The Supernatural and the Sublime in Gothic Literature
Vampires, ghosts, demons, (oh my!)—those dudes and other monsters got their big break in Gothic novels…and the world never looked back. In fact, absolutely no true Gothic tale would be complete without the supernatural.
Some are traditionalists like Horace Walpole and Matthew Gregory Lewis wrote about actual physical monsters…UNDER YOUR BED. (Oh, calm down, we're kidding.) Others pushed the boundaries and introduced more psychological terrors that just suggested otherworldly threats. Ann Radcliffe was fond of offering "natural" explanations for things that go bump in the night.
Others preferred to blend the two. Henry James's The Turn of the Screw is usually billed as a ghost story, but it could also be read as the main character's mental breakdown. We never get any real answers, and there's definitely a host of people on both sides ready to paint the two unnerving young children-of-the-corn wannabes as either innocent victims or demonic servants of evil…muahahaha.
Beyond the fun of playing with the paranormal, Gothic texts went all supernatural in order to reach an emotional pinnacle they considered the sublime—an indescribable feeling of terror (and sometimes joy). Needless to say, developing mood through tone was pretty important to these writers.
Chew on This
The undisputed king of tone is none other than our very own Edgar Allan Poe. Check out how his "Tell Tale Heart" blurs our sense of the supernatural and the psychological. We dare you to read it without it raising your own heart rate just a little.
What happens when the scratches are sometimes tree branches and at other times—spoiler alert!—the ghost of one your main characters? Take a look at the supernatural in Wuthering Heights to find out.