Gothicism Speech
- Submitted by: sarahstj
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- Category: English: Poetic Works
- Date Submitted: 07/26/2014 09:35 PM
- Pages: 3
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Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations and Dracula. These classic novels took each reader on a risqué journey of escapism. These texts all fall under the genre of Gothicism: the literary world that thrilled England from 1764 – 1830. This new and exciting form of popular fiction was criticised as being bad, low, tasteless and never regarded as high culture. It was instead deemed as a guilty pleasure or dubious hobby.
While individual gothic novels are different from one another, they each share the same set of common themes. Gothic texts usually feature an old castle haunted by ghosts and ghouls. The supernatural aspect is the key – the more suspenseful the better! Think twilight on steroids.
The gothic novel was invented by Horace Walpole. His novel The Castle of Otranto was the first gothic novel in English written in 1764. It contains all the classic elements that make up the gothic genre such as omens, castles, mystery, inexplicable events, ancient prophecies, damsels in distress and pure horror.
The Castle of Otranto tells the story of Manfred, lord of the castle, and his family. This novel begins on the wedding day of his sickly son Conrad and Princess Isabella. Shortly before the wedding, Conrad is crushed to death by a gigantic helmet that falls on him from above. This event is in light of an ancient prophecy, which goes like this: “The Castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it.”
From that point on the story becomes a whole season of Bold and the Beautiful.
Manfred’s scared about Conrad’s sudden death SO THEN he orders for Isabella to marry him, divorces his wife Hippolita AND THEN Isabella escapes to a church with the aid of a peasant named Theodore AND THEN Manfred tells his priest friend Jerome that he wants Theodore dead, SO Theodore takes his shirt off – ready to be killed, AND THEN Jerome’s all like “OH he’s my son, he’s got a birthmark on his shoulder,” SO...
While individual gothic novels are different from one another, they each share the same set of common themes. Gothic texts usually feature an old castle haunted by ghosts and ghouls. The supernatural aspect is the key – the more suspenseful the better! Think twilight on steroids.
The gothic novel was invented by Horace Walpole. His novel The Castle of Otranto was the first gothic novel in English written in 1764. It contains all the classic elements that make up the gothic genre such as omens, castles, mystery, inexplicable events, ancient prophecies, damsels in distress and pure horror.
The Castle of Otranto tells the story of Manfred, lord of the castle, and his family. This novel begins on the wedding day of his sickly son Conrad and Princess Isabella. Shortly before the wedding, Conrad is crushed to death by a gigantic helmet that falls on him from above. This event is in light of an ancient prophecy, which goes like this: “The Castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it.”
From that point on the story becomes a whole season of Bold and the Beautiful.
Manfred’s scared about Conrad’s sudden death SO THEN he orders for Isabella to marry him, divorces his wife Hippolita AND THEN Isabella escapes to a church with the aid of a peasant named Theodore AND THEN Manfred tells his priest friend Jerome that he wants Theodore dead, SO Theodore takes his shirt off – ready to be killed, AND THEN Jerome’s all like “OH he’s my son, he’s got a birthmark on his shoulder,” SO...