Wieland

The author set out consciously to create a particularly American version of the European Gothic novel. The European Gothic is the literary reflection of the Gothic architecture that appeared in the medieval era and was re-popularized in the 18th century when Romanticism venerated the Middle Ages. Thus, the European Gothic is often associated with dark, spooky buildings such as castles and cathedrals. Gothic novels were frequently, though not always, set in castles, abbeys, and large houses full of secret passages and hidden chambers.

Brown faced a challenge in setting a Gothic-style story in the new world where he couldn’t rely on architecture or the weight of history to create a gloomy or frightening effect. Instead, he substituted weather and natural settings. Even in the temple—which is the only significant architectural setting in the story—the style is classical rather than Gothic. The author substitutes the temple’s elevation, situated on a high promontory, for the looming height of a Gothic castle or abbey.

Darkness, with its fear of the unknown and unseen, is a defining theme of the Gothic genre. European writers could employ architecture to evoke the sense of oppression associated with dark, enclosed spaces. The placement of the summerhouse in a hollow of the riverbank evokes the same sense of claustrophobic darkness. For Americans, however, darkness was also associated with a vast, open, and uncontrolled wilderness where anything might lurk, and one might find oneself alone without light or help as Clara does in the summerhouse when she wakes after her dream of her brother. Thus, to be outdoors at night was more fearsome in the American consciousness than to be indoors.

Weather, specifically storms, is another defining characteristic that appears in both American and European Gothic fiction. Storms produce darkness and menace. Low hanging clouds create a sense of oppression and confinement. Weather can be used to create suspense and fear, and it can also represent the characters' emotional states. For example, Clara describes the “tempest” that raged after her meeting with Carwin, while she sits up contemplating his picture. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a storm is used to symbolize the scientist's inner turmoil, and in Bram Stoker's Dracula, a thunderstorm creates an eerie atmosphere as the characters travel to Transylvania. Shelley and Stoker both acknowledged being directly inspired by Brown’s writing.

Washington Irving, some 50 years later, would use a storm to create a Gothic effect in Rip Van Winkle, who encounters a tribe of dwarves playing at ninepins; the rolling of the balls created the rumble of thunder, and the lightning was the crash of the bowling pins. Shakespeare would also employ storm as a device to create a Gothic sense of menace and turmoil in plays like Macbeth and King Lear, but Brown particularly invokes Shakespeare’s The Tempest—first by his description of Carwin as a Caliban-esque figure, then only pages later by Clara referring to the storm as a “tempest”.

Later American Gothic writers influenced by Brown—Hawthorne and Poe, for example—would employ more architectural elements as the new country was more heavily settled, but they would keep many of the distinctive characteristics that made Brown’s work so influential in its time. The author succeeded in creating a particularly American version of the Gothic novel that influenced both American and European authors for generations to come.