πΏππ πΎππππ π²πππππ πΎππππ ππ±π―ππ«π€π’ ππππ π’π° Essential in creating gothic atmosphere and unsettling the reader, gothic narratives are traditionally set in the βstrangeβ β places that are unfamiliar and faraway. Think crumbling castles, ancestral homes, religious dwellings, and long ago. Think places distant in time and space. ππ΄π¬π¬π«π¦π«π€ ππ΄π’π’π±π₯π’ππ―π±π° The stereotypical gothic heroine is inquisitive and brave, and voraciously reads. She has beauty and purity and is thus a target. Whether a victim to fashion (those tight-laced corsets) or the female condition (I hope my tone is clear here), her defence in danger is the delicate swoon. Though she is likely to suffer, she is usually saved. ππ²π£π£π’π―π¦π«π€ πππ³π¦π¬π²π―π° Whether saviour to a swooning heroine (see above) or on adventures all their own, the gothic favours the anti-hero for its male lead. Often intellectual, perhaps academic, for him the human condition is heavy to bear. This long-suffering figure is flawed and doomed and may just reveal the monstrous in man. ππ₯ππ‘π¬π΄πΆ ππ±π―ππ«π€π’π―π° Though gothic villains are slow to uncloak themselves, their mould has since been truly set. The shadowy stranger epitomises the fear of βotherβ. Often autocrat, aristocrat, male, and undefined βforeignβ, he is a man out truly for himself. ππ²π€π€π’π°π±π’π‘ πππ’π π±π―π’π° All sorts of creatures make their home in gothic literature. There are ghosts, spirits, and apparitions; demons, the devil, and the dead returned; vampires, zombies, and apparent monsters. The supernatural may be metaphorical β a tool for subversion. It is frequently suggested as one thing and revealed to be otherwise, if there at all. ππ²π―π€π¦π«π€ ππ²π°ππ’π«π°π’ The gothic tone is of fear: terror or horror, and halted breath. It is dread that creeps and suspicion that grows. Suspense builds in uncanny spaces, where everything is unnerving and nothing is as it seems. Often at odds with logic, rational thought is invited to leave as heightened senses are startled by the wind. ππ©π’π’ππ©π’π°π° ππ¬π²π©π° Just as the narrative fiction aims to unsettle the mind of the reader, gothic protagonists are similarly disturbed. Nighttime casts shadows on certainty. Sleep, if achieved, is addled with nightmares. Waking hours, in turn, are similarly plagued. The concept of reality is toyed with as sanity and truth can no longer be presumed.
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