Gothic Horror in Susan Hills The Woman in Black and H.G. Wells The Re

Gothic Horror in Susan Hills The Woman in Black and H.G. Wells The Red Room As with all things, the gothic execration musical genre of publications did notbegin at one definable point, but evolved gradually. Gothic repulsive forceevolved out of gothic fiction (as opposed to classical fiction, forexample the novels of Jane Austen), earlier establishing itself as agenre in its own right. However, many literary scholars and criticswould point to The Castle of Otranto, written by Horace Walpole andfirst published in 1764, as the first true gothic horror novel,containing as it does many of the clichs prevalent throughout thegenre.Gothic horror novels are typified by their dark, lachrymose atmosphereof timidity and fear. In fact, the key to gothic horror can be summed upin one word tension. This is created by many devices, as well ashaving an evil force present working against the hero/heroine. Thecharacters, locations and atmospheres created are designed to bethreatening, even when nothing sinister is actually happening.Although the gothic horror genre didnt die out altogether, itcertainly lost popularity. However, it has had a minor resurgence overthe last decade. Susan Hill is one of the authors who has turned herhand to the gothic horror format, her short novel The Woman In Blackbeing released in the late eighties. Susan Hill says she wrote TheWoman In Black because she had the urge to write a story in the oldfashioned sense, perhaps because of a dissatisfaction with modernhorror writing and its reliance upon gore and physical danger. HGWells, although primarily a science-fiction author, also wrote agothic horror story, The Red Room. I will be comparing these twostories, to see how these ... ...t be too light dismissed. These twostories are particularly interesting because they were both written byauthors who arent normally associated with the genre, so they haveexplored the clichs more than a seasoned horror writer might. Butdespite being so blatantly in fluenced by genre standards such asHenry James The Turn Of The Screw and work of M.R. James, they tolerategripping. This is because they appeal to our wish for escapism and adecent scare, a need that is pandered to by almost every work offiction. This is the basis of horror writing - that the proofreader wantsto be scared if the reader approaches the story with the attitude ofnot wanting or expecting to be scared, he or she will not be changeby the story so much. However, gothic horror is still one of the mosteffective mediums for provoking fear, ensuring its enduringpopularity.