Key Issue Five: Fear, terror, and Horror in Gothic Writing ( Kelvin, Sana, Chiara )

 Chiara, Kelvin and Sana.

Fear, terror and horror in Gothic writing 

  

Fear, terror, and horror are the main goals of Gothic work :

  • The atmosphere: dark, unknown, presence of creatures = generates fear 

  • The location setting: unclear, uncomfortable

  • Explores idea of being unsafe: confronted to a being defenseless

  • Afraid of death and what comes after 


Did you know that: 

Fear mostly comes from our imagination, from that little voice in our head. In fact, you aren’t afraid of being alone in the dark, you are afraid of not being alone.Gothic horror is the battle between humanity and unnatural forces of evil within an oppressive, inescapable, and bleak landscape.


Key quotes:  

“ Gothic has always been more about fear of the supernatural than the supernatural itself” 

~by Radcliffe

“We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.” 

~by Stephen King

“Courage has gone out of our race … The terror of society, which is the basis of morals, the terror of God, which is the secret of religion – these are the two things that govern us”

         ~Oscar Wilde from The Picture of Dorian Gray

Examples:

Dracula by Bram Stoker confronts an innocent man to the horrors of the supernatural in a land far away from home.

Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, changed the typical gothic villain from a human antagonist to a supernatural creature brought to life through the power of science. 


Fear, terror, and horror are the main goal of Gothic works. Being afraid, terrified and horrified is a part of human nature, since those feelings can be experienced because of natural factors. However, Gothic literature explores the supernatural aspect of these uncanny feelings. Horror is more related to being shocked or scared or being confronted to danger. The confrontation between human nature and supernatural events also leads to the protagonist questioning his beliefs to the point of sometimes losing their mind and contributes to the fearful setting. Moreover, fear is usually generated because of a dark atmosphere and the presence of more powerful creatures (monsters, ghosts, etc.). While terror is more related to being anxious of the unknown, such as what comes in the after life. Though are we only scared of supernatural and external factors? Or does it also come from within ourselves? 

Examples of fear, terror, and horror in The Picture of Dorian Gray : 

  • Supernatural/magical elements: the painting.

  • The vision of the society of Dorian’s “unacceptable” actions, which do not follow the moral code.

  • The question : will Dorian suffer the consequences of his actions in the after life? 

  • The use of language of horror throughout the book to describe places (the hidden chamber), the portrait, etc. 

  • The inhumane and horrifying crimes of the main character. 

  • Scary and mysterious atmosphere throughout the novel. 


Closing comments on Dorian Gray and Key Issues (May 2022)

Fear, terror, and Horror in Gothic Writing: The Picture of Dorian Gray 

 

Since The Picture of Dorian Gray is a Gothic novel, it contains the main elements: fear, terror, and horror. Those elements are generated throughout the novel because of the characters, the atmosphere, and the supernatural elements. In Fact, the terms, “horrid”, “fear” and “terror” are used 16, 13, and 15 times in the novel to describe the settings and Dorian’s doings. 

Firstly, the uncanny feelings produced by the atmosphere and settings are essential for the story. The old schoolroom in which Dorian grew up and experienced traumatic events, continues to haunt him. In that old “dusty” schoolroom “covered in cobwebs”, Dorian hid “something that had a corruption of its own, worse than the corruption of death itself - something that would breed horrors and yet would never die” (p.96), his biggest secret, the painting, which also led to his horrifying murder of Basil “as though the canvas had sweated blood.” (p.138). Therefore, every time, the reader finds themselves in that setting, they fear what is to come. 

Secondly, the fears of the antagonist become the reader’s fears, Dorian Gray is afraid of aging and death, the reasons for which he made that wish to become immortal. After that his wish was granted, the painting made by Basil would age but not him; and each time he commits a sin, the painting grows older. Dorian allowed himself to commit horrible sins and his fear of being exposed grew with the wrinkles on the painting. The reader is so involved in Dorian’s life, since at first, he was portrayed as a romantic hero, which created attachment for Dorian. Therefore, the reader fears that Dorian gets exposed, the atrocity that Dorian is becoming and how much further he is willing to go. 

Moreover, James Vane, becomes Dorian’s nightmare and pushes him to paranoia; the source of fear comes within Dorian’s imagination. Dorian becomes unreliable which amplifies the fear in the novel. Fear comes also in another form, Basil’s obsessive love for Dorian, makes him terrified of losing him. This fear becomes bigger when Dorian befriends Lord Henry and keeps growing throughout the story. 

And finally, the supernatural element in the novel, the paining, is a source of horror. It generates fear within the reader and the characters. 



Resources and useful links: 

    -https://anglesjournal.org/2016/10/01/the-picture-of-dorian-gray-exploring-the-meaning-of-true-beauty-in-its-homosexualsocial-world-kurumi-hamanaka/

https://artsandsciences.utulsa.edu/gothic-horror-denisoff/

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