An A-Z of gothic themes and characteristics

A is for Architecture
Old castles are the quintessential gothic setting, often with secret passages and locked rooms and in remote locations, imprisoning people and concealing secrets. The buildings are usually ornate and can include ancient ruins and religious sites such as abbeys or locations associated with decay, such as tombs, crypts and graveyards.

B is for Boundaries
Gothic repeatedly returns to and crosses boundaries, as well as dwelling in the uncertain liminal state in between: between life/death; human/monster; self/other; sanity/insanity; past/present; sleeping/waking; natural/supernatural; and memory/reality.

C is for Confinement
This can be physical, social or psychological with locked rooms, coercive marriages and claustrophobic social structures from which escape seems impossible. A classic example is Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho.

D is for Doppelgängers or Doubles
What happens when identity divides, or another, more sinister self refuses to stay hidden? Gothic doubles unsettle the idea of a coherent knowable self, as in Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Poe’s ‘William Wilson’.

E is for Excess
Gothic is frequently a literature of extremes: excessive emotion, violence, desire and terror, sometimes mirrored in the excessively ornate or elaborate settings.

F is for Folklore
Many gothic stories draw upon local legends, superstitions and supernatural tales, including witchcraft. Folkloric elements allow older beliefs and fears to intrude upon an apparently rational present.

G is for Ghosts
Ghosts are a foundational element in gothic storytelling. The dead might return because something has been forgotten, concealed or left unresolved: they refuse to stay buried while justice or remembrance are still in doubt. See the stories of M. R. James or Toni Morrison’s Beloved.

H is for Haunted House
In gothic fiction, these buildings appear to retain the emotional and violent energies of their previous occupants. Seemingly alive, they become a source of unease and fear rather than shelter and safety. Try Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and Sarah Waters’ The Little Stranger, both very well regarded.

I is for Isolation
Gothic characters can be cut off from other people and the safety of familiar surroundings, whether physically, emotionally or socially. Isolation increases their vulnerability, leaving them alone with danger, uncertainty or perhaps even their own increasingly unreliable perceptions.

J is for Journeys
It’s common for characters in gothic novels to travel into dangerous or unfamiliar places. These journeys take them away from the safety of the familiar and into landscapes where danger, mystery and the supernatural may be waiting.

K is for Kinship
Family ties run deep in gothic fiction, where bloodlines, inheritance and dysfunctional family histories can bind characters to the secrets and wrongs of previous generations. What we inherit is not always something we would choose to receive.

L is for Landscapes
Gothic landscapes are rarely neutral backdrops. Wild moorland, impenetrable forests, impassable mountains and icy wastes can reflect a character's emotional state while isolating them from safety, society and civilisation.

M is for Madness
A descent into madness is a recurring preoccupation in gothic, blurring the boundary between reality and perception. Female madness in particular raises questions about power dynamics: who gets to define sanity and what happens when someone's account of their own experience is not believed. A definitive short story is ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

N is for Nightmares
Key events in gothic novels take place under the cover of darkness, allowing the right backdrop for supernatural forces to emerge and boundaries to blur. Protagonists sleepwalk, experience unsettling dreams, visions and hallucinations. Henry Fuseli’s painting ‘The Nightmare’ belongs to the same late eighteenth century period as the rise of early gothic fiction.

O is for Obsession
Characters are frequently consumed by obsessive desires or unreasonable ambitions that become increasingly destructive, leading to manipulation or violence. In Wuthering Heights, love, jealousy and possessiveness become inseparable from suffering and revenge.

P is for Political Power
Many gothic novels have a political context or subtext, exploring the misuse and abuse of power, from tyrannical aristocrats and oppressive institutions to political and religious conflict. James Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, for example, takes place against a history of religious and political division in Scotland.

Q is for Questions
Mystery and uncertainty are central to gothic storytelling, with rumours, riddles and fragmented texts. This extends to the novels themselves, often stories within stories, with unreliable narrators. House of Leaves takes this theme to the core of its construction.

R is for Romanticism
Gothic fiction developed alongside Romanticism in the late eighteenth century, sharing its interest in emotion, imagination, the sublime and the limits of reason. There is overlap with some works containing romantic and gothic elements, the latter focusing those concerns towards darkness, terror and the uncanny.

S is for the Sublime
The sublime is the combination of all-encompassing awe and terror and is a defining characteristic of gothic novels. The fear and fascination are inseparable, especially within the vast landscapes that expose human vulnerability.

T is for Transgression
Some gothic characters cross moral, religious or social boundaries, being drawn towards the forbidden and into conflict with accepted codes. The Monk is a notorious early gothic work exemplifying transgression.  

U is for the Uncanny
The uncanny creates unease by making something familiar feel strange. A person, place or everyday object may appear as expected on the surface, yet no longer feel quite right underneath. Gothic short stories are especially good at creating this unsettling effect, with Edgar Allan Poe and Angela Carter offering good places to start.

V is for Vampire
The vampire is perhaps the supernatural figure most closely associated with gothic fiction. It has been used to explore many of the different themes included in this list, including desire, transgression, otherness, predation, contagion and morality. See Dracula for the most iconic representation, but also 'Carmilla', this rich set of shorter stories and the Vampire Chronicles series.

W is for Weather
Easy to slip into pastiche, but storms, mists and other meteorological events can contribute to the unsettling gloomy atmosphere, as well as providing plot catalysts in gothic fiction.

X is for Xenophobia
Where fear is located in outsiders, gothic novels can interrogate anxieties about nationality, race, religion and cultural difference. Portrayals of the foreign or Other more generally can reinforce prejudice while also exposing fears and assumptions.

Y is for Youth
Youth can represent both innocence and vulnerability in gothic fiction, making children especially unsettling when those expectations are overturned. Elsewhere, the desperate attempt to preserve youth and beauty itself becomes self-destructive in The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Z is for Zeitgeist
Gothic stories can be good vehicles for ruminating on the essential fears of their day. In earlier works, these revolved around industrialisation, scientific progress, sexuality and social change. Contemporary gothic writing continues to find new forms for modern anxieties, including digital threat and the ongoing impacts of colonialism.