‘The Castle of Otranto’ is generally considered as the first true work of Gothic fiction. The novella presents a veritable array of supernatural phenomena and encompasses fairy tale aspects such as mythological creatures roaming in the castle. The opening chapter sets the tone for an uncanny sequence of events that affect the inhabitants of the ancestral 12th century castle. Gothic genre is instantly recognisable by the archetypal setting of haunted castles and the appearance of strange omens. Often displacing the setting from reality plays an important role in creating the enigmatic atmosphere and foreboding, suggesting that impending doom is imminent. Walpole’s castle becomes an overpowering metaphor for the haunting that takes place within …show more content…
The deliberate use of shifting between both locations allows Morrison to drift in and out of the minds of the characters and enhance the readers understanding of important actions. In ‘Beloved’ we are introduced to ‘124 Bluestone Road’, a house on the periphery of Cincinnati that is haunted by a belligerent ghost. The setting is isolated and disconnected from the rest of the community. This is a common feature in gothic literature that creates an atmosphere of trepidation within the readers mind. The house ‘124 was spiteful, full of a baby's venom’ has connotations with spite and venom suggesting that the uncanny presence is vindictive and looking for retribution. ‘Venom’ could perhaps refer to a Biblical allusion to the snake in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were denied God’s blessing by a serpent who deceived them. The deliberate lack of numerical consistency in ‘124’ is also apparent as the missing number three could possibly denote an absence of something. The novel was set after the end of the Civil War, during the period known as Post Bellum 1873. This Reconstruction period in history was virtually non-existent on the literary or cultural map as a period for injustices that Afro-Americans were subjected to until ‘Beloved’ 1986. Morrison uses the characters in ‘Beloved’ as a vehicle to express the turbulence of black people