The Gothic Elements and Atmosphere in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. An Analysis

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject Didactics - English - Literature Works grade: 17 University of Frankfurt (Main) language: English abstract: This paper seeks to analyze the two most dominating Gothic elements in Charles Dickens'' novel Great Expectations and their effect on the atmosphere and on the development of the main protagonist Pip. From his earliest works Dickens has included elements of Gothic literary conventions into his novels. Dickens used the rich atmospheric thematic and metaphorical repertoire of Gothic elements to entertain his readers and to utter social critique. In his novels Dickens produces a scary menacing and mysterious atmosphere and similarly depicts the social problems of the haunted British society (Mighall 86). This is explicitly true for Dickens''s novel Great Expectations. In academic literature there have been diverse critical interpretations about Dickens''s use of Gothic elements and their effect. However it is still a growing field of academical research and only few Gothic elements of the novel Great Expectations are documented in detail. To get an overview of the Gothic novel''s genre the characteristic elements of Gothic novels will be introduced in brief. These are the Gothic setting as well as supernatural and irrational elements. To get an instrument for the analysis of the Gothic setting in Great Expectations the characteristics of the Gothic novel''s setting will be introduced. Then the atmospheric effects of the settings Satis House London and the misty marshes in Dickens'' Great Expectations will be analyzed in detail. Also their influence on Pip''s personal development will be examined. Furthermore the repertoire of the supernatural and irrational elements in the Gothic novel will be presented. In Great Expectations these Gothic elements are represented through Pip''s dreams and hallucinations which also add to the haunting atmosphere and illustrate Pip''s development. In the end