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Biographical approach is an approach which concerns highly on the appreciation of the author’s idea and personality. Moreover, the work of the
author can be said as the reflection of the author’s personality. Using this approach means people have to get as much information and data as possible
about the author’s life and development hence they can understand the work of the author better Rohrberger 8. It is believed that a piece of literary work reflects the
emotion, feeling, ideas and personality of the author in reference to hisher personal life.
According to Wellek and Warren, there are several usages of biographical approach: first, it may explain great many allusions or even words in
an author’s work; second, it will help us in understanding the most obvious of all strictly developmental problems in the history of literature – the growth,
maturation, and possible decline of the author’s works; third, it accumulates materials for other questions of literary history such as author’s personal
association with literary men, author’s travels, the landscape, and cities he lived in Wellek and Warren 79.
In addition, the proponents of biographical approach stated that “Biographical materials provide useful facts that could put the reader in a better
position to understand and appreciate the literary object” Rohrberger 8. Therefore, biographical approach is very helpful to be applied in this study since
there must be relation between author’s life, personality, and hisher work. In addition, author’s life and personality can be employed to enhance the
understanding about hisher works.
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2. Theory of Gothic Fiction
The term “gothic” actually can be used to express both art and architecture. Gothic as one of the popular themes in literature was first exposed by
Horace Walpole in his novel The Castle of Otranto which was published in 1764 “Gothic Literature”. Since then, gothic as a literature theme was widely explored
and used. There are some prominent features of gothic fiction. As quoted from
Drabble and Stringer, “Frightening or horrifying stories of various kinds have been told in all
ages, but the literary tradition confusingly designated as ‘Gothic’ is a distinct modern development in which the characteristic theme is the
stranglehold of the past upon the present, or the encroachment of the ‘dark’ ages of oppression upon the ‘enlightened’ modern era.” “Gothic
Fiction”.
When reading gothic fiction or sometimes known as dark romanticism, some typical features that can be found are:
a. Terror
Anne Radcliffe differentiates the term terror and horror. According to her, terror expands the soul, and awakens the faculties to a high degree of life
Radcliffe 643. In gothic fiction, readers can find two kinds of terror that are psychological or physical terror. In other words, terror is something
fearful because it is surrounded by gloom and mystery. b.
Mystery Many writers write mystery fiction by creating a case, usually crime case,
that needs to be solved and a character will try to solve it. The mystery itself will be solved or even more often unsolved in the story. Although mystery
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is often related to detective or crime story, there is another kind of mystery, which is supernatural mystery. Edgar Allan Poe is one of famous writers
who writes mystery fiction both detective or crime stories and supernatural mystery “Mystery fiction”
c. Supernatural
According to Marriam-Webster Dictionary, supernatural pertains to an order of existence beyond the scientifically visible universe “supernatural”. In
fiction supernatural appears as supernatural power such as curse, spells and magic or belief to the life after death. In real life, however, supernatural
beliefs exist in many societies around the world “Supernatural”. d.
Ghosts Ghost means the apparition of the dead people’s spirit. There are many
stories of ghosts that can be found. Many writers from many genres present ghost in their story “Ghost”. Ghost does not always appear as something
fearful and scary, sometimes it can appear as something that brings happiness and hope. A famous story that presents ghosts is A Christmas
Carol by Charles Dickens. e.
Murder Murder is very often presented in crime or detective stories. In gothic
fiction, murder corresponds to the dark side of human being “Gothic Fiction”. Referring to Wikipedia.com, there are five circumstances of a
murder. They are insanity, depression, self-defense, unintentional, and
