed. Which begs the question, did it ever really change at all? Is it possible the Dorian maintained a façade of purity and youth in public, thus giving the appearance that he’d frozen in time, only to drop it in the presence of the painting? Like the mysterious “damned spot” on Lady Macbeth’s hands, perhaps the changes he sees in the painting are simply projections of the guilt he’s buried within.

Whether you believe in Dorian’s eternal youth or think him mad, the fact remains that The Picture of Dorian Gray is a Gothic classic. Its delightful darkness and wicked repercussions warns us that a man’s soul is a precious thing so easily forfeit. And it reminds us of the age-old adage, be careful what you wish for . . . 

Tales of the Gothic: An Introduction

Let me start off by apologizing for my recent absence from the blog-o-sphere. September was a busy, high stress month for me, and my blogging paid the price. But it’s finally October and the beginning of what I like to call the “spooktacular season”, that magical time of year when the pumpkins come out and my inner child goes wild. And though I will undoubtedly write a few posts narrating my epic battle with jack-o-lantern carving, costume construction, and many other Halloween related festivities, this year I wanted to dedicate the month of October to a discussion of my favorite genre of classical literature – the Gothic novel.

Since my time as an English Lit major in college, I’ve always found this particular area of the literary canon most fascinating. Characterized by mystery, supernatural horror, epic castles and dark romance, Gothic novels act as reaction to the extreme rationalism of the Augustan literary era and stand out as the unique offspring of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They’re ghost stories and accounts of the living dead, paranormal affairs and tales of the macabre. And above all, they're an investigation into the inner workings of the human psyche. Gothic novels are a perfect fit for the Halloween season, and I could think of no way to honor them more than a blog series devoted to the authors who so splendidly captured the soul of genre.

So check back and stay tuned for Tales of the Gothic . . . 

A Gothic Weekend

October is one of my favorite months, bringing with it an interest in the fantastic and paranormal. Every year around this time I always turn to of some of my favorite Gothic pieces of literature, enjoying their focus on the supernatural. Edgar Allen Poe often reigns forefront in my wind with his The Pit and the Pendulum, The Black Cat, and legendary The Raven. And of course I always revisit Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

However, arguably the best pieces of Gothic literature all derive their origins from the same weekend nearly two centuries ago. In the summer of 1816, George Gordon Byron, better known as the famous Lord Byron, rented the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva, Switzerland. There he played host to several guest, including his personal physician John William Polidori, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, Shelley's future wife Mary Godwin (aka. Mary Shelley), and her stepsister Claire Clairmont. 

Bored and closeted inside due to near incessant rain, the group spent their time reading horror stories and discussing the possibility of corpse reanimation. They decided to have a contest in which they would write their own ghost stories to entertain one another. Inspired by a dream, the eighteen year-old Mary Shelley wrote a short story that would later be fleshed into Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, one of the greatest examples of Gothic fiction of all time and a time-honored piece of classic literature.

For his own contest submission Lord Byron wrote a short, uncompleted piece which was vampiric in nature. Though it was quickly abandoned, this piece would later inspire John Polidori’s The Vampyre, a novel with an obscure history. Unfortunately, when published in the New Monthly Magazine in 1819 the piece was accredited to Lord Byron rather than the unknown Polidori. Despite the fact that Byron wrote of his personal dislike for vampires and published his original “Fragment of a Novel” in an attempt to clear up the misunderstanding, the tale remains strongly connected with him, an association made stronger by the fact that the main character, Lord Ruthven, resembles the Lord Byron himself. Despite its hazy origins and initial lack of recognition, The Vampyre goes down as the first British vampire novel and one of the progenitors of vampire literature, eventually inspiring Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

It continues to amaze me that one dreary weekend in 1816 would found two such important pieces of Gothic literature, paving the way for an explosion of writings and interest in the supernatural genre. To this day Frankenstein’s monster and the night-roaming vampires inspire constant fascination and allure.