This reversal of gender stereotypes and gothic conventions is used often in Carter’s work. In the Bloody chamber, it seems that although she has adapted gothic conventions into a modern way, presenting females as the more powerful characters than men, she also retains some of these typical roles in some of her stories. The lady of the house of love would be an immediate example of how Carter creates a role reversal that differs from the typically valued places in gender. Carter creates the role of the ‘Femme Fatal’, with this dangerous woman that lives in the castle. This representation of the woman as powerful differs from the original expectation in a gothic novel, as the woman would usually be portrayed as weak, and in need of saving.
Further, the 1996 film The Portrait of a lady (Portrait) about a woman’s desperate choice between her autonomous, love-driven spirit and the demands of social convention encapsulates these paradigms and the struggle of women in expressing themselves. In the Victorian context, common in the literature of many was the veneer of morality that shadowed the voluptuous inner feelings of people at the time. Browning’s ‘Meeting’ is clearly indicative of the shattering of this patina and the notion of strong desire that could not be suppressed. The use of succinct sentences, “A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch” helps to create a sense of excitement in the reader and reveal
The novel includes many motifs from the gothic genre and cleverly combines this with the romantic themes and plot to produce a novel very different to others when it was first published. One motif that Bronte uses is the use of fire and ice, especially in imagery. The use of this motif also helps the reader to understand more about the way that Jane is feeling. Bronte’s use of the fire and ice shows Jane’s struggle to find her place in society as a strong independent woman. The fire is Jane’s passion and independence while the ice is representing the forces that try to crush her spirit, and make her conform to the expectations of society.
Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market: The female body and its different meanings. Goblin Market is Christina Rossetti's most famous work, well-loved by the critics and subject of different interpetrations.The poem, written in 1859 is the ideal field for contrasting perspectives: the woman body can be seen as a conduit to God and at the same time like herald of female sexuality in Gothic fiction. Stressed by Rossetti's good use of language, both perceptions are widely accepted even if one should consider them completely divergent. As Humphries says in his “The uncertainty of Goblin Market”: 'Rossetti's writing repeatedly pivots upon contradictions and obscurity'[1]. The composition is about two sisters 'one who falls and the other who saves'[2].
Word count = 1,435 Color Symbolism in Madame Bovary In his novel Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert uses explicit use of detail and imagery to unfold the story of a 19th century middle-class woman, Emma Bovary. As the novel progresses, Emma becomes the wife of the doctor Charles Bovary and begins become less satisfied with her empty provincial reality. The growing desire of a fairytale-like life sequentially is what leads her to acquire great debts, adulterous affairs and eventually causes her greatest downfall; suicide. Flaubert’s novel is widely considered a masterpiece largely because of his use of narrative description. One of the many techniques Flaubert uses is color symbolism, which he uses colors to make crucial connections between characters in order to juxtapose them and emphasize certain attributes that take part in Emma’s life as well as a framework when setting up the mood and tone throughout the novel.
The “Yellow Wallpaper’’, a story of a woman’s progressive neurosis that leads to hysteria and insanity, written in gothic style, explores the importance of self-expression, work and creativity in maintaining a healthy and balanced psychological outlook. When this is oppressed by gender and medical subordination, the consequences can be tragic. The yellow wallpaper embodies two aspects within the story. Psychological and Sociological. Both being a reason towards the woman’s slow neurotic ride to insanity.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Fall of the House of Usher”, are both excellent examples of Gothic literature and the elements which set this genre apart from others. Each author employs such Gothic elements as metonymy, mystery and suspense, and overwrought emotion to create pieces of writing that have affected the way we tell stories even to the present day. Metonymy is an element that affects the way the reader interprets the scene without knowing it. In Gothic literature, metonymy usually makes for much “doom and gloom.” Blowing winds, howls, moans, sighs, and eerie sounds are all entwined within Frankenstein, illustrating Shelley’s use of metonymy. All of these are used to subtly reference the overall air of darkness and horror apparent in the novel.
• Feminist critics are especially interested in issues concerning women’s culture. Also, they insist on the autobiographical side of the story, especially on the centrality of the act of giving birth. • An intertextual reading of the novel reveals echoes of several romantic poems, of various authors. It is a well-established notion that references to other texts add to the meaning of the work in question. In other words, if you consider ‘The Rime’ as a hypotext (= underlying text) to Frankenstein, your understanding of the novel may be enriched thanks to suggestion from Coleridge’s
Carol Ann Duffy’s retelling of the Medusa myth turns the idea of a monstrous woman who can transform all into stone just by one glance into an extended metaphor for how jealousy can convert how an individual sees the world, her lover and ultimately herself. Whereas the mythic Medusa was a threat to all, the Medusa figure in this poem is both powerful yet vulnerable at the same time: the person who is most destroyed by her jealousy is her. The poem is structured into six line stanzas, all save for the first stanza and the last line. The listing technique in the opening line, ‘A suspicion, a doubt, a jealousy’ shows how one negative thought unchecked soon grows into something more sinister. The repetition of the ‘a’ draws attention to how the nouns escalate from minor to major emotions.
Both books have similar writing style as gloomy, but foreshadowing and dystopia bring about the effectiveness of gothic literature in both books. Firstly, the story’s title “The Fall of the House of Usher” has a symbolic meaning to itself. “The House of Usher” refers not only to the house, but to the family as well, the Usher bloodline. The title refers not only to the literal fall of the physical house, but the symbolic fall of the Usher family. There are many events which lead to the true meaning of the title, the author uses foreshadowing to enlighten the meaning.