Setting as Character in Gothic Literature
Drafty monasteries, windy moors, subterranean passageways, rotting mansions, dark castles at the top of the hill with lightning streaking across the sky: it's just your friendly Gothic neighborhood. And often, that setting is main player in the story—and more than often, its title: The Castle of Otranto, Wuthering Heights, Northanger Abbey, you get the idea.
Why give such credence to old buildings and creepy wilderness?
Think about it. You're in England—the veritable birthplace of Gothic literature—in the 18th century. You're in full-swing of the Enlightenment, and a part of you is getting tired of reason and practically. You're surrounded largely by three things: the country (mostly farmland); the city (offices, theatres, and inns); and rocky, woodsy wilderness. In both the city and the country, you've got these monumental estates left over from a few centuries ago.
What catches your attention specifically? Medieval churches, monasteries, castles, and fortresses. You feel that these relics have a certain emotional energy that totally jibes with your burgeoning Romantic sensibilities.
These emotionally-charged buildings have a life of their own. They've lived a long time, and now they want…revenge? While many Gothic novels may not have more going on than a strange curse, more often, the strange elements within these buildings play a significant but more subtle role in the plot.
Trick bookshelves, flickering candles, dusty curtains, locked windows—they're all meaningful. The age, the history, and the over-all creep factor of these places change the way the characters think and behave. Atmosphere has a huge role in the plot and often mirrors the feelings and actions of the (other) characters.
All that in a setting? You bet.
Chew on This
After the early Gothic novels, Wuthering Heights probably offers the most readily identifiable example of a living landscape. Take a look at how the moors impact the people living nearby, and how two neighboring mansions can produce such totally different (both completely dysfunctional) families.
What happens when the walls around you become your only companions? What happens when the room to which you're confined starts making you a little batty? The Yellow Wallpaper is a 19th-century short story that exposes a serious contemporary problem for women, the "rest cure," while blurring genre lines and reshaping some good ol' fashioned Gothic tropes.