Gothic Elements in House of Leaves House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is a contemporary novel that contains the four characteristics of the Gothic novel: architecture, death and decay, family secrets and sexual deviance. It also contains some elements of American Gothic such as mental instability, drugs and alcohol. Architecture, by far, plays the most important role in the book. The house itself causes the events told in the book to take place. Allegedly built in 1720, it hosted approximately 0.37 owners per year, most of whom were traumatized in some way. William (Navy) and Karen Navidson, the current owners of the home, are included in this select group. Although they move into that house in an attempt to repair their marriage, it is what ultimately drives them apart. The first sign of trouble is the appearance of a long, cold and dark corridor. The house, larger on the inside than the outside, causes Navidson to investigate the house and serves as a catalyst for the destruction that follows. Exploration of the house reveals a series of labyrinthine corridors, which twist and turn like the convolutions of the brain. The house, a representation of the human brain and psyche, is even connected to the mind. For example, when Holloway and his men (the people Navidson hires to explore the house) go down the stairs, they expect it to be long and take several days to get down. When Navidson reaches the stairs, he expects them to be short and will only take five minutes to get down. The house bends to their expectations. The house is similar to the mind in other ways too. It hosts inner demons and fears, which can be felt stalking its prey. It also contains a "basement"... in the center of the paper... at the bottom of the page. When they reached the top of the stairs the words were at the top. Another example is the section on Holloway. In it there are missing words, missing pieces of words and even missing sentences. His story has "blank sections". In fact there are other sections of the book that are missing parts. This is another element of Gothic: darkness. Therefore, House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danieleski contains many Gothic elements. It has family secrets, sexual deviance, architecture, death and decay present in the different layers of the story. Just as history has many layers, home also has many. It looks idyllic and serene on the outside, but on the inside it is a den of darkness and death. Perhaps, as someone said in the book, it is the collective product of the suffering of each inhabitant. Whatever the cause of the house, it remains an enigma.