It focuses a lot on how confusing the human mind and being is as well as how confusing nature can be. e.g. Answer Save. Hugely, and deservedly, popular in her time. Favorite Answer. I’ve never read a Gothic novel and didn’t actually know why they were called that. The Monk by Matthew Lewis . Relevance. I think it was popular during that era because it was an era during the Industrial Revolution. The vogue was initiated in England by Horace Walpole’s immensely successful Castle of Otranto (1765). The Gothic novel is most commonly applied to group of novels written between the 1760's and 1820's. The best Gothic novels, selected by Dr Oliver Tearle The following list is not supposed to represent the ten most definitive Gothic novels ever published – it’s a list to inspire debate and discussion as much as it is a list of recommendations of classic Gothic works of fiction. The thing is, I'm not really sure the reasons that it was popular in the first place, and google isn't helping very much. 7 years ago. So, I went and read the plot lines of some of the ones you listed. 4. тωιѕтє∂ωяєη . Pictured above, Walpole’s Strawberry Hill house is still open today as a museum to the “finest example of Georgian gothic revival architecture.” Early Gothic novels Walpole, and his house, played an important role in the development of the gothic idea in the art world as well, as he published the first “gothic” novel, The Castle of Otranto, in 1764. Most of the skies of cities were blackened with smoke and debris from factories, it was always cloudy and there were many horrible circumstances going on with child labor, unjust laws, murders (Jack the Ripper), and overall madness. Get an answer for 'Why did Gothic literature appear; what was the importance of it?' Gothic can be meant to explore dangers of individualism including oppression of women, slavery, trauma, and more. The Victorians in Britain were not alone in this at all — across Europe similar movements in philosophy, the arts, architecture, literature, and so on took place. I need to write an essay where I'm going to compare reasons the gothic genre was originally popular, with why it continues to be popular today. As aforementioned, back then, the Gothic novels were marked by prominent sounds and smell, along with a strikingly horror and terrorizing environment. Girls were sold away to wealthy families where they had to pretend to love the man each night. Nevertheless, […] frankenstien, and wuthering heights, and the grey woman. they were all written in the 1800s! Gothic place settings such as the polar ice glacier or the old man’s cottage were cleverly used in Mary Shelley’s classic gothic novel Frankenstein. Horace Walpole through his novel The Castle of Otranto initiated a trend of bringing together a setting of mystery and suspense, trapdoors, ancient prophecies, and beautiful heroines. Any help would be … so were most gothic stories, and i really want to know why gothic stories were so popular? and find homework help for other Gothic Literature questions at eNotes Neo-Gothic architecture was just such an expression of this, a return to a Disneylandified version of the Middle Ages. We need you to answer this question! However, the ghost stories were so popular because many spirits that came back were trobbled due to the way they died, or the depressing life they lived. 3 Answers. Why is gothic genre so popular? As we watch or read, we know we are physically safe but the movie or the novel is dramatizing an unease that puts us in psychological danger. if you give me a LONG and accurate answer i promise i'll give you the best answer (i will choose the first best one loool) PLEASE HELP ME :P you are free to advertise as long as you gimme an answer Obviously the Gothic has endured because it is a way of dealing with issues that are normally repressed or can't be directly addressed. The movement focused on ruin, decay, death, terror, chaos, and irrationality. If used, the word "gothic" was used to describe (mostly early) works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Called Gothic because its imaginative impulse was drawn from medieval buildings and ruins, such novels commonly used such settings as castles or monasteries equipped with subterranean passages, dark battlements, hidden panels, and trapdoors. Russian Gothic was not, until the 1990s, viewed as a genre or label by Russian critics. Russian Gothic Fiction. why was gothic writing so popular in the 1800s? I always pictured terrified young women running through crumbling and scary keeps, but that’s as far as I got before now. Those are issues that don't arouse fear so much as unease or anxiety. A wide range of elements that create a sense of terror, decay, despair, or death are needed to contribute to a gothic setting.