Editing Gothic Horror (section)

===The Corruption of the Innocent===
Innocents are both guiltless and naive. The weight and darkness of life has spared them, even if they were raised in desperately squalid surroundings. Naturally, they are prime targets for any gothic villain. The antagonist needs to seduce the victim, to tempt him slowly but surely into the pits of moral depravity and corruption. Only when it is too late to escape does the captive realize that he has bartered away the most precious thing he had, and gotten nothing in return. If temptation fails, imprisonment and torture may break the victim's spirit. The classic gothic heroine, eyes shining with innocence, is imprisoned in an ancient building with her tormentor. The horror is that purity of soul alone may not protect her, and that even after her descent into screaming insanity, just enough of the victim's mind may be left to remember what she once was.

Tragically, an innocent may also fall by associating with debauched friends, or a debased institution. The loss of innocence is a terrible, primal tragedy. Like a fragile flower, once the bloom has gone it is lost forever.