The Romance of the Forest

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death. 

One characteristic effect of the Gothic novel is the ability of setting and landscape to inspire emotions. Radcliffe builds a sense of foreboding and menace with settings of thick forests, remote villages, ruined abbeys, and storms; all of which inspire distress and create opportunities for disturbing phenomena and add to the sense of terror. At the same time, she balances these episodes of emotional turmoil the landscape causes with scenes where a character draws comfort from a pleasant scene of natural beauty. In between these extremes, encounters with dramatic landscapes that stir an apprehension of the sublime further speak to the power that landscape has in the novel to arouse emotion and influence states of mind.

A susceptibility for and appreciation of natural elements was a key part of the Romantic aesthetic, drawing on the 18th-century concept of sensibility. Sensibility, or what modern readers would call sensitivity, indicated a responsiveness and susceptibility to extremes of emotion, whether brought about by images, imagination, events, or other people. Adeline’s frequent tremors, fainting, near-paralysis, and similar prostrations are all indications of sensibility, proving that she is easily moved. Sensibility was considered a virtue in both men and women, evidence of a compassionate nature.