Gothic Elements In The Castle Of Otranto

Fear has always been a feeling or instinct which has helped people survive threatening and dangerous situations. humans initially learned to have three sources of fear: germs and diseases, physical threats, and sources of poison (Minnesota M.U). The Amygdala is a gland in the brain that helps detect and create the human fear response. When a threatening stimulus is encountered the Amygdala sends messages that put a person in a state of vigilance and attentiveness. This reaction prepares someone to defend them self. Scientists often refer to this as “fight or flight” (Hutchins). This simply means that people either fight their source of fear or run from it. This method was used as a survival technique for early humans. Gothic Elements in the novel are used to scare readers and activate the human fear response. Also, by increasing one’s stress level can have a direct impact to the level of fear that they are coping with. In the Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, he uses many Gothic Elements that relate to the fear response mechanism called the Amygdala to make the reader feel the escalated stress …show more content…
It is unique in a way that shows real-life situations with a supernatural twist. Which in the past has never been done before by anyone in his time. This novel utterly changed the way literature was looked at forever due to the fact that it triggered the famous fear response which now we use for amusement. In the Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, he uses many Gothic Elements that relate to the fear response mechanism called the Amygdala to make the reader feel the escalated stress and anticipation that makes them feel they are really encountering the situations. Next time that you are watching a scary movie with your friends and feel that you are about to freak out you will know