The Gothic initially developed as a European genre, drawing on that continent’s backdrop of medieval castles, crusading knights, and religious turmoil for its iconic imagery. But when this literary movement hopped the Atlantic, the American Gothic was created, which sought inspiration in the geography and local history of specific regions of the United States. The most recognizable strain of American Gothic literature is Southern Gothic, in which the corruption beneath the veneer of Southern respectability is exposed and examined. Apart the American South, another region known for producing seminal works of American Gothic literature is New England. With a history that includes some of the earliest pilgrims learning to survive in a new and unfamiliar wilderness, the infamous witch trials, and the birth of the Spiritualist movement, it’s no wonder that this region would produce tales of supernatural horror. Even the environment—full of foreboding mountains, unbroken forests, and harsh winters—lends itself particularly well to terror. Works of New England Gothic often address themes of religious fanaticism, the occult, and backwoods isolation, and many works deal specifically with the legacy of the Salem witch trials. Below are a few of the authors best known for writing New England Gothic:
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864)
Nathaniel Hawthorne can be considered the father of New England Gothic. He was born in Salem, Massachusetts, and has a rather personal connection to the Salem witch trials: his great-great-grandfather John Hathorne was one of the magistrates involved in the early questioning of the women accused of witchcraft and was the only judge who never repented of his actions or the resultant deaths. Hawthorne added the “w” to his last name in order to distance himself from this ancestor and frequently grappled with the Salem witch trials and the Puritan culture that gave rise to them in his writings. One example of this is his short story “Young Goodman Brown” (1835) in which a virtuous young man sets out on an errand to the forest. He ultimately finds himself in the midst of a witches’ sabbat where his entire town is revealed to be sinful devil-worshipers. Goodman Brown returns home, having completely lost his faith in the goodness of humanity. Hawthorne’s Gothic novel, The House of the Seven Gables (1851), is surprisingly more uplifting. In this story, the dark history of the Pyncheon estate comes back to haunt the family. Several generations before, the cruel Colonel Pyncheon acquired the land on which to build his house by accusing the landowner Matthew Maule of witchcraft. Maule cursed the Colonel, and this curse seems to carry through the generations, until young Phoebe Pyncheon marries one of Maule’s descendants and the families are reconciled. This story of witchcraft accusations and inherited guilt shows clear parallels to Hawthorne’s own history. Hawthorne’s writings would set the tone for New England Gothic and were significant influences on the writers that followed, particularly H. P. Lovecraft.
H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937)
Howard Phillips Lovecraft is probably the first author to come to mind at the words “New England Gothic.” He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and set most of his stories in fictional New England towns, such as Arkham and Innsmouth, Massachusetts. Lovecraft is best known for creating the Cthulhu Mythos—a shared fictional universe in which terrifying eldritch gods are worshiped by fanatical cults and wreak havoc on the minds of those unfortunate enough to discover their existence. One of his best-known stories is “The Shadow Over Innsmouth,” in which a traveler visits the isolated seaside town of Innsmouth and is frightened by an encounter with the frog-like Deep Ones and their hybrid descendants. But the true horror comes at the end of the story when the narrator learns a dark secret about his own lineage. One lesser-known tale in Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos bears some resemblance to Hawthorne’s writings: In “The Dreams in the Witch House (1933), a student at Miskatonic University rents a room in the notorious Witch House of Arkham that is said to have been cursed by a witch named Keziah who escaped the Salem witch trials. While staying in the house, the student has unnerving dreams, including ones where he is visited by Keziah and forced to participate in a ritual child sacrifice. While the existential horror of Lovecraft’s mythos often goes beyond region-specific fears, his works are still very much rooted in the historical and literary legacy of New England.
Shirley Jackson (1916–1965)
Shirley Jackson may have been born in California, but she settled in North Bennington, Vermont, after her marriage and the influence of New England Gothic is clear in her writing. One of Jackson’s most celebrated works is her short story “The Lottery” (1948), which paints an unnerving picture of a small rural town gathering for a harvest ritual … that happens to involve stoning one of their neighbors to death. The story is often used in classroom settings to discuss the themes of mob mentality and scapegoating—both of which have obvious parallels to the Salem witch trials. Witchcraft appears more overtly in Jackson’s novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962). The novel’s protagonist Merricat Blackwood practices a spontaneous sort of sympathetic magic, inventing charms to protect her family’s estate and drive out unwanted visitors. When she ventures into town, the villagers harass her and mock the Blackwood family—particularly Merricat’s sister Constance, whom most of the town believe to be a murderer. Mob mentality shows up again in a scene where the villagers decide to loot and destroy the Blackwood manor after arriving to put out a fire. However, unlike the characters in “The Lottery,” the villagers here ultimately feel guilty for their acts of violence and destruction, and they try to atone by leaving out food for the two sisters who continue to live in the burnt husk of their old home.
Stephen King (1947–)
Stephen King is one of the biggest authors today who exemplifies New England Gothic. King was born and raised in Maine and has set many of his books in his home state. One notable example is his breakout novel, Carrie (1974), which tells the story of a teenage girl who is raised by a religious extremist mother and mercilessly tormented by her peers. After hitting puberty, Carrie develops supernatural powers and uses them to enact vengeance on her classmates, her mother, and her entire town. Another of King’s works that deals with religion and the supernatural in the northern reaches of New England is his short story “Jerusalem’s Lot” (1978), which provides background on the fictional Maine town that served as the setting for his earlier novel Salem’s Lot. In the story, Charles Boone moves with his manservant into his long-neglected ancestral home. Together, they discover the sordid history of a nearby Puritan settlement that had once housed a Satanic cult led by Charles’s ancestor. And it turns out that the cultists still linger there as members of the undead. In this example, we can see a fairly straight line from Hawthorne’s obsession with the Salem witch trials to the foundations underlying Stephen King’s world-building.
What are your favorite works of New England Gothic? Have you read any of the examples discussed above? What other regional subgenres would you like to learn about? Let me know in the comments!