▀▄▀▄ 𝘎𝘖𝘛𝘏𝘐𝘊 𝘕𝘖𝘝𝘌𝘓 & 𝘐𝘛'𝘚 𝘊𝘏𝘈𝘙𝘈𝘊𝘛𝘌𝘙𝘐𝘚𝘛𝘐𝘊𝘚 ▄▀▄▀

           In the most general terms, Gothic literature can be defined as writing that employs dark and picturesque scenery, startling and melodramatic narrative devices, and an overall atmosphere of exoticism, mystery, fear, and dread. Often, a Gothic novel or story revolves around a large, ancient house that conceals a terrible secret or serves as the refuge of an especially frightening and threatening character. Despite the fairly common use of this bleak motif, Gothic writers have also used supernatural elements, touches of romance, well-known historical characters, and travel and adventure narratives to entertain their readers. The type is a subgenre of Romantic literature—that's Romantic period, not romance novels with breathless lovers with wind-swept hair on their paperback covers—and much fiction today stems from it.

The descriptions that frequently appear in many sources about works called gothic are: (a) the appearance of the supernatural, (b) the psychology of horror and/or terror, (c) the poetics of the sublime, (d) a sense of mystery and dread (e) the appealing hero/villain, (f) the distressed heroine, and (g) strong moral closer. The elements of horror are classified .It was classified as gothic fiction because gothic is characterized by emphasizing suspense and mystery through gloomy and dark setting, and violent events which then could raise a particular atmosphere of horror. Besides, its elements of mystery and touch of horror, this genre of literature elements of romance.

The elements of horror are classified by:  

1. Setting in a castle : the action takes place in and around an old castle, 

sometimes seemingly abandoned and sometimes occupied. Inside the castles, there are secret passages, trap doors, secret rooms, hidden staircase and sometimes with ruined sections.

2. An atmosphere of mystery and suspense : the work is pervaded by a threatening and fear feeling. 

3. An ancient prophecy is connected with the castle or its inhabitants.

4. Omens, portents, visions : a character may have a disturbing dream vision, or some phenomenon may be seen as a portent of coming events.

5. Supernatural or otherwise inexplicable events : in some works, the events are ultimately given natural explanation, while others are truly supernatural.

6. High, even overwrought emotion : the way the author narrate the feeling may be highly sentimental. Characters are often overcome by anger, sorrow, and terror. Crying and emotional speeches are frequent.

7. Women in distress : as an appeal to the sympathy of the reader, a lonely and oppressed heroine often becomes a central figure. 

8. Women threatened by a powerful , impulsive, tyrannical male.

9. The metonymy of gloom and horror : it is a subtype of metaphor in which something is used to stand for something else. 

10. The vocabulary of the gothic: this serves as the writer’s choice of words in order to help in building the atmosphere of gothic.

𝔼𝕃𝔼𝕄𝔼ℕ𝕋𝕊 𝕆𝔽 ℝ𝕆𝕄𝔸ℕℂ𝔼 

In addition to the standard, many gothic novels contain elements of romance as well . The elements are as follows:

1. Powerful love : an overwhelming power love always comes up into the characters’ hearts. Their emotions even stir up their minds.

2. Uncertainty of reciprocation : the thoughts of the beloved about her/his love whether his/her love returned or not.

3. Unreturned love : someone loves in vain (at least temporarily). Later, the love may be returned.

4. Tension between true love and someone’s control : there must be one or more who disapproves the lover’s relationship.

5. Lovers parted : some obstacle arises and separates the lovers, geographically or in some other way. One of the lovers is banished, arrested, forced to flee, or sometimes, disappears without explanation. Or, an explanation may be given (by the person opposing the lovers' being together) that later turns out to be false.

6. Illicit love or lust threatens the virtuous one : the young woman becomes a target of some evil man's desires and schemes.

7. Rival lovers or multiple suitors : one of the lovers (or even both) can have more than one person fighting for affection.There are also glossaries of literary terms which enriched the gothichism of a work the lists are follows:

1. Ancestral curse, evil, misfortune, or harm that comes as a response to or retribution for deeds or misdeeds committed against or by one's ancestor(s).Anti-Catholicism, a frequent and, for some critics, foundational feature of early Protestant gothic fiction. In this fiction Catholicism comes to be associated with forces of horrid repression, greedy corruption, and mysterious persecution, wrapped in the cloaks of a superstition that prevents scrutiny of authority.

3. Cemetery is widely used in Gothic Literature as oftentimes frightening places where revenance can occur.

4. Claustrophobia, an abnormal dread of being confined in a close or narrow space. Often attributed to actual physical imprisonment or entrapment, claustrophobia can also figure more generally as an indicator of the victim's sense of helplessness or horrified mental awareness of being enmeshed in some dark, inscrutable destiny.

5. Devil, as portrayed in Judaism and Christianity, stands as a spirit of incarnate evil who rules over a dark kingdom.

6. Dreaming / Nightmares: dreaming is characterized as a form of mental activity that takes place during the act of sleep. Dreams invoke strong emotions within the dreamer, such as ecstasy, joy and terror.

7. Entrapment & Imprisonment, a favorite horror device of the Gothic finds a person confined or trapped, such as being shackled to a floor or hidden away in some dark cell or cloister.

8. The explained supernatural is a genre of the Gothic in which the laws of everyday reality remain intact and permit an explanation or even dismissal of allegedly supernatural phenomena.

9. The Haunted Castle or House a dwelling that is inhabited by or visited regularly by a ghost or other supposedly supernatural being.

10. Mist, a grouping of water particles due to a change in atmosphere.

11. Mystery, an event or situation that appears to overwhelm understanding. Its province is the unnatural, unmentioned, and unseen.

12. The Pursued Protagonist refers to the idea of a pursuing force that relentlessly acts in a severely negative manner on a character.

13. Pursuit of the Heroine, the pursuit of a virtuous and idealistic (and usually poetically inclined) young woman by a villain, normally portrayed as a wicked, older but still potent aristocrat.

14. Revenant, the return of the dead to terrorize or to settle some score with the living. 

15. Sadism, the pleasure in inflicting someone physically or mentally with pain brutally.

16. Sensibility, deals with an acutely sensitive response to the afflicted or pathetic in literature, art, and life.

17. Supernatural gadgetry, Supernatural gadgetry refers to the physical elements in Gothic works that represent the means by which the various supernatural beings and or powers display their presence and uncanny abilities.

18. Superstition, unexamined systems of belief that impeded the search for truth. 

        --- 𝙂𝙊𝙏𝙃𝙄𝘾 𝙏𝙊𝙉𝙀 ---

Gothic tone emerges as dark, despairing, depressing and gloomy. The atmosphere appeared colourless and hopeless. These characteristics of gothic are exploited to attempt to strike the readers with horror. When we see a gothic picture, its colors have been usually removed, so it becoming black and white colored picture only. It can be otherwise in sepia(reddish-brown color) portrait. This little part gives terrifying, gloomy and depressing effects (such was the case with gothic tone in literature). The appearances of images, scenes, and descriptions are drawn to highlight the gothic characteristics.