The Ruined Castle evokes the paradigmatic gothic setting, which is often symbolic of the human mind, “psychology in stone.” According to the scholar Chris Baldick, a gothic work “should combine a fearful sense of inheritance in time with a claustrophobic sense of enclosure in space...to produce an impression of sickening descent into disintegration.” Some of the fashions on display allude to decay and destruction, while others suggest mental states, such as fear or passion.