Timeline of Gothic fiction by Alexandra Chich

1764: The Castle of Otranto, Horace Walpole

englishclass_premiere — 2024-10-13 08:00:05 UTC

Characters:

Manfred the owner of Otranto who is driven by supernatural visions of losing his family's name and property.
Isabella who is Manfred's son's fiancé who is also the hero by escaping the horrible attempt of the ruler to have kids with her. --> the woman in distress
Thedore, originally mistaken as a peasant but he is actually an aristocrat in disguise.

Setting: The novel is a medieval tale, it takes place in a foreign country, in an ancient castle with towers and secret passageways. Conrad the son of Manfred is mysteriously crushed to death by a giant helmet falling from the sky. After this event, Manfred's family is followed by a curse which is an ancient prophecy affects the family.

Themes and motifs: The sins of fathers are visited on their children to the third and fourth generation.

1794: The Mysteries of Udolpho, Ann Radcliffe

englishclass_premiere — 2024-10-13 08:00:13 UTC

The mysteries of Udolpho talks about Emily Saint-Aubert, a French woman who dont has parents. She is imprisoned in castle Udolpho by an Italian brigand.

Characters:

A girl in distress, a crual vilain, a handsome man, the pitiful servant

Setting: In Italy, isolated castle, scary place, abandoned, horrific, mysteries, nightime and cloud.

Themes and motifs: Supernatural and love story, good and evil.

1796: The Monk, Matthew Lewis

englishclass_premiere — 2024-10-13 08:00:19 UTC

Characters:

Ambrosio (the protagonist) : demonic monk and a murderer

Mathilde : demonic agent of the devil, she pushes Ambrosio to commit terrible sins

Antonia : young and innocent girl, victim of Ambrosio

Agnes de Medina : a nun imprisoned for breaking her religious vows, she survives horrific hardships before being released

Setting:

Church in Madrid 16th century, during the Spanish Inquisition

Themes and motifs:

Religion (catholic)

moral corruption : sexually explicit content, and themes of rape and incest.

1816: The Vampyre, John Polidori

englishclass_premiere — 2024-10-13 08:01:38 UTC

Characters: The charater in john Polidori the vampire are considered ghotic due to their dark mysterious and often immoral nature particulary Lord Ruthmen with this seductive charisma and predatory behavior as well as aubrey the innocent and vulnerable protagonist

Setting: the location in john polidros the vampyre are lsoi ghotic contibuying to the dark and mysterious atmosphere of the story . the gloomy setting such as sinister catsles and noctural landsacp enhance the sence of horor anda fzascination assoiated ith the ghotic genre thes palces serve as backprob to the plot and add a sinister and erie dimension to the characters story

Themes and motifs: in the vampyree the themes and subject adressed are gothic trhough elements such as the facination with the supernatural the exploration of the darkness of the human soul,conflict between

1816: Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

englishclass_premiere — 2024-10-13 08:01:48 UTC

Characters:

- Victor Frankenstein: Protagonist, A mad scientist who created The Monster

-Cornelius Agrippa: A German, esoteric scientist.

-The Monster: A yellow monster who's eight feet tall, he is hideous but sensitive.

Robert Walton: Arctic explorer who met Victor.

-Alphonse Frankenstein: Victor's father

Setting:

Happening in Switzerland with a wild and exotic settings during a dark stormy night.

Themes and motifs:

good and evil, science, monster

1818: Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen

englishclass_premiere — 2024-10-13 08:01:57 UTC

Characters:

Chatherine Morland, the victim and also on thegood side .

Henry Tilney , on the evil side .

Setting:

An Abbey, a religious place , dark and mysterious , underground \Hidden passage .

Themes and motifs :

Chaterine fantasy about gothicromance clash with reality, the themes are love, friendship and dangerds of escessive imagination

1840: Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, Edgar Allan Poe

englishclass_premiere — 2024-10-13 08:02:24 UTC

Characters:

Setting:

Themes and motifs:

1847: Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë

englishclass_premiere — 2024-10-13 08:04:24 UTC

Characters: corrupt notary, doctor, absent mother, loving father, torturted antihero, rich aristocrat, bigoted moralist,

Setting: Wuthering Heights is set in the windswept and stormy Yorkshire Moors in Northern England.

