Two of the mainstays of gothic literature are location as character, and thinly veiled eroticism.
"Location as character" can best be seen in the haunted house subgenre of gothic fiction, but has been prevalent across the genre since the first gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole was published in the mid 18th century. The fact of the matter is that you can't truly have a gothic novel without a tangible sense of place. Wherever your story is happening must feel as if it is as alive as any of the characters are. The setting must be well described and the moody atmosphere of the landscape will often reflect the themes of work itself, creating tension as our characters progress through the plot.
Speaking of tension, "thinly veiled eroticism" is likewise incredibly common and practically inherent to the genre's very existence, to the point that better explanations than I could give on the subject already exist out there. The interplay between society and sexuality is a central theme of gothic literatureâa theme which had to be tacitly explored due to widespread censorship in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Anyways, I was listening to Sabrina Carpenter's House Tour...
