module 12 The Gothic Tradition BEFORE READING 1 What period or periods of history do you think these pictures come from? Why? 2 Compare your ideas with your classmates; then find out the correct answers from your teacher. Origins of the Gothic tradition Technically speaking, the word Gothic refers to the Germanic tribes that destroyed the Roman empire at the end of the 5th century AD. Later it came to mean the art and architectural style of medieval western Europe between 1100 and 1500 particularly the enormous cathedrals meant to impress the common man with his smallness but also to encourage him to lift himself up towards heaven. Following the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s, the word Gothic and Gothic architecture came to mean barbaric , ugly , cruel , torture and sin because they were associated with the Roman Catholic Church and the Inquisition of the medieval period. However, Protestant sects of this and later centuries often had beliefs that were equally as strong and unforgiving as those of the Roman Catholic Church they protested against. In the second half of the 1700s, Gothic architecture and fiction began to be linked in the Gothic story, which became immensely popular during the 1800s partly due to the spread of literacy to even the lowest social classes. Gothic literature from the 19th century includes Mary Shelley s Frankenstein, Edgar Allan Poe s macabre short stories (1838 -1846), Robert Lewis Stevenson s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), Oscar Wilde s The Portrait of Dorian Gray (1891) and Bram Stoker s Dracula (1897). Features of the classic Gothic story include: a. labyrinthine and claustrophobic architectural spaces (isolated castles / mansions, ruins of the Gothic period, prisons / dungeons, crypts / cemeteries, secret rooms / passages) in order to create feelings of fear, entrapment and helplessness in characters and readers b. elements of mystery (the supernatural / the inexplicable / the irrational) Unit c. a powerful antisocial figure (a social and / or physical monster , the villain) who cannot be assimilated into society but must be destroyed in order to protect society d. a young, attractive, virginal heroine who is helpless in the face of the villain but is saved at the last moment, usually by her heroic future husband.