Entering the darker places: The lodge-gates in The Hound of the Baskervilles

Gothic fiction is full of scenes where characters enter dark and creepy places—hopefully to meet some kind of doom.

In this series of lessons we’re going to explore a series of gothic settings and try to learn some of the language and techniques used to create their distinctly gloomy effect, so you can better threaten your hero or heroine with a grim and lonely end.

TROPES

A trope is kind of like a cliché; it’s usually a character, event or descriptive feature that audiences recognize. Examples of gothic tropes are dark, crumbling mansions and castles; consumptive girls in white dresses; angry men with moustaches; lonely moors; crows; ghosts; coffins; wild dogs; madness.

In this series of lessons we will see lots of gothic tropes.