By Ivan Starostenko
The Origins of the Gothic Literature
The sense of fear is one of the basic features of human nature. That is the reason why the Gothic Literature originated with the advent of written culture as such. English folklore has always been the richest in various kinds of mystical creatures, and these creatures later passed to literature.
The term "Gothic Novel" appeared in the 18th century. Initially the word "Gothic" meant "barbarian", which was caused by people's interest in the Middle Ages at that time. The culture of the Middle Ages along with the depiction of something mysterious and mystical became the basis of Gothic Literature. The main features of this literature were the following: ancient castles, monasteries, chapels, crypts, dungeons, etc. And the main elements of it were: storms in the night, bats and all sorts of mystical creatures - ghosts, vampires, etc. There was always something forbidden, mysterious and horrible described in Gothic novels. After all, "Forbidden fruit is sweet". This conception became the basis of both horror literature and horror films.
The founder of the Gothic Literature was Horace Walpole. His novel, "The Castle of Otranto" is considered to be the first Gothic artwork. Walpole was always interested in the culture of the Middle Ages and even built a Gothic castle not far from London.
In "The Castle of Otranto" were all the Gothic elements: an ancient castle, ghosts roaming the corridors, ancestral curse, etc.
Writer Anne Radcliff, who was also one of the founders of the Gothic novel, followed Walpole's footsteps. She wrote such distinguished novels as "The Italian" (1797) and "The Mysteries of Udolf" (1794). In Radcliff's novels was a touch of, in a way, poetic atmosphere of the mysterious and otherworldly. Her works are characterized by the delicate psychological study of characters, along with frightening sense of something unknown.
English writer Matthew Gregory Lewis introduced quite an unusual concept into the Gothic Novel. He wrote a novel "The Monk" (1796) in which he discovered such early taboo topics as black magic, incest and Satanism.
But the major achievements in the horror literature occurred in the beginning of the 19th century. In the summer of 1816 on the Villa Diodati on the shores of Lake Geneva, a company gathered consisting of the poet Percy Shelley, his wife Mary, her stepsister Claire, Lord Byron and his personal physician, John Polidori. They spent evenings telling each other ghost stories. And then Lord Byron suggested everyone to write a horror story as a competition. As a result 19-year-old Mary Shelley surpassed everyone by writing terrific horror novel "Frankenstein or Modern Prometheus".
She was inspired by a nightmare in which she saw a scientist, who created a man, but later renounced him because of his deformation.
The theory of galvanism was widely used during the 19th century as the idea of the resurrection of the dead flesh due to electrical discharges and lightning. And this became the basic concept of the Mary Shelley's epoch-making novel.
As it reflected in the novel, M. Shelley received large scale knowledge of science from her father, who was always surrounded by people from the scientific world.
The novel starts with letters of Captain Walton who intends to explore the North Pole. Having arrived to the Pole, the captain and his crew notice someone's giant footprints in the snow. The crew finds a barely alive frozen man in the snow. His name is Victor Frankenstein. The captain brings him to senses by giving him a shelter on the ship. From this point the story is told on behalf of Frankenstein.
Frankenstein was born in a wealthy family in Geneva. Since his very childhood Victor was absorbed in the exploration of the unknown. He always read the works of famous scientists and dreamt of comprehending the mysteries of human life. His parents adopted young Elizabeth whom Victor married a few years later.
