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. It was the sum of all these parts that became the formula that is still followed today by writers of the genre. This essay will outline various elements of the typical gothic novel, and the way in which they are associated with excess in the themes, characterisation, and style of writing. In doing so, the differences in the techniques used in Walpole’s novel Castle of Otranto, and M.R James’s short story Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad, will be identified and discussed. The primary objective of Gothic novelists is to rouse the reader into eliciting emotional responses such as shock or fear (Hume 284).
Romantic literature originated in Europe the middle of the 18th century. It was an uprising against the aristocratic, social and political norms and as a rebuttal against the uncreative (science) and a justification of nature in art and literature. Romantic literature allowed society the chance to feel emotions. This permitted society the feelings of consternation, terror, and love while reading for the first time of uncultivated nature. In 1764 Horace Walpole combined horror and romance in his novel The Castle of Ortranto.
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.
Both of these writers includ women as an element of their Gothic fiction, but they are used in contrasting fashions. In the Gothic genre, women are often times portrayed as either oppressed by a tyrannical masculine character, or in a forced position to make a tough decision. The former is the case in “The Black Cat,” although the beginning of the story makes it seem otherwise. This is exemplified by the narrator when he states, I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others. I suffered myself to use intemperate language to my wife.
‘The role of female vampires in the novel is to warn of the dangers of female sexuality’ consider the presentation of the female vampires in Dracula in the light of this comment Many may argue that the novel Dracula highlights the suppression and belittlement of women during the 19th Century. In Victorian England, women’s sexual behaviour was dictated by society’s rigid expectations. A Victorian woman was either a virgin or else she was a wife and mother. If she was neither of these, she was considered a whore, and thus of no consequence to society This idea is reinforced by Stoker with the contrast of the ‘brilliant white teeth, that shone like pearls against the ruby of their voluptuous lips,’ the virginal white is contrasted with the hellish red of their lips shows the battle the women went through suppressing and hiding their sexual desires. Stoker’s choose of women as the temptresses may be a warning to the women of the Victorian era to beware about pushing the boundaries of their sexuality.
Washington Irving is identified with the gothic with his “Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, however the gothic mode can also be identified in his story, “Rip Van Winkle”. To begin, both will be compared with their use of the Gothic Mode. Edgar Allan Poe’s writing set the mold for most gothic literature to follow. From “The Raven” to “The Tell-Tale Heart” his writing sets the reader on edge and fills them with unease. “Its style tends to be ornate, unnatural” (Carter 134).
I never knew what pretense Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men! And now you bid me tear the light out of my eyes? I will not, I cannot! You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet!” This is said to Proctor by Abigail in Act 1 informing the audience that those two had an affair. Overall, I would say that Abigail Williams is the villain of this story.
and therefore plays a large part in initiating the reader's anticipation- a key criteria of a gothic text. Carter uses the metaphor "her walls as black with tears of pearl" to describe setting in The Lady of the House of Love." Here, Carter clearly juxtaposes the two in order to create ambiguity- another clear gothic convention. Through contrasting the black walls against the tears of "pearl," Carter forms a duality within our gothic protagonist. As pearls are usually white, the contrasting of the two suggest that the Countess is suffering from multiple personalities, as seen in other gothic texts such as The Monk and Northanger Abbey.
Insanity could be defined as “the state of being mentally ill; madness”, thus it is no surprise that writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and D. H. Lawrence beauteously integrated aspects of insanity into their stories in order to chisel the perfect piece of gothic literature, simultaneously luring the reader in to a world carved by madness and drowned in an eerie atmosphere. Portraying one as insane is a powerful gothic literary device that has been used throughout the era of the gothic, notably in Matthew Lewis' “The Monk” and Horace Walpole’s “The Castle of Otranto”. One way in which writers complement and enhance the insanity of their sadistic characters is through the psychological and mental torture that is often inflicted upon the victims
It attempts to immerse the reader in an extraordinary world in which ordinary standards and moral judgments become meaningless and good and evil are seen as inextricably intertwined. (Hume 282) The genre’s ”fascination with physical and psychological excremity, supernatural elements, and purported status set the pattern of the texts.” (Schmitt 4) ”Terror is the author’s principle engine and serves to grip and affect the reader.” (Hume 282) Besides the representation of extreme circumstances of terror, oppression and persecution, darkness and obscurity of setting, and innocence betrayed are also prominent features. (Lloyd-Smith 3) Gothic fiction is marked by an obsession with the macabre focusing on the mysterious and ineffable. (Schmitt 5) What is more, Gothic works are often centered in smaller numbers of characters, ultimately to operate within the consciousness of just one character (Fisher 73) Starting with the setting of The Black Cat, we can state that Poe broke with the European tradition (which I did not include in the previous section) and he pushed the charnel house elements of literary Gothic toward a fascination of with horror for its own sake. Poe senses the possibilities of urban Gothic.