Editing Gothic Horror (section)

===Melodrama===
Emotions are powerful forces of nature that wrack the souls of great and small alike, and all men are equal before them. Anyone can be driven to the edge of insanity and beyond by the grand passions of jealousy, desire, shame, and despair.

Raw emotions are the strongest and most important motivators of all. Although antagonists may seem cold and unfeeling to their victims, the truth is that even the iciest of gothic villains is tortured by raging torrents of emotions. Given the slightest excuse, melodramatic NPCs will let pent up feelings spill out in rants, weeping confessions, temper tantrums, and moody poetry. These forces may equally drive servants or tradesmen, who must keep their true feelings hidden in front of their "betters."

Not everyone will have felt emotions so strong as to threaten sanity, but because of the hold of the gothic past over the present, such feelings may not die away with time. A woman who lost her love to a "friend" when she was 18 will feel the bitter sense of betrayal and jealousy until the day she dies. A man who vowed in childhood to avenge his father will pursue his quest until the end of his days, regardless of the consequences. These tragedies and their inevitable consequences form the stuff of melodrama, Strong feelings may drive a man or woman beyond the bounds of propriety and reason. In gothic settings, deranging passions may themselves be evidence of taint.

Gothic heroes may be defenders of rationality and order, but even they are allowed to engage in melodramatic exclamations of fear and dread, especially when the virtue of an innocent is at stake. It is a way for them to express their own honor: an honorable person is expected to be shaken and appalled when confronted with the darkness that tries a man's soul.