Kemp, J. (2001) a glossary of Literary Gothic Terms. Web

8. Melodrama
Emotions run high in Gothic literature reflecting a heightened sense of drama. Women have a tendency to swoon and men rage in reflection of unseen inner torments. There are also murders, kidnappings and people going mad. The villain is usually the central character but fate intervenes in the end to ensure good triumphs over evil.
As mentioned above, melodrama is a key element of silent cinema, which lent itself very nicely to gothic and horror-themed stories. The highly stylised, gestural nature of performance made emotions and personalities immediately evident.

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari' 1919, German silent film, Robert Wiene. Cesare (Conrad Veidt) making off with Jane (Lil Dagover) / Universal History Archive/UIG / Bridgeman Images

9. Death
The Gothic novel is enthralled with death and the supernatural contributing to an atmosphere of horror. If Gothic literature reflects a wish to overcome one’s mortality, there is also a fear of those who somehow manage to transcend it; i.e. vampires, whom are at once both dead and alive.
There is also a Gothic obsession with the bodies of dead women. Edgar Allan Poe said that the death of a beautiful woman is “the most poetical topic in the world”. In nearly every one of his tales, one of the characters has died or is being mourned.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, c.1890 / Private Collection / Bridgeman Images

10. The beast within
Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde‘ (1886) tapped into contemporary anxieties. Dr Jekyll is eminently respectable while Mr. Hyde is brutal and ape-like. The twist is that both represent two facets of the same person.
Influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution, such a nightmarish biological lineage that denied the superiority of humans, feeds into many late-Victorian Gothic novels.

Bela Lugosi in costume as Dracula, 1931, American Photographer / Private Collection / Bridgeman Images

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Introduction
It is accurate to say that a gothic horror story is defined as a frightening story that has echoes of the past and has a constant theme of gloom and the supernatural, which makes it dark and rather threatening. From any perspective and point of view, gothic fiction cannot be dismissed as merely escapist and sensational on the basis that it is more than having only these two elements in it. There are many useful prospective insights which cannot be termed and delimited to mere sensational and escapist ones.

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