There many Gothic tropes in this story; A decaying abbey, forced marriage, secret love and identity, ghost, evil men, religious persecution, and the list goes on. All of these thing surround the death and unheard story of Anna.
Anna is part of the story within the story. The story explains how the naive Anna falls in love with a Stranger and marries him. He leaves telling her he will return soon. However, in the mean time Anna's father the Knight has arranged Anna's marriage to a Lord, to help secure the Knight's financial welfare. So of course Anna being married the the Stranger cannot marry the Lord. Her husband returns to tell her to take refuse in the church. After being in the church for sometime, the church insist that she become a nun. After becoming a nun, it is discovered that she is with child, which is punishable by death, if your a nun. Before her death she writes a letter explain the events of her demise and why she haunts the decaying abbey, which is never found until the young Rosaline discovers it.
Anna's letter also allow her to warn Rosaline of the true and evil nature of men. That being good is a curse upon a woman, and that she should never to trust a man. Anna is also able to torture her husband the Stranger, who in a twist of the story is the Baron at the beginning of the story, by haunting the abbey that he now owns until he goes insane. Got to love that revenge.
We know that in the 20th/21st century that evil does not discriminate when it comes to who or what can be evil. You have women (Lizzy Borden, true story), men (Helter Skelter: Charles Manson, true story), children (Fire Starter or Children of the Corn), animals (Cujo) and toys (Chuckie) that are evil. I know these are all from the 20th century but I haven't really seen or read enough horror in the 21st century to evaluate.
I really enjoyed how said the evil does not discriminate and listed examples of men, women, children, etc. I would also add the things that Rosaline finds in the tower to your list of gothic tropes.
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