What connection was there, if any, between the ‘rise’ of Gothic fiction and the ‘decline’ of supernatural beliefs?
“The reigning fashion of the ghost – a ghost that would only knock and scratch…the clergy give it their benediction; and all the world, whether believers or infidels, go to hear it, in which number you may guess, go tomorrow” – Horace Walpole.
As Walpole notes, the supernatural is a continuing fashion which suggests that while the fairy and witch may have disappeared from popular culture in the Elizabethan era, the ghost continued to haunt the centuries. Despite the attitudes of intellectuals and the growth of secularism within this era, many still fantasised about the post-mortem existence. The years from the 1600s to 1800s represent a particularly significant phase in history for ghost beliefs, since this period saw them under a microscope like never before. The Enlightenment period saw a cultural period of intellectualism, which valued scientific enquiry, reason and a critical questioning of traditional institutions, customs and morals. Consequently, supernatural occurrences were dissected and anatomized by enlightened members of society, which led to fraudulent exposure of such claims. Coinciding with this, England post-1770s has been identified as the Golden age of Gothic fiction, and the literary significance of English ghost stories in the 18th Century culture has been explored in some depth. Handley asserts that the decline of serious beliefs in ghosts was replaced by an appreciation of ghost stories as aesthetic spectacles. Of course, the archetypal Gothic novel at this time included features highly reminiscent of contemporary ghost stories and those of infamy, such as The Ghost of Cock-lane; Mullan notes that the Gothic involves the supernatural for the promise of discovery of “mysteries and contradictions”, elements of antiquity, taking its protagonist on a strange and frightening journey. However, although there are alternative deductions to be made suggesting a link between the supposed decline of supernatural and the rise of Gothic fiction, Van Horn Metton notes that reading and publishing underwent a fundamental transformation during the 18th century, which not only altered the rate of print production significantly, but also impacted on the readers’ taste in Gothic. Alongside this, the Enlightenment brought on a secularising process which occurred largely during the 18th Century, including the rise of Atheism and the decline of Methodism. Consequently, it is perhaps unnecessary to claim a link between a decline within the supernatural and a rise in Gothic, as the supernatural can be seen as continuing on through the medium of the Gothic novel. What is necessary to analyse, is the rise and decline of elements which affect the environment of supernatural conversation.
Undoubtedly, there is a link between the supernatural beliefs which existed in the Victorian era, and the features of these beliefs which are drawn upon within Gothic novels such as The Castle of Otranto, The Mysteries of Udolpho, Northanger Abbey and so on. The infamous story of The Ghost of Cock-lane to many marked the downfall of genuine supernatural belief, and recognition that such reports had great entertainment value. The highly publicised visitations of a ghost in the East End of London was an event which illuminates the conditions of Horace Walpole’s experiment in writing The Castle of Otranto. The varying responses provoked by the Cock-lane affair represent both the summation of previous modes of writing when displaying the supernatural, and the disclosure of new possibilities. Walpole himself tapped into the Cock-lane ‘force’ in a fantasia that reprises so many of the themes at play within the Cock-lane report, such as the implementation of strange noises, and a deep sense of mystery. Walpole has been heralded the father of Gothic fiction, noting that Otranto was a self-consciously ground-breaking work. The Castle of Otranto is thought to have introduced ‘the pleasure of Gothic’, whilst being hinged with old-style supernatural and recalling ancient romance.
