“The element of terror is inseparably associated with the Gothic castle, which is an image of power, dark, isolated, and impenetrable. No light penetrating its impermeable walls, high and strengthened by bastions, it stands silent, lonely and sublime, frowning defiance on all who dare to invade its solitary reign. Through its dim corridors now prowl armed bandits; its halls ring with hideous revelry or anon are silent as the grave. Even when presented in decay, the castle is majestic and threatening: a spot where we encounter the mysterious and demonic beings of romance.
“The grandeur of these relics recall the scenes of ancient chivalry and whispers a moral of departed greatness, inspiring us with a feeling of melancholy awe and sacred enthusiasm. It awakens musings on those who lived there in former times: if those walls could speak, they could tell strange things, for they have looked upon sad doings. It is an emblem of life and death, and the ruinous walls seem still to echo tremors of life. One feels that in the halls but late the banquet reveled, or the spectre of justice threatened, where the hurrying foot passed by and the hum of voices rose upon the now silent air. This ruined edifice is the symbol of joy and mourning and human passions, of hopes and fears, triumphs and villainy, of the extremes of princely grandeur and domestic misery, of supernatural power and moral weakness, the embodiment of all emotions and themes displayed in the Gothic novels.” p. 18
Varma, Devendra P. The Gothic Flame: Being a History of the Gothic Novel in England. 1957; New York: Russell & Russell, 1964.
