Faith and science
The nineteenth century was a time of uncertainty, the thrill of scientific discoveries paired with the fear of their implications. Gothic texts mirrored this change as the haunted castle moved to a laboratory, tales centring on scientists who try to play God and meddle with the natural order with catastrophic results. In creating his creature, Victor Frankenstein re-writes the Biblical creation of Adam, the first man, in the book of Genesis. The creature then kills everyone important to his creator. In The Great God Pan (1894), Dr. Raymond lifts the veil to the spiritual world and allows access to a pagan god.
Hauntings and supernatural occurrences imply the fear of damnation. In The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824), the Scottish writer James Hogg brought new understandings of mental sciences to the genre, complicating traditional supernatural explanations by leaving it unclear whether the antagonist is pursued by the devil or experiencing a mental disorder.
In Gothic literature ancient religions often return to cause havoc in modern Christian society. Stories with ancient antagonists exploit the fear of these religions having a real supernatural power and seeking revenge on those who have disturbed them. In The Beetle an English politician is assaulted by an ancient Egyptian entity in London, the British imperial capital. Texts like The Great God Pan also exploited this fear with ancient deities that wield forces Christianity is powerless against.
