f ascination with death s ettings are desolate, alienating and full of menace

1. fascination with death • settings are desolate, alienating and full of menace • the powerlessness of humanity when faced with the power of the supernatural • A melodramatic genre, where extremes of emotion have disastrous consequences • Death is the punishment for sin • The consequences of disrupting the natural order of things • Lacks tension and suspense because the end is always inevitable • The presentation of the place is more interesting than the characters • An exploration of what cannot be explained • Significance of forms of entrapment • Religion is central to readings of gothic texts • Explores nightmarish terrors that lie beneath the civilised mind

2. Women are either innocent victims or sinister predators or largely absent • Explores the fear of forces beyond human understanding • Struggle between good and evil is always of central importance and good is rarely victorious • Unintentionally comic rather than terrifying • Dangers of aspiring beyond our limitations • Obsession is a significant element • Villains make evil seem attractive • Fear and pain are sources of pleasure • Mad, bad and dangerous villains • Explores potential threats to normal values