Gothic literature is a subcategory of romantic literature that places great emphasis on emotion, but also utilizes terror themes and subjects to portray social issues or concepts. The movement is known to have first begun with Horace Walpole's novel The Castle of Otranto. The novel introduced romantic qualities such as heavy emphasis on medieval romantic storylines and being set in the medieval period, but used horror concepts like ancestral rituals, tyrannical villains, and monsters/mythos that provide terror to characters in order to carry the story. Concepts like ghosts, haunted castles, mythic rituals, and gore were brought out into the novel and started the gothic style of literature. Not only that, but gothic literature, especially poetry, carried pessimistic tones to it as well. The concepts of innocence and purity were brought into light, with questions on how they should be interpreted, where they start, and where they end being a main focus on gothic poetry.
Anna Laetitia Barbauld's essay, "On the Pleasure Derived from Objects of Terror" focuses on the sublime of horror and gothic literature as a whole. Barbauld writes that the key purpose of horror storylines is to create sympathy for the characters. Characters like the hero and the virginial maiden are portrayed and put in certain situations to allow the reader to gain sympathy and side with them. The virginial maiden is meant to portray innocence and purity, while the hero is meant to protect that purity. Barbauld also states that pleasure is the resulting feeling that horror evokes, as the readers feel sympathy for the characters' pain. Therefore, Barbauld questions why people like to be scared by gothic literature if there is no moral purpose. In reality, it is because of the structure of literature. When we are introduced to something, we must see the end result. In order to feel satisfied, readers must see a resolution to the conflict they have experienced. And in gothic literature, Barbauld believes the sympathy and moral implications are not enough to create an appeal for the genre. Instead, gothic ltierature utilizes terror and horror to open up the mind and imagination.
So, the next time you read or watch a horror piece, especially one with gothic themes, I encourage you to try and find the moral messages or themes behind them. I play a lot of video games, and one that is very gothic-centric is Bloodborne, and many still struggle to see the themes it holds to the real world. That's why gothic literature and media is very interesting: it asks you whether you are willing to risk fear in order to satisfy the means of the story.