The novel is set in the late 18th and early 19t centuries, during the time period of the the Industrial Revolution in England.

Themes and motifs:

love
passion

revenge
social class
good and evil
solitude
gender roles
knowledge
relationships

1871: Carmilla, Sheridan Le Fanu

englishclass_premiere — 2024-10-13 08:04:38 UTC

Characters:

Setting:

Themes and motifs:

1886: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson

englishclass_premiere — 2024-10-13 08:05:01 UTC

This book tells the story of a doctor, Dr Henry Jekyll, who conducts experiments to separate his good and evil sides. He creates a potion that transforms him into Mr Edward Hyde, a violent and immoral being. Gradually, Hyde gains more control, committing more crimes. The doctor finally loses the ability to control his transformations, until Hyde takes over the body, and forces him to commit suicide to end this dual existence.

Characters: mad scientist (doctor with good and bad personnality), victim and villain, corpses

Setting: nighttime, London, laboratory

Themes and motifs: science, breaking norms, battle between good and evil, duality

1890: The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde

englishclass_premiere — 2024-10-13 08:05:15 UTC

Characters: a supernatural being, good and evil: two sided character

Setting:

atmosphere: dark, demonic themes
location: hidden spot (painting in the attic)

Themes/motifs: murder, gluttony, excess

1897: Dracula, Bram Stoker

englishclass_premiere — 2024-10-13 08:05:27 UTC

Dracula is a novel by Bram Stoker published in 1897. It tells the story of count Dracula, a vampire who travels from Transylvania to England, seeking to spread his curse. The book follows Jonathan Harker and his friends as they try to stop dracula. It explores themes like fear, evil and the fight between good and bad

Characters:

•Dracula: A vampire who comes from.

Transylvania to England to spread his curse.

Jonathan Harker: A young lawyer who go to Dracula's castle and later helps stop him.
Mina Harker: Jonathan's wife, she is smart and brave and she helps to fight Dracula.
Lucy Westenra: Mina's friends who becoms Dracula's victims.
Professor Van Helsing: A doctor who knows about vampires and leads the fight againts
Dracula.
Arthur Holmwood :Lucy's fiance, who helps to fight Dracula.
Dr. John Seward: A doctor and a friend of

Setting: the castel of dracula (castel mountain), asile de Dr. Seward (Anglettere) ,les cimetieres, Transylvania (isolated region of Europe

Themes and motifs: modernity, sexual repression, salvation and madness

1898: The Turn of the Screw, Henry James

englishclass_premiere — 2024-10-13 08:05:42 UTC

The narrator witnesses the reading of a governess's diary. The young woman has been hired by a wealthy bachelor to look after his nephew and niece, Flora and Miles. Orphans, they live in a huge, isolated country house. The two children appear innocent, but their behaviour seems strange to the young governess. She gradually becomes aware of scary apparitions, including that of a man, a former servant, who had an affair with the previous governess, Miss Jessel. Both died shortly before the new governess arrived, but they still seem to exert an evil attraction on the children. The new governess tries to turn them away from them.

Characters:

Miles and Flora's uncle, who lives in London, is their legal guardian; it is he who hires the new governess;

The new governess, the main character of the story; it is her manuscript that is read by Douglas;

Miles, aged ten, expelled from his boarding school for a reason unknown to the new governess;

Flora, aged eight, Miles' little sister;

Mrs Grose, "steward" of the house, takes care of the children, before the arrival of the new governess;

Miss Jessel, the former governess, who died inexplicably;

Peter Quint, a valet employed at the property, also dead, was Miss Jessel's lover.

Setting:

locations: huge house, country, isolated, manor in Essex, in London

atmosphere: suspens, secret, lot of mysteries, scary , anxious

Themes and motifs:

short fantasy novel, ghost story

The Corruption of the Innocent, supernatural, mystery,