Response 1

After reading this book and learning that it was the first Gothic Novel. It gave me a better understanding of what authors and even directors get their inspiration from for horror. Of course someone who lives in the 21st century wouldn’t  have thought some of the scenes in the book to be to frightening, but at that time it was the basic foundation to try and instill fear into the reader. One example includes when Biancia and Maltida heard someone singing under their feet and assumed that it was a ghost which invoked a feeling of suspense or fear; which is often imitated in todays scary movies and books. Another examples is  when Isabella was hiding in the cave and Theodore came looking for her and she got up and ran. This is another instance of suspense where the damsel in distress doesn’t know who is chasing her. This can be good or bad,  because the reader does not what will happen next which captures the idea of what a gothic novel should be.  A scene like this has often been imitated and amplified to invoke a much more suspenseful feeling, where they may be two people chasing after someone and we as the reader or person watching the movie would be anxious wanting to find out who gets to the damsel first and whether  she lives or dies. Overall, the basic gothic conventions that are in this book have become the foundation in which other authors could learn from and build on. Some of these simple examples are just basic of what we as consumers see in today’s literature and movies.