Gothic Elements In The Castle Of Otranto

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In the Castle of Otranto the story includes many of the gothic elements in a gothic novel, and those gothic elements relate to the fear response in the human brain. In this paper I will explain The gothic elements found in the Castle of Otranto, the fear response system and how the gothic elements relate to it, and lastly the significance of the Castle of Otranto.

According to the Elements of the gothic Novel worksheet there ten main gothic elements found in a gothic novel ,and in the castle of Otranto the novel includes all ten of these gothic elements, but there are three main gothic elements that stand out in the novel. The First Gothic element is a setting in castle. A quote from the book that proves this is in novel when it say,” The …show more content…
Fear can be many things. The definition of fear is, an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. Why do we feel fear? Well fear is caused by the amygdalae. The amygdalae is organs in the limbic System, detect such possibilities and send the signals which generate the fear emotion, which sets off avoidance activities. This causes what modern science call fight or flight. It is also called the fear trigger system. This was a life saving mechanism for early humans. Fight or flight prepares us to run, move, fight, etc. The gothic elements in the novel Castle of Otranto relate to the fear trigger system. The amygdalae tells us that a bad, old rotten house is scarier and more avoidable than a normal clean house. The amygdalae also tells us that most of the gothic elements aren't suppose to be something good and instead tell us that the situation isn't good. An example would be the gothic element a setting in a castle. The massive arched spaces of the buildings were intended to produce emotion of awe and fear. To sum it up the amygdalae is what causes fear and fight or flight and the gothic elements are related to the fear trigger …show more content…
Although many people reflect on Frankenstein or Dracula when you think of early gothic writing examples, the novel castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole is the first gothic novel that started it all. BBC news says,” In fact, the roots of the genre can be traced back to the publication of Horace Walpole’s 18th century novel The castle of Otranto- a work whose aesthetics have shaped modern-day gothic books, films, art, and music, as well as the gothic subculture.” Also Walpole combined two prominent styles of writing instead of just one. The two he combined was Medieval romance which includes Dragons, Giants, Knights, etc, and the second style was modern novel which is entirely realistic detail and true to-life descriptions. This created a realistic setting in which supernatural things occur. Also to enhance the “reality” of the gothic novel, often an introduction states that the novel is found a “found manuscript”, which the Castle of Otranto included. The Castle of Otranto was a very significant peice in writing and will always be known as the start of the gothic literature and inspiring many of today's gothic movies, arts, books ,and gothic
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