Evolution of the Haunted House in Early and Modern Gothic Novels Essay

Evolution of a Haunted House The use of setting in early and modern gothic storysThe setting for a novel plays a big part in how the story and its characters relate to the reader. This paper will project how setting in gothic literature, plays an important role in the telling of a story by using Horace Walpoles The Castle of Otranto and Shirley Jacksons The House on Haunted Hill as examples.During the eighteenth century, the Romantic period of literature emerged. The works of this time were often filled with imagination, strong activated contexts, and freedom from the classical notions of art and social conventions (wordiq.com). The Castle of Otranto, while considered by many to be a Romantic drama, had a style that was distinctively assorted (Mulvey-Roberts, 226). Elements, not previously seen in works of literature were added to the story, much in the way embellishments were added to buildings of the time. Horace Walpole, used elements of the macabre, mysterious, and violent in cidents along with desolate and remote settings to pass water the start true English-language gothic novel (Merriam-Webster.com).The ruins of castles and other ancient settlements, set amongst the gloominess of the surrounding landscape provided the perfect backdrop for the early English gothic novel (Goldstein, Grider, Thomas 145-146). It was at once mysterious, foreboding, and could create a sense of apprehension and dread in the reader. Horace Walpole took advantage of setting in The Castle of Otranto. The castle evokes feelings of darkness, solitude, loneliness, and claustrophobia (Mulvey-Roberts, 174). at that place are secret passages, trap doors, secret rooms, and areas of ruin. The aim is to produce the classic emotion of fear of the unknown. Add in a... ..., a moaning sound is heard front (Walpole, 34). In The Haunting of Hill House, it is the female protagonist who hears a hammering against the upper edge of a bedroom door that sounded like something children do. She as well hears little mad rising laugh outside the door (Jackson, 95,97). For more than two centuries, the setting of the haunted castle or house has played with our emotions and psyches. They create tension and fear, while we wait for the ghost or bogeyman to jump out. Author H.P. Lovecraft, known for creating these emotions with his own works, states the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown (Lovecraft, 12). This fear of the unknown continues to make gothic novels as popular today, as when Horace Walpole took a romantic drama, added a few shiny bits, and called it gothic.