Gothic Literature

What is Gothic Literature?

Within English, which covers grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, poetry, drama and the skills for clear communication, this topic explains Gothic Literature. English topics help you read closely and write with purpose, so each one here explains a skill and shows how it works in a model text.

Check that you can explain Gothic Literature in your own words and give one example from everyday life. If you can do that, you have understood the core idea.

Understanding Gothic Literature helps you read texts more closely and write with more control, which earns marks in both reading and writing papers.

Gothic Literature in detail

Gothic literature combines horror, mystery and romance, usually with dark, atmospheric settings such as castles, ruins, graveyards and stormy nights. It features supernatural events, secrets, madness, doomed characters and a sense of dread. Early examples include Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto.

Famous Gothic works include Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and Edgar Allan Poe's tales, and the Brontës' Wuthering Heights. Gothic stories often explore fears about science, society and the self. Techniques include pathetic fallacy (weather matching mood), foreshadowing and suspense.

How the interactive helps you understand Gothic Literature

Click a card to flip it and reveal the answer, then move on to the next one.

Before you change anything, predict the result. Then change one value at a time and check whether your prediction was right. This is a quick way to build a correct mental model of Gothic Literature.

Real-life uses and examples

• Spot Gothic Literature when you read a poem, story or speech, then explain the effect it creates.
• Use Gothic Literature to make your own writing more precise and vivid.
• Support a point about Gothic Literature with a short, accurate quotation.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Naming a technique without explaining its effect on the reader.
• Quoting a long passage instead of picking a short, precise phrase.
• Learning the definition without testing it. Use the quiz and the interactive to check that you can apply the idea.