One school of thought views this emergence of Gothic fiction as a reaction against the Enlightenment and its suppression of open mindedness, as it is an appreciation of the joys of extreme emotion and the unknown which invokes and excitement and uncertainty. It can be viewed as a symptom of radical questioning of the social order which spread throughout Europe, including the British population, anxious about the social unrest and the effects of the French revolution and of their stability, which of course is exhibited within Austen’s Northanger Abbey. Baker notes that the novelty of the Gothic was that the novels often played on the very real fears of their contemporary readers. This followed a theme which encapsulated the whole predicament faced, the irrational over the rational. From this era evolved a Gothic fiction which allowed the reader to pass from the reasoned order or everyday life imposed by the Enlightenment, to a dark region governed by supernatural beings, a region that inspires dread and horror where decay abounds and death is always at hand. This exploration of Gothic fiction and sublime poetry complemented explorations of the interior-self, and satisfied longings for individual immortality which provided fuel for the creative imaginations., Although at first Gothic novels such as Otranto embraced the supernatural in a wholehearted way, later key works such as those by Austen and Radcliffe could be perceived as a mockery and a satire of people’s belief in the supernatural, and thus its decline. As seen especially within Austen’s Northanger Abbey, and Radcliffe’s, Mysteries of Udolpho, all mysteries all turn out to have natural, if complicated explanations, just like The Ghost of Cocklane. Further progression of this idea of rational explanations is shown within later Gothic works such as Shelley’s Frankenstein. Frankenstein shows a Gothic novel using the latest scientific theory as basis for a man-made horror; no devil from hell or spirit from the world of the dead, a devil a human being has created and unleashed. The Gothic idea truly appears through the thoughts and anxieties of the protagonist; Gothic has always been more about the fear of the supernatural than the supernatural itself. . What is more apparent with works such as Northanger Abbey is the importance of exposing real human danger amongst the habit to assume that all danger is supernatural, which truly is the case within The Ghost of Cock-Lane.
Thus, although there was an irrefutable connection between the supernatural and the Gothic novel, this is not to say that the decline of the supernatural was a catalyst for the rise of Gothic, nor the increasing interest in Gothic the causation for the deterioration for supernatural epistemology. There are various other factors which contributed to the growing infatuation with Gothic fiction, such as the growth of literacy and the printing press, alongside the consumerist revolution. The 18th Century saw a vast increase and distribution in print culture, which saw production of books, pamphlets and newspapers. Keen asserts that this increase in printing literature “reconciled the whole thinking world respecting the great principles of the system of the universe, and extirpated upon this subject the dreams of romance and the dogmas of superstition”. The spread of literacy in the 18th Century both fuelled and reflected this explosion in print culture, which saw the production of many novels which marked the ‘de-Christianization’ of literature. This print explosion during the Enlightenment era was in this way marked by a fundamental transformation of reading tastes of the public. Thus novelty within the consumerist movement became an important criterion for what made a book desirable and interesting. What made the Gothic novel so appealing to the mass audience was the sexuality and excitement, intertwined with the supernatural elements of life they were familiar with from stories such as The Drummer of Tedworth, or The Ghost of Cock-Lane. The Gothic theme allowed the reader to enter the intimate world of the boudoir and become privy to its sexual secrets, in Gothic works such as The Monk and The Castle of Otranto. Novels of this kind of entertainment abounded with ghost stories which whetted the sexual appetites, whilst simultaneously arousing fear. Due to the impact of the printing press, a more positive version of spirituality of the Capitalist marketplace began to be put forward. Thus this system of novel-writing which benefitted and in many ways, exploited the beliefs of the supernatural and the explosion of the printing press, flooded the 1790s consumer market. For this reason it is not feasible to conclude that the rise of the Gothic was solely a reaction to the new stress on reason and ‘enlightenment’.
