Gothic revival in the works of Thomas Chatterton

Abstract

The second half of the 18th century in the history of English literature envisages the decline of Enlightenment ideas under the influence of the gradually increscent Romantic movement. This cultural trend, new and fresh, aimed to challenge the inconsistent and utopian ideals of the Ratio Epoch. It is not by accident that the establishment of Romanticism is closely related to the revival of Gothic tradition in literature. Gothic, both as a separate genre and an essential element of Romantic culture was revived as a reaction against the excessive and blind belief in the power of human`s rationality. Gothic supernatural images and feature, doomed and oppressive atmosphere, despair and fatality of a character`s life in the face of villains and hostility of the outside world makes apparently perfect contrast to the ideas and ideals promoted by the Enlightenment and depict the disappointment in them by means of strong rejection of anything related to common sense. Thomas Chatterton was the first in the poetic genre to take up Gothic elements and use them skillfully in his creations. In this article we will try to explore the way he employed the gothic in his poetry and thus created a powerful incentive for the establishment of a completely new trend in literature and found himself acknowledgement of such powerful figures of Romanticism as W. Wordsworth, S.T. Coleridge, J. Keats, R. Southey who admired him and continued to develop this tradition.