GOTHIC TROPES

Photo by Julia Kadel on Unsplash

Writers often have recurring themes in their work, and as I wrap up my current work-in-progress, I’m not surprised at all to see some of the same tropes from Parting The Veil re-emerging as I write my Southern Gothic. Tropes in Gothic literature are inextricably linked to the darker side of our characters’ humanity and serve a vital purpose within the genre.

As part of my ongoing blog series about Gothic fiction, I’ll be exploring each of these themes in greater detail in the weeks to come, with examples in both classic literature as well as modern commercial and literary fiction. There are many more tropes than those mentioned here, but I find myself revisiting these particular examples, again and again.

Setting as Character

Whether it’s a haunted house in the English countryside, or an insular small town in the Ozarks filled with a cast of cursed characters, setting as character is a trope I love to utilize. Carnivorous houses, cloyingly staid small towns, and forced isolation are all characteristic of my work, and I have gleaned a lot of inspiration from the linchpins of Gothic literature.

What would We Have Always Lived in the Castle be without its small town politics and the looming, ancestral home that Merricat and Constance share? Would The Yellow Wallpaper still have the same sense of existential dread without the forced captivity of its heroine in that unforgettable yellow nursery? Setting is a rich and varied canvas many authors use to symbolize the psyche of their characters or create a visual representation of the hidden threats that often exist in Gothic fiction.

Isolation

Perhaps it’s because I’m a little claustrophobic. Maybe it’s because I’m an introvert…or because isolating a character forces them to face the lies they’ve told themselves. Isolation is a great tool with which to torture your characters and enhance their arc. My casts tend to start out larger in the beginning. As the story progresses, I pick off supportive secondary characters, one by one, until my heroine is left alone to confront her ghosts—both real and imagined.

Locking up your characters and throwing away the key, even if the isolation is symbolic, is an effective way to force them to face the consequences of the choices they’ve made, head-on.

Weather

There’s the cliche of the dark and stormy night in Gothic literature, which we all know too well. I’ve included quite a few stormy moments in Parting the Veil, and they are absolutely done with intention. But in my current work-in-progress, which partially takes place during the Great Depression, it’s a dry and abnormally hot summer that’s symbolic of the curse plaguing Tin Mountain.

Weather in Gothic fiction serves many of the same purposes as setting and isolation. Blizzards. Floods. Storms at sea: all of these elements can help convey a character’s psychological state, their loss of control, and their shaken sense of normalcy. Weather is a great tool in the Gothic writer’s toolbox. It’s evocative and cinematic.

Frame Narratives

Whether it’s encoded letters, hidden journals, or a grimoire that seems to have a life all its own, I often use alternative media to introduce sub-plots, insert unreliable narration, or highlight the point-of-view of a character from the past we can’t meet during the course of the main story.

Frame narratives are a great tool to help mislead the reader…and they can be wildly entertaining. They can also help you construct effective plot twists, emphasize that things are not as they seem on the surface, and help demonstrate a character’s decline.

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein’s diary entries are one of the most brilliant displays of regressive characterization in the genre. We can see and feel in a visceral way his descent from bright-eyed, optimistic medical student to a bitter, disillusioned man coping with the failure of his greatest achievement.

While these four examples are only a small sampling of the variety of tropes in Gothic fiction, they are among my favorites.

If you write Gothic fiction, what are some of your favorite tropes? I’d love to hear all about them in my comments!

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