A small hidden detail which can be considered as insignificant , can turn to be great hints and help to understand and reveal the feelings of the author. The first secret embedded in Mary Shelly`s novel is the connection between the names of her characters- Margaret Saville ,Victor , Elizabeth and William. ”Frankenstein” starts with series of letters written by Captain Robert Walton to his sister Margaret Saville. Her full name is Margaret Walten Saville and her initials are MWS , which brings us to the connection between the author`s name and her character. MWS stands for Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley – the name acquired after marrying Percy Shelley.
This gives of the element of the exotic, mystery and the unknown. Shelly uses religious imagery in her first chapter of Frankenstein’s narration. ‘My more than sister, since till death she was to be mine only’ This quote implies Victor is very obsessive and it could also suggest that even though he loves her, he still thinks of as a object that he has. Therefore, both extreme obsession and sexual oppression are present in the first chapter. We soon learn from Mary Shelly that Victor is an obsessive character that focuses on over succeeding.
This setting is significant as it conveys the idea that Catherine could be a heroine but would be an unlikely one. It is widely believed that Austen satirizes the form and conventions of gothic novels that were popular during the time when Austen wrote Northanger Abbey. In particular, Austen is said to have targeted Anne Radcliffe, who wrote The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), a gothic novel that Catherine loves to read during her stay in the spa town Bath. The differences between the heroines already become clear when comparing the appearances of Austen’s Catherine to Radcliffe’s Emily. Catherine is described in the following way: “She had a thin awkward figure, a sallow skin without color, dark lank hair, and strong features – so much for her person; and not less unpropitious for heroism seemed her
Consequently, the young heroine finds herself involved in many embarrassing situations throughout the novel. However, as the story goes on, Catherine eventually learns to distinguish between fantasy and reality and between her own wild imaginings and her intuition. Northanger Abbey has long been considered an ironic parody of the Gothic novel, which was very popular in Austen’s time. The purpose of this essay is to explore the elements of the Gothic novel present in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and to analyze the way in which they have been satirized by the author. Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey: a Gothic Parody The Gothic fiction is a literary genre that combines elements of both horror and romance.
The book has three basic narrators: Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and Frankenstein's monster. The female characters are very weak in this novel, especially Elizabeth, Victor's cousin/fiancé (no they aren't from Arkansas). She is portrayed as the perfect woman, especially after Victor's mother, Caroline dies. She takes the place of the mother figure in the household. But just like all the female characters in the story, her character has little substance.
Readers feel uneasy and in terror after reading the novel. That type of book is for people who like gothic reading. Gothic novels focus on mysterious and supernatural and that’s what Victor wanted to create, a human out of parts of dead bodies for scientific experimentation. To show he can create a human. Victor lived in a gothic area, Europe – Switzerland and Germany with old buildings, dungeons, towers, dark laboratories.
Being, Austen’s first novel, it is conceivable that this is in fact, true. There are several instances in the novel which serve as direct proof of Austen’s satirical sense of humor and clever writing techniques which pass the novel off as a gothic story. There are clear elements which provoke this gothic parody, one being the mysterious and climatic plot. In short, Catherine Morland goes to Bath for the season as the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Allen, and there she meets the eccentric General Tilney, his son Henry Tilney and his daughter Eleanor Tilney. Catherine is invited to the Tilney's home, the Northanger Abbey of the title, where she imagines numerous gruesome secrets surrounding the General and his house.
Some might even say Shelley ardently agreed with the position in which they found themselves and the securely fixed roles during the Victorian era. Caroline Frankenstein, for example, from the beginning is the embodiment of the idealised female. She is initially presented as the perfect daughter, nursing her father lovingly till his death, and progresses on to the perfect wife, though one might argue that she never ‘progresses’ at all . She remains pale, lacking the life and vigour the men in the book so often posses, and as a result the reader pushes her to the side as a minor character. But although at first Frankenstein may give the reader the impression that women have very little impact in the novel, Shelley slyly uses them to deconstruct the power and control that men had been enjoying for years .
In 1764 Horace Walpole combined horror and romance in his novel The Castle of Ortranto. He effectively created the gothic novel. Tyrants, villains, bandits, maniacs, Byronic heroes, persecuted maidens, femme’s fatales, madwomen, magicians, vampires, werewolves, monsters demons, revenants, ghosts, perambulating skeletons, wandering lew, and the devil are all characters included in Gothic fiction. As I mentioned, Gothic literature contains Byronic heroes. Byronic heroes were used to describe Lord Byron by his jilted lover, Lady Caroline.
Virginia Woolf was a person that went through tough times and suffered break downs within her own insanity which were probably caused by her family life. Her Mother Father and Sister all dying within a short space of time, she claimed to be haunted by voices often masculine which would explain her constant attack of the Victorian male culture and imperialistic traits. What Virginia Woolf does so well is convey everyday reality into a form that is unreachable by so many authors. To The Lighthouse is a text in which in all honesty nothing much happens, but the way in which she describes this nothingness is genius and often somewhat offensive to some subcultures. For example her portrayal of Mr Ramsay who relies on his intellectual ability and Edwardian views.