Celebrating Valentine’s Day is the perfect way to lift our spirits during the cold winter months: a holiday that provides us with a fun and fresh way to participate in capitalism. For me, February 14 means I can watch all of the Valentine’s Day Bob’s Burgers episodes. My favorite episode is from season 11, “Romancing the Beef,” where Tina gets invited to Tammy’s anti-Valentine’s Day party. The shocking twist of the episode is that Tammy engineered an anti-Valentine’s Day environment, hoping it would turn into a hookup party, shocking poor Tina. In this episode Tammy says, “trying to not be romantic is really romantic.” I know Tammy hates book smell, but if she did read, I have a feeling she would read something gothic.
A fun subcategory of gothic literature is gothic romanticism: a genre that combines gothic attributes with elements of romanticism. Gothic literature is a style that feels haunted and creepy; its goal is to leave the reader feeling unsettled by using elements like dark and decrepit settings, the supernatural, or anything old and run-down that presents a possibility of trapped spirits. In contrast, romanticism seeks to emulate a free-spirited and imaginative portrayal of the world. Romanticism makes the mundane seem beautiful by using elements like nature, introspection, and wild emotions. These two styles—like Tammy said—go incredibly well together, even though they seem like complete contrasts to each other.
The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about gothic romanticism is Emily Bronte’s Jane Eyre, which includes gothic elements of an old and lonely building hiding sinister secrets, as well as a romance of passion and a personal struggle. In the novel, a young girl named Jane takes a position as a governess at a spooky old manor and falls in love with Mr. Rochester, the owner of the house. This story, with its twists and turns, is filled with haunting secrets.
Edgar Allen Poe is another star in this genre of writing. If you don’t know of him, I’m sure you’ve heard of his poem The Raven, for which the school in Netflix’s Wednesday was named after. The Raven follows a man haunted by memories of a past love, one in which he will see “nevermore.” Other works of Poe include Legia, The Fall of House Usher, Annabelle Lee, and Lenore. Poe’s works often include going to (or already being in) a dark and chilling setting where memories of a lost lover torment the occupant.
Another wonderful gothic story I can’t possibly forget about is The Phantom of the Opera. I am biased in writing about this story, because I believe The Phantom of the Opera to be the best movie and an amazing book. It’s the Twilight of early 19th century Parisian literature. The story follows two new managers of the Paris Opera House who, on taking up their new roles, find out the opera house has been giving money for years and reserving a box for an anonymous unseen person known only as “The Opera Ghost.” Meanwhile, the ghost has been tricking a young up-and-coming singer, Christine, into thinking that he is the angel of music so he can lure her to his den in the sewer. A gentleman if I ever knew one. In a Twilight comparison, Roul (Christine’s fiancé) would be Edward because he’s the one that gets the girl, Christine would be Bella because she has bad judgment, and the Phantom would be Jacob because he is continually snubbed by Roul (and a lot of people prefer him). In this metaphor, I suppose Christine’s voice is Renesmée in a twisted Little Mermaid-type story.
The reason romance is such a huge part of gothic novels is because it enhances the story. The goal of gothic literature is to scare the reader and oftentimes there is nothing more terrifying than having something to live for. It would not be as important for Christine to get away from The Phantom if she didn’t have a fiancé who was looking for her. The Raven would not have been as heartbreaking if in the end she was a grocer he met one time. And Jane Eyre would not have had a satisfying ending if all the skeletons in the closet were just old clothes. The characters need something to live for so they can be terrified by the idea of having it taken away.
At the end of the day, love isn’t as valuable in a world where it is safe. That is why narratives about characters needing to safeguard and protect the people they love become the most romantic narratives. So, for this Valentine’s Day, I encourage anyone reading this not to let the pageantry distract them from where real romance comes from. Remind the people you love that even if they were tricked by a man in a sewer, attempted to commit bigamy, or wrote very sad poetry, you would still love them. That’s all I ask of you.