Gothic Tropes
What constitute as Gothic novel extends far beyond the tropes. But when writing my Gothic novels like Encore: A Hypnotic Abduction and Floating on Secrets, in addition to studying all the other elements of the conventions in depth, I compiled this simple list of all the tropes that make up traditional Gothics. Enjoy! And if you want to suggest any more, feel free to contact me (Tantra Bensko).
Crows or ravens, bats, howling wolves, often portents
Clanking chains
Secret passages, tunnels
Crumbling, decaying ruins of church or state, orphanages
Meeting of fantastic past and realistic present
Endangered child to protect, orphans
Sick and twisted relative, mad, deformed, hidden away, idiotic, or controlling
Hidden love-child
Things are not what they seem
Juxtaposition of modern and ancient
Passionate attraction to a dangerous man
Unclear weather, fog, mist, storms, lightning, thunder, wind, trees scratching walls
Paranormal figures, hauntings, and powers, though they may end up being illusory
Recluse
Ancestral curses, cursed objects stolen from colonies
Xenophobia
Evil Catholics
Woman struggling against accepting stereotypical gender roles
Restrictive religious requirements causing twisted psyches
Missing person
Mysterious servants working with masters or helping the good ones
Man with secrets scheming against virginal woman
Damsel in distress
Well house
Isolation, islands, moors, lighthouses
Castle
Attics, basements, vaults, crypts, trap doors, trick panels, garden
ESP
Ghosts, though they may eventually be explained with rational science
Woman going to mansion to be governess
Occult rituals, Satanic sacrifice, black magic
Limitations of rationality to explain world we live in
Fascination with history
Gothic (Medieval) architecture, spires, turrets
Visions, dreams, and scrying
Questions of immortality
Heavy symbolism
Old dusty books
Portraits that change, creepy masks
Diaries, grimoires, maps, wills
Dopplegangers, twins, mirrored objects, parallels
Long roads, paths
Mysterious footsteps, laughter, faces in the window
Unexplained lights
Poisons, cursed objects
Somnambulism and hypnosis
Maze
Unusual keys
Corpse, murder, fire, drowning
Incest, sexual perversions, incest, BDSM, unholy couplings, paranormal seduction
Dark romance with qualified happy or doomed endings
Parody of the genre
Overwrought emotions, screams, melodrama
High style of the prose, beauty, poetic language and imagery Profound concepts
Unspeakable psychological suffering, torture
Women newly married to men with secrets
Descent into madness, hallucinations
Gaslighting
Morals and acceptance of wholesome marriage at the end
Mixed feelings of revulsion and attraction
Attraction to two men, one dark, one light
Virginal fear of sex and disease
Woman in white, woman in black long dresses
Bare feet
Cold
Unreliable/insane narrator
Mythology
Family history
Danger of falling in love with the wrong man
Frame stories and found manuscripts
Shadows
Dungeons of torture and trap doors
Dense, rhythmic diction that creates a trance in reader
Fainting, swooning, near death, coma, possession
Fortunes gained, threatened, lost, recovered
Formal dialogue and manners, old-fashioned chastity, sensitivity
Obsession
Dark, handsome, brooding man
Graveyards and crypts
First Person POV
Suddenly seeing a frightening character appear in front of one
A male hero who rescues the damsel
Slender, high cheekbones, devastating beauty, long hair
Multiple Personality Disorder
Androgyn
Can’t kill death
Knights, chivalry, armor that comes to life
Stories within stories
Gruesome death, disfigurement, and torture, revenge, rape
Imprisonment
Deceit, manipulation, domination of the psyche
Lush use of adverbs and adjectives, old-fashioned language and stylized dialogue
Women at the mercy of men going insane and becoming cruel
Succubi and incubi
Poltergeists
Elixir of life, Philosopher’s Stone, Rosicrucians, alchemy
Possession and exorcism
Werewolves, zombies, mummies
Telekinesis
Ancient objects infused with magical powers
Walking skeletons
Love triangle
Vices such as gambling and addictions
Government conspiracies and cover-ups
Mad science, often related to the quest for immortality, cobbling together a “person” as in Frankenstein, Sci Fi that at first seems paranormal but is shown to be psychopaths arranging evil schemes to create illusions
Horrific scenes mixed with romantic longings
Alchemy, occult arts, ceremonial rituals, gruesome sacrifice
