Index of Gothic Horror Tropes

A list of tropes found within the Gothic Horror genre. While you don't need all of them to write a gothic horror novel, the more you have the better. Horror has some things that are universal to all genres of horror but not everything on that page is used in gothic horror.

Other genres that might employ heavy use of these tropes:


 * Cosmic Horror Story
 * Dark Fantasy
 * Gaslamp Fantasy
 * Fairy Tale
 * Gothic Punk
 * Mystery - depends on the subgenre
 * Punk Punk
 * Romance - depends on the subgenre
 * Steampunk - mostly the mad scientist tropes unless the author feels like leaning towards fantasy instead of scifi. If the latter is this case these tropes will be given priority over more stereotypical fantasy elements.
 * Supernatural Fiction
 * Urban Fantasy
 * Vampire Fiction
 * Weird West
 * Werewolf Works

Note:Zombies didn't start appearing until the 1920s, but many older creatures were absorbed into the zombie mythos. So use caution when adding zombie examples.

Public Domain Characters

 * Archangel Gabriel
 * Carmilla
 * Dracula
 * Faust
 * Frankenstein's Monster
 * The Grim Reaper
 * Headless Horseman
 * Jack the Ripper
 * Mummy
 * Satan
 * Sweeney Todd
 * Wolf Man

Characterization Tropes/Stock Characters

 * Byronic Hero
 * Corrupt Church
 * Dhampyr
 * Evil Prince
 * Evil Sorceror
 * Femme Fatale
 * Grande Dame
 * The Grotesque
 * The Highwayman
 * The Igor
 * The Ingenue
 * Distressed Damsel
 * Friend to All Living Things
 * Hair of Gold
 * Incorruptible Pure Pureness
 * Naive Newcomer
 * Rags to Riches
 * Jekyll and Hyde
 * Lesbian Vampire
 * Lunacy
 * Looks Like Orlok
 * Mad Scientist
 * Madwoman in the Attic
 * Nun-Too-Holy
 * Pirate
 * Religion of Evil
 * Servile Snarkers
 * Sexy Priests and Naughty Nuns
 * Sinister Minister
 * Stalker with a Crush
 * Undeathly Pallor
 * Woman Scorned
 * Wicked Witch

Cultural Tropes

 * All Women Are Prudes/All Women Are Lustful
 * Arranged Marriage
 * Brain Fever
 * Death by Childbirth
 * Gorgeous Period Dress
 * High-Class Glass
 * Of Corsets Sexy
 * Opera Gloves
 * Parasol of Prettiness
 * Parental Marriage Veto
 * Romanticism
 * Romanticism Versus Enlightenment
 * Royalty and Nobility Tropes
 * Victorian Novel Disease

Fictional Species

 * Angels
 * Banshees
 * Demons
 * Dragons
 * Eldritch Abominations
 * Fair Folk
 * Gargoyles
 * Ghosts
 * Ghouls
 * Gods
 * Hellhounds
 * Necromancers
 * Revenants
 * Skeletons
 * Succubi
 * The Undead
 * Vampires
 * Werewolves
 * Will-O-Wisps
 * Witches

Location

 * Ruritania
 * Southern Gothic
 * Uberwald

Magic

 * Alchemy Is Magic
 * Ars Goetia
 * Cold Flames
 * Psychic Powers

Settings

 * Afterlife Express
 * Ancient Tomb
 * Bedlam House
 * Big Fancy House
 * Boarding School of Horrors
 * Creepy Cathedral
 * Creepy Cemetery
 * Dances and Balls
 * Don't Go in The Woods
 * Eldritch Location
 * Evil Tower of Ominousness
 * Ghost Ship
 * Haunted Castle
 * Haunted House
 * It Was a Dark and Stormy Night
 * Mad Scientist Laboratory
 * Old Dark House
 * You All Meet in An Inn

Plot Elements

 * All Girls Want Bad Boys
 * All Hallow's Eve
 * Always Night
 * Anachronic Order
 * Flashbacks
 * How We Got Here
 * I Should Write a Book About This
 * In Medias Res
 * Scrapbook Story
 * Based on a Dream
 * Bizarrchitecture
 * Blood Bath
 * Burn the Witch
 * Chess with Death
 * The Dark Arts
 * Deal with the Devil
 * Demonic Possession
 * Dramatic Thunder
 * Empathic Environment
 * Evil Is Sexy
 * Exorcism
 * Freak Lab Accident
 * Ghost Story
 * Ghostly Chill
 * Haunted Fetter
 * Heel Realization
 * If I Can't Have You
 * Incest Is Relative
 * Let's Split Up, Gang!
 * Love At First Sight
 * Luke, I Am Your Father
 * Malevolent Architecture
 * Melancholy Moon
 * Not Quite Dead
 * Ominous Fog
 * Psychological Horror
 * Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil
 * Real After All
 * Red Sky, Take Warning
 * Scarpia Ultimatum
 * Supernatural Aid
 * A Storm Is Coming
 * Strapped to An Operating Table
 * Torches and Pitchforks
 * The Tragic Rose
 * Villainous Crush
 * Weird Moon

Soundtrack/Music

 * For Doom the Bell Tolls
 * Ominous Latin Chanting
 * Ominous Pipe Organ

Themes

 * Be Careful What You Wish For
 * Freud Was Right *groan*
 * Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane
 * The Power of Love
 * Science Is Bad
 * Sex Is Evil
 * Things Man Was Not Meant to Know

Time Period

 * The Cavalier Years - the first gothic horror story came out towards the end of this era
 * The Edwardian Era - the genre was on its death bed by then but there were still authors willing to write in it
 * The Gay Nineties
 * Middle Ages - used to be a popular setting for gothic fiction authors but nowadays is associated with "Tolkienesque" elements.
 * Regency England
 * The Spanish Inquisition
 * Victorian Britain
 * Victorian London