Language is a key element of The Lady of The House of Love which lends itself to the gothic genre. Through the endless connotations of light and dark, and the use of symbolism, Carter shapes a gothic short story by utilising key gothic conventions portrayed by the complex use of language. One way Carter uses language to not only reveal character but elicit gothic convention is through the description of the Countess; presented to us wearing "an antique bridal gown" trapped in a "chateau." The idea the Countess is wearing a bridal gown reiterates Miss. Havisham in Great Expectations; where the readers are introduced to a woman trapped in time, and unable to let go.
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.
Gothic has been described as “excess: excess in moral terms, excess of realism into the supernatural, [and] formal excess” (Becker, 1999:1). Discuss this view of the Gothic mode in specific relation to The Castle of Otranto, and M.R. James’s stories. When Horace Walpole published his Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto, in 1764, he became the first author credited with changing the meaning of the Gothic genre forever. With his tale of corrupt patriarchy filled with mystery, romance, and tragedy, Horace Walpole bridged the gap between the wantonly romantic and the excessively realistic (Scott 11); filling the space with dark settings, stark characters and tangled narratives.
The setting is very important in the elaboration of this specific fictional text. The time and space we are dealing with are much relevant for creating the perfect background for a heroine like Jane to live in. Culturally speaking, Gothic novels were in evidence at the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It involved a lot of stereotypes, fantastic elements, and melodrama. Yet, although some critics define Jane Eyre as a Gothic piece of literature, it is true that it ruptured several aspects to create something quite new, including characterization points that will be discussed further.
The main theme of marry Shelly’s Frankenstein is Gothicism. Within marry Shelly’s novel Frankenstein we see elements of gothic and the supernatural, sometimes represented through the grotesque. The gothic supernatural is described as being real and disturbing according to Linda Bayer. In fact it can be described as simply being something we are used to and implementing it in the world around us making it more immediate, more believable. Within this theme we see the reoccurring element of gothic villains where “the exaggeration of just one aspect of the beautiful can produce the hideous,” (Bayer 80) in this case it is literal and can be applied to the monster where this is achieved with “combinations of the normal or even beautiful through an unexpected fusion of different realms.
Coleridge was an author during the 1700/1800’s where society was rapidly changing, with many people starting to question, what was once law and religion, to discover the unknown, with gothic literature stemming from this period. Coleridge’s works reflected the issues, especially his gothic ballad “Rime of the ancient Mariner, with the discovering of unknown. In the ballad Coleridge questioned concerns like Christianity vs. God in nature, death and life in death, romantic tradition and voyagers in the new world. Among this emerging conventions of gothic literature were also portrayed, for example the weather, characters, setting and the supernatural. In the time where there was an incorruptible belief in God as the Supreme Being, Coleridge challenged it with the thought of God in nature.
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.
In the Victorian era, the Gothic genre had ceased to be the dominant genre because of the successful influence of the historical romance. However, it was not abandoned by some writers such as Elizabeth Gaskell with her ghost story, “The Old Nurse’s Story” (1852) or Charles Dickens, among others. Nonetheless, it was not until the end of the 19th century (Fin de Siècle), that a complete revival of the Gothic genre was carried out by some authors, such as Henry James and his novel, “The Turn of the Screw” (1898). Thus, it can be said that the Gothic genre, with its revival with Ghost Stories, serves as a point of transition between centuries. In this sense, I would like to contrast and compare the two pieces of writing mentioned above in order to reach an idea of the different elements that compose the Gothic genre characteristic of the Victorian period, such as the setting, the dark atmosphere, and the fear and horror feeling, and the new ones that were added when introduced the ghost stories narratives, such as those of orphan children, the supernatural and the past, among some others.
To what extent does Angela Carter draw on the Gothic tradition in her representation of female characters in The Bloody Chamber and what is the significance of these representations? Angela Carter uses gothic tradition and conventions in her depiction of female characters in The Bloody Chamber in order to break down stereotypes and patriarchal expectations; she recreates traditional gothic tales into ones which are both eerie and shocking for her modern readers, in the same way that old gothic tales were to Victorian readers. Carter’s female victims come to be empowered by embracing their passions and work to go against patriarchal rule, acknowledging their own sexual desires. Female characters can be presented as victims of male tyranny in The Bloody Chamber. Within The Bloody Chamber, the protagonist brings about the attention of female sexuality to the reader through the loss of her innocence “I remember how…country of marriage” she is experiencing a journey from her innocence and individuality to being the possession of a man.
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.