What is Gothic Literature? Gothic literature can be defined as a piece of literature that uses dark compelling words to create a story for readers. Creating pleasure and without a doubt leaving a sense of terror in an audience, it remains a fictional combination of the supernatural, and the living bound together. This is a recipe for an epic suspenseful story. Most if not all gothic novels have a pattern of using a illogical behavior to capture the audience from the first page to the last. In order to fully understand Gothic Literature, one must get to know and fully apprehend its popular novels, the style of writing, and background of gothic literature. Gothic novels originally oriented in France between the 14th and 16th centuries. Over …show more content…
Some differentiate from the choice of words, choice of characters, symbolism, imagery, title, and ending of the novels. “An important aspect of the element of style is an author's use of symbolism. Some of the most obvious symbolism is often contained in character names, and this is true of Frankenstein”(Ross). Frankenstein looked like a man who just came out from fighting in a war. ( speak about how they use common things that humans are aware of .) “An important nature symbol throughout the text [Frankenstein] is the moon, which plays the role of revealing and concealing characters. It produces no light of its own but must instead reflect the light of the sun, typically a male symbol. ( male’s symbol how ? , why ) The moon continues to provide light to the monster when he must travel at night in order to evade other humans, acting as a nurturing presence”(Smith). Where a gothic novel is being taken place is central part to the story. Possible settings including:, dungeons, castles, graveyards, churches, lakes and monasteries among others. Symbols used in literature helps the readers understand more of the characters and the point(s) the author is trying to make. Authors also use imagery to help set a