Index of Gothic Horror Tropes
A list of tropes found within the Gothic Horror
genre. While you don't need all of them to write a gothic horror novel, the more you have the better. Horror
has some things that are universal to all genres of horror but not everything on that page is used in gothic horror.
Other genres that might employ heavy use of these tropes:
Note:Zombies didn't start appearing until the 1920s, but many older creatures were absorbed into the zombie mythos. So use caution when adding zombie examples. (Technically speaking, vampires are a kind of zombie, so they can easily be swapped.)
Public Domain Characters
Characterization Tropes/Stock Characters