| In terms of literary tropes in Gothic literature, one of the most under discussed is the prevalence of worrisome groups. For this paper I am looking at a number of Gothic texts to try and identify possible motivations for the writers use of groups of people to instill fear. The text that are analyzed here include, Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764), William Beckford's Vathek (1786), William Godwin's Caleb Williams (1794), and Matthew Lewis's The Monk (1799). Through the use of these texts, as well as others from each author and pertinent historical texts, I am hoping to show that some of the possible motivations for the use of this trope stem from biographical as well as political reasons. With the political instability that was prevalent in the late eighteenth century, with the Gordon Riots in England and the French Revolution, the activities of the lower class were especially important to the intellectuals and authors of that era, which I argue leads to the use of this trope. |
