Another important aspect of the setting is the labyrinthine, claustrophobic and exotic space into which the plot is set. Since Walpole's `Castle of Otrano' (1764) the Gothic castle is one of the key features of the Gothic novel. The Gothic castle is a labyrinthine and claustrophobic place which evokes feelings of "fear, awe, entrapment and helplessness" (Raskauskien 50).
Characteristic of the Gothic castle are mazy, over- and undergrounded corridors, creaking doors, shuttered windows, trapdoors, darkened rooms, vaults, and dungeons. The architecture of a Gothic castle evokes a sublime and a scary atmosphere as the fort-like edifice is always a sign of the villain's power but also decaying and mysterious (Raskauskien 50-59)
Above we discussed the Gothic aspects in fiction which were characterized by the age in which it was born. Later in the Victorian era, with the change of time, changed the demand and in order to make the readers more familiar to …show more content…
Like all of Dickens’s writings, and perhaps all writing, it belongs to more than one genre. At times it resembles a fairytale, at other times a realistic or a comic novel, at others a melodrama: most commonly, it blends together the qualities of several genres. But gothic is a persistent thread in the book and at times, particularly moments of psychological transformation and crisis, the whole book seems charged with the force of the Gothic.” (The Gothic in Great Expectations Article by: John Bowen) Sabrina Rutner in her paper The Gothic Elements and Atmosphere in Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations", An Analysis furthers the above point as “ In the novel Great Expectations Dickens creates a menacing atmosphere that dominates the whole novel right from the very beginning. Great Expectations opens in a sinister and scary Gothic setting. (Rutner:
Characteristic of the Gothic castle are mazy, over- and undergrounded corridors, creaking doors, shuttered windows, trapdoors, darkened rooms, vaults, and dungeons. The architecture of a Gothic castle evokes a sublime and a scary atmosphere as the fort-like edifice is always a sign of the villain's power but also decaying and mysterious (Raskauskien 50-59)
Above we discussed the Gothic aspects in fiction which were characterized by the age in which it was born. Later in the Victorian era, with the change of time, changed the demand and in order to make the readers more familiar to …show more content…
Like all of Dickens’s writings, and perhaps all writing, it belongs to more than one genre. At times it resembles a fairytale, at other times a realistic or a comic novel, at others a melodrama: most commonly, it blends together the qualities of several genres. But gothic is a persistent thread in the book and at times, particularly moments of psychological transformation and crisis, the whole book seems charged with the force of the Gothic.” (The Gothic in Great Expectations Article by: John Bowen) Sabrina Rutner in her paper The Gothic Elements and Atmosphere in Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations", An Analysis furthers the above point as “ In the novel Great Expectations Dickens creates a menacing atmosphere that dominates the whole novel right from the very beginning. Great Expectations opens in a sinister and scary Gothic setting. (Rutner: