Defining the Gothic

     The gothic means a lot of things. Gothic could describe the barbarians that the Romans encountered. To the Romans these people were uncivilized, their ways were not understood. Their savagery was frightening to the proper and refined ways of the Romans. Gothic architecture when compared to the neoclassical style could be viewed the same way. It is old, and to an extent incorrect. The pointed arches, and ornate features were not Roman. The classical here represents something clean, precise, understood, and beautiful. Gothic is old, misunderstood, old fashioned, and savage. Gothic literature continues this sort of tradition, relying on making use of the misunderstood and savage to create fear.
     The gothic genre is very much like the horror genre. Both genres are concerned with frightening us. A certain amount of enjoyment can be had from being scared, and a certain amount of truth can be gleaned from this literature. If we can understand the gothic, we can better understand ourselves. By opening ourselves up to our fears, we can learn to confront them and master them. This is why humans have been telling scary stories for as long as there have been humans.The gothic genre differs from the horror genre it that the gothic has a certain amount of class about it, born from the period in which this literature first appeared. The Castle of Otranto is frightening, but not in a Texas Chain Saw Massacre sort of way. There is not a young blonde, in daisy dukes being chased through the woods by a masked assailant. The gothic is older than that, classier than that, more period than that. The young blue jean cutoff woman is replaced by a gentlewoman, in a gown, who takes a wrong turn on her way to the grand dining hall, and finds herself in a dark hallway lined with gargoyles. The fear is less direct, much more mysterious. The gothic genre was born out of this period and the features of this period have stuck to the genre. The gothic would not be so gothic if the young damsel went missing in a pristine neoclassical courtyard, because in this period that architecture would represent something entirely different, the mood would not be the same at all. The fear and mystery of the thing is enhanced by the architecture.
     Part of what defines the gothic is this sort of class. The young woman in a gown should be comforting. She should be enjoying herself, feeling safe and popular, courted by the young duke. However the gothic achieves its goal of frightening us because it can successfully turn this comfort upside down. The gothic takes what should be safe and romantic, and turns them into something which is darker, and more sinister. Here, the gothic is a result of its period. A woman being chased by a man with a chainsaw, would be very confusing to its audience, but would be much too fearful and inappropriate. The gothic is from an earlier time, when what was feared was much different than what is feared today. People then had a more innocent disposition. The very beginnings of the horror genre must take baby steps. The gothic was a stepping stone, people were beginning to analyze the fears they felt. These may not be foreign fears to modern day readers, but they are a different embodiment of these fears.
     The gothic is an old genre. People had been telling tales that frightened them for a very long time, but to publish a work in which a young duke is out to kidnapp gentlewoman was a very bold thing to do. The gothic was a fist step to exploring our fears, and like being alone in the dark, people fear what they do not understand. Authors could not just jump into all at once, they had to start slowly, The gothic is a product of its environment because it took the environment of the time and made it frightening the best way it could. Audiences today do not fear spiky ornaments or arches but in the period authors felt that by incorporating these factors they would be adding to the suspense, and creating the desired mood. The gothic is a horror genre, but a horror genre that is horrific to the people that wrote and read it when the genre was first created. Perhaps in defining the gothic it would be useful to describe it as just a horror genre and accompany that definition with the understanding that what has feared audiences has changed, and will continue to change overtime.