However, Gothic fiction did more than just react to these revolutions, it also projected ideal forms of citizenship and social relations that would result in a stable society that fostered well-being. The Gothic did precisely that, critiquing the forces that destabilized society while presenting characters who could morally uplift the world.
Though novels and drama enjoyed success in the decades preceding the eighteenth century, a single genre had never before garnered so much attention in itself. One of the ways that the Gothic could safely and effectively comment on contested aspects of English society, such as politics, education, religion, gender, and class in this era of instability was to position its critiques in terms of historically and geographically distant events and locations.
Openly suggesting King George III was an insane autocrat would have been treason; however, commenting on the misdeeds of a foreign government or ruler from Italy or France two centuries earlier was perfectly acceptable. The Gothic, with its seemingly stock characters and recycled scenes, is actually situated and dynamic, reflecting specific fears and uncertainties that characterize the cultural milieu from which the work arises.
Davison asserts:. Gothic fiction not only contested patriarchal gender ideals, but it also threatened patriarchal control over those ideals through its immense success as a genre. Despite cautionary warnings of the dangerous effects of fiction and romance by the clergy and other concerned with moral degeneration in turbulent times, the increasing ease with which women were able to obtain and read romances made it impossible to diminish what E.
An additional form of support for the Gothic arose from then-current moral theories that sought to ally art to the cause of perfectibility, an important issue during the early years of the modern liberal project that involved rationalizing power and authority after regicide and abdication, particularly by way of supporting claims to individual autonomy.
Henry Home, Lord Kames , a judge in the supreme courts of Scotland and a prominent writer, disagreed with those who saw in fine art, including literature, threats to moral and social order. Building on moral sense theories regarding sympathy and benevolence, Kames defines ideal presence as a mode of being that occurs when one experiences sublimity and beauty and thus becomes susceptible to moral improvement.
Kames credits ideal presence with the power to solidify social bonds:. In appearance at least, what can be more slight than ideal presence? He suggests, then, that art has a distinct role in producing moral effects.
In short, we are morally and spiritually improved through the repeated arousal of the senses that occurs when we engage with art. Gothic novels and dramas of the eighteenth century often feature women protagonists who experience terror at the thought of being married to a villain, kidnapped, imprisoned, or even murdered.
The finer distinctions regarding the moral effects of Gothic fear thus provide another important focus for scholars of the Gothic. Walpole provides in The Castle of Otranto the first complete example of a Gothic novel from which later authors, took their cues. Baldick, Chris, and Robert Mighall. Burke, Edmund. Clery, E. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor.
Haywood, Ian. Palgrave Macmillan, Hogle, Jerrold E. Hogle, Cambridge UP, , pp. McKeon, Michael. What was the first horror novel? What is a modern day gothic novel? Who is the father of gothic literature?
What is Gothic novel and examples? How do Gothic stories end? How do you end a creepy story? Why is Jane Eyre a gothic novel? What does gothic mean? Is Gothic a religion? What does the term Gothic most nearly mean? What did the term Gothic originally mean? Where did the term Gothic originate from? What does Goth girl mean? Where did the Goths originate from?
Did the Germans beat the Romans? How long did Roman empire last? When did the Holy Roman Empire fall? Previous Article What are three characteristics of wood? Next Article Why exam is important in our life? After his son dies, Manfred seeks to marry his betrothed, Isabella, in an attempt to produce another male heir and avert an ancient prophecy. Aubert, is an orphan who becomes entrapped by her uncle after the death of her father. Not only is she denied her the inheritance that she is owed, but strange and supernatural things begin to happen, and she is left to investigate these mysterious happenings from within the castle.
It takes place in Madrid, Spain, and explores the archetypical tale of evil and weak clergymen. It incorporates elements from traditional gothic literature, for example the isolated protagonist, the virginal woman, the evil villain, and the brave hero, but builds on these classic elements with themes such as power and morality.
The Monk is an archetypal devil-in-disguise tale, in which Evil persuades an upstanding Spanish monk, named Ambrosio, to rape and murder a woman who is later revealed to be his sister.
Jane Austen was heavily influenced by The Mysteries of Udlpho when she produced her satirical novel, Northanger Abbey. Northanger Abbey tells the tale of 17 year old Catherine Morland, a tomboy from a family of ten children, who is very fond of reading gothic novels, including The Mysteries of Udlpho by Ann Radcliffe.
Catherine is invited to go to Bath with some family friends, the Allens, where she is introduced to the social scene, new friends and acquaintances, and young love. The novel is a satire on the gothic genre, but it still manages to have become one of the best-loved gothic novels of all time.
The fantastical aspects of the tale are rooted in science; yet Frankenstein also features the terror, power, romance, isolation, murder, death, and good versus evil which make it a classic work of gothic literature. The story centres on Viktor Frankenstein and his scientific experimentation that resulted in the creation of life from inanimate flesh. Frankenstein led to a long list of novels, plays, films, and television shows inspired by the story of an experimental scientist who brought life to inanimate flesh and grew to regret his actions as the monster became sentient and evil.
Edgar Allan Poe is one of the leading writers from the Romanticism literature movement, and American literature as a whole. The Fall of the House of Usher is one of many short stories penned by Poe, who was one of the first writers to bring psychological madness to the gothic genre. Sinister familial secrets and jealousy set the stage for a dark and chilling horror story that will get into your head, refusing to leave you alone.
The lead male character in the story is Heathcliff, an outcast with questionable social origins and bloodlines. Heathcliff succeeds in infiltrating polite society, where he meets Catherine, with whom he seems to have a sort of supernatural connection. Wuthering Heights incorporates plenty of those gothic elements that we love, including isolation, death, mystery, power, and male versus female, set against the haunting backdrop of the Yorkshire