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According to Frederick S. Frank, one of the most important formal characteristics of the Gothic is the aliveness of architecture. Frank points out that in many forms of high Gothic fiction inanimate matter possesses a life and mentality of its own. Walls and corridors exhibit auditory powers, windows and turrets have optical abilities, objects of art, furniture, and weaponry function with a vile intelligence of their own. The entire haunted castle (or equivalent) is hyper-organic in all its aspects. The creepy sounds in the chapbook “Mysterious Murder” are a crucial part of the Gothic setting of that story.
Courtesy of Wendy Fall, Marquette University

See also: foreshadowing

Source:
Frank, Frederick S. The First Gothics : A Critical Guide to the English Gothic Novel. New York : Garland Pub., 1987. Print.