From 1789 to 1850, two revolutions transformed Europe: the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. In part, the development of Gothic literature was a reaction to each.
French Revolution
Pre-revolutionary France was divided into three social classes, or estates: the church, the nobility, and everyone else. The Third Estate, or 80% of the population, generally paid the majority of taxes, and due to the unwillingness of the nobility to pay their share, the Third Estate began to mobilize as a unified voice. Calls for equality, liberty and natural rights soon echoed throughout France. A new Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen proclaimed the natural and inalienable rights of all men, the hallmarks of eighteenth-century Enlightenment ideals.
But the revolution soon turned “radical.” In September 1792, two events caused international support to turn against the French. The first was the unprovoked massacre of political prisoners, including nobles and priests. The second was the abolishment of the monarchy with the subsequent execution of King Louis XVI. In the autumn of 1793, twelve men took control of the government as the Committee of Public Safety [CPS]. Its aims were to suppress their enemies and create a “Republic of Virtue.” For nearly a year, the CPS ruled France under a Reign of Terror. Revolutionary courts were created to try traitors to the Republic, and those found guilty were executed by the guillotine.
Industrial Revolution
Beginning in the mid-eighteenth century in England, the textile industry underwent rapid technological improvements. As the reliance on human and animal power decreased, the use of water, steam, and coal as power increased. This led to the creation of factories where large-scale machines could be housed in one location, generally near sources of water. The need for workers led to the large-scale migration of country dwellers to cities, such as London, Manchester, and Birmingham. Technological improvements in agriculture led to a surplus of food resulting in a population boom. Between 1750 and 1850, England’s population rose from nine million to sixteen million (Breunig 156).
For the millions who moved to the city from the country, adjusting to factory life was often incredibly difficult. The job was often monotonous and tedious with long hours and harsh conditions. Isolation from friends and family led to higher rates of “suicide, insanity, and crimes against property” in the city than in the rural areas (Breunig 166). Urban conditions were often deplorable as streets were covered in trash; rivers were polluted; and diseases, like King Cholera, flourished.
Gothic Literature as a Reaction to the Revolutions
Romanticism as a literary movement began as a reaction to the Enlightenment. Rather than reason, the romantics focused on emotion. Edmund Burke theorized that the sublime was “the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling” (Burke, quoted in Clery, p. 36). Terror, therefore, was the ruling principle of the sublime. The French Revolution drove Gothic writers of terror to “compete with the shocking reality” of the “unspeakable” – the September Massacre, the execution of Louis, and the fall of Robespierre (Miles 55).
Gothic was also a reaction against the materialistic, industrial world that was emerging. Looking back nostalgically at the Middle Ages, Gothic writers felt a sentimental attachment to a world in which people belonged to a community where they were protected by the nobility. In comparison, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were periods of great social and economic upheaval in Britain.
References
Breunig, C. (1977). The Age of Revolution and Reaction, 1789-1850. W. W. Norton & Company.
Clery, E. J. (2002). The genesis of "Gothic" fiction. In J. E. Hogle (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to Gothic fiction (pp. 21-40). Cambridge University Press.
Miles, R. (2002). The 1790s: The effulgence of Gothic. In J. E. Hogle (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to Gothic fiction (pp. 21-40). Cambridge University Press.
Jacques-Louis David, Death of Marat, public domain
Jakob Loutherbourg, Coalbrookdale at Night, public domain
Caspar David Friedrich, Night in a Harbour, public domain