While there are other causations to the rise of the Gothic, there are other factors which must be attributed to the decline of the supernatural also. Much scholarly thought associates this downfall with the growth in Atheism and scepticism, and the discrediting of the Methodist denomination. Order and progress, confidence in the possibility of controlling nature and history, and a trust in common sense became commandments within an empirical understanding of life. The Enlightenment brought on a prevailing mode of rational thought. By the end of the 18th Century many educated people were sceptical of the existence of ghosts and haunted landscapes. The causes of such secularisation have variously been attributed to industrialisation, urbanisation, and changes in the intellectual climate. This intellectual ferment within the Victorian era opened a vacuum in which alternative beliefs could flourish, from Atheism to Agnosticism. With these developments comes a more scientific perception of the world, and thus analysis of the supernatural. This can be exhibited within Shelley’s Frankenstein, which not only explores the contemporary science, but also aims to explore the morality of human beings and their own antagonism, as opposed to that of a supernatural entity. This new way of processing information can be seen within The Monthly Chronologer, when discussing the investigation of The Cock-Lane Ghost. The extract notes, “they interrogate the father of the girl, who denied any knowledge or fraud…it was therefore determined to make this trial of the existence or veracity…it is therefore of the opinion of the whole assembly that the child has some art of making or counterfeiting particular noises, and there is no agency of higher cause.” This suggests that although they were open minded, they repeated their investigation several times for reliability, and concluded it was fraudulent. Richard Parsons, father to Elizabeth and the officiating clerk of the Methodist church, was found guilty of slanderous conspiracy against Kent, thus disproportionately Methodist disciples were ridiculed. Following this investigation, people became much less inclined to see ghosts in the 18th Century because they were ‘losing their social relevance’ and were rendered ‘intellectually impossible’. William Hogarth’s ‘Credulity, superstition and fanaticism; a medley’ unleashed a vicious satirical attack on a fanatic Methodist preacher and congregation. The Methodists were regularly accused of being distracted, and within Hogarth’s picture he makes the Methodist meeting place more like a mad house. The Cock-Lane hoax sparked off a period of ghost story revival in which numerous older ghost stories were often satirized, which aimed to discredit continued belief in them. Rack claims that Methodist ideology was viewed as totally obscurantist and credulous, noting “nothing was intellectual about Methodism; the rational attitude, the most fashionable intellect attitude of the day, was absolute. Thus in many ways, it is easy to see that perhaps the lack of faith left within Methodist values, and their perpetration of the supernatural, left many feeling discouraged for adopting such doctrine. Consequently, many felt that Methodist worship could not protect them from the very real fears of their own contemporaries. With the exposed corruption of the Methodists it is not hard to understand why many might feel sceptical towards their viewpoints, and thus abandon all belief in the supernatural.
Undoubtedly, there was connection between supernatural beliefs on the brink of the Enlightenment, and the rise of the Gothic novels. Gothic fiction promised the inclusion of the supernatural, and drew inspiration from ghost tales which haunted the minds of the populace. These hauntings within Gothic literature can take place in many forms, but they frequently assumed the features of ghosts and spectres. It is at this level that Gothic fictions generally play with and oscillate between the earthly laws of conventional reality, and the possibilities of the supernatural. This is indeed, highly reminiscent of paranormal reports experienced during the years prior to the Enlightenment, in tales such as The Drummer of Tedworth, and reports such as Joseph Glanvill’s Saducismus Triumphatus. Consequently it would be incorrect to ignore the axiomatic connection between the supernatural beliefs of the 18th Century, and the Gothic aesthetic. However, when considering all factors, perhaps it is more accurate to emphasize the connection between the rise of the printing press, the need for novelty, and the fears of their own contemporaries alongside the rise of Gothic fiction. Alongside these factors it is also necessary to attribute the downfall of orthodox, and absolute belief in the supernatural to challenge to the Methodist church, and the rise of empirical thinking. The printing press upsurge of the 1870s induced within the public a Gothic hysteria, which in turn, gave sustenance to an audience which craved the ‘powers of fancy’ which came with the territory. The sensuality alongside the terror instigated a carnal fervour within the novel-reading public, which provided escapism for those who feared the foreign climate at the time. The decline of faith in Methodist practices following the exposure of scandals, such as The Ghost of Cock-Lane hoax, conjured by scorned Richard Parsons led the church to be under scrutiny. As Walpole noted, “the clergy give it their benediction; and all the world, whether believers or infidels, go to hear it”. A series of satirical works attacking the hoax were produced, such as the print of English Credulity or the Invisible Ghost in Cock-Lane, perpetuating the decline further. The rise of rational thinking capitalised on this pre-existing doubt further, and heralded the rise of Atheism and the secularisation of the public. Furthermore, it is more accurate to acknowledge that there are more significant outside connections relating to the rise of Gothic fiction, and the decline of the supernatural, than assuming they directly impact the other’s progression. When considering Walpole’s statement, “The reigning fashion of the ghost – a ghost that would only knock and scratch”, he is right, the supernatural is an entity that had haunted for centuries, and even continues to do so in the 21st Century. The ghost is representative of collective cultures of belief, and allows the living persons to compete with the dead for attention and sympathy. In many ways, it is therefore feasible to argue that there was really no decline in supernatural belief at all; rather that an alternative medium to express these beliefs occurred, through Gothic literature. The rise of Gothic fiction did not kill the ghost; it kept the ghost alive.