Rebels of Reason

There has always been a saying that ‘what goes up must come down’. It is my belief that this saying is what caused gothic literature to be so popular during the eighteenth and nineteenth century of the British Empire. During this period, the British Empire was quickly flourishing. The Empire had acquired vast land and monitorial prosperity, but its people may have had a subconscious sense of impending doom. They may have felt that the empire’s great prosperity would not last. This would have no doubt attracted them to the gloom filled mystery coupled with suspense and tendency to the dramatic and the sensational writing of Gothic literature. Truth be told, however, the flocking response to Gothic literature was a response to the Enlightenment. People in history have often rebelled against things prominent to belief before their existence or coming of age, teenage rebellion. Thus it is no surprise that after the Enlightenment, a period of time that valorized human reason, individuals flocked to literature that ‘presented the irrational viewpoint of human existence.’ Gothic literature explored the supernatural, things that were ‘unreasonable’ to believe in. It portrayed natural events as eerie, making a thunderstorm, for example, something that would chill you to the bone. http://resources.mhs.vic.edu.au/creating/pages/origins.htm

frank and goth sitting in a tree.....

Gothic was very popular in Great Britain. It came about when the French began there age of enlightenment. With gothic architecture came gothic literature. Gothic lit. had everything anyone could hope for from mystery murders to romance all in one book. Gothic novels also many times consisted of monsters like frankenstein and vampires and werewolves. I believe gothic novels lasted so long because of the mystery and wanting to be something more than yourself. Also people like the suspense and the idea of something different. It makes them curious about what will happen next. Example in Frankenstein "I then reflected, and the thought made me shiver, that the creature whom I had left in my apartment might still be there alive and walking about." and the description of Frankenstein. Here you can see that anything thing that even looked different was considered an abomination and it was given no chance to explain it self. You can hear the fear in Dr. Frankenstein's voice as he contemplates whether or not he should go back to his house. With words and descriptions like these its easy to see why Gothic literature is still popular. Another common example is the Twilight saga.

link: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/gothic-literature.html