What do I think of when I say 'gothic'? Vampires, of course, and bats, churchyards at night, Frankenstein, moonless nights, blood,evil spirits, emos... When it comes to literature, 'gothic' style definitely contains elements of these. They mostly feature darkness in one form or another, perhaps literally in the case of 'Dracula', where scenes take place at night, or the 'dark' nature of tales such as 'Frankenstein', where the protagonist's creation of a monster can be seen as rather disturbing.
Really, Gothic can be pretty much anything which pertains to darkness or especially the supernatural. So Dr Faustus can be defined as Gothic for it's use of both evil and the supernatural (devil). The dark nature of the play is evident in Faustus' summoning of Mephistophilis, and it is even more worrying to see Faustus being so unconcerned about his own soul. Gothic literature appears to be as much about frightening the reader than about entertainment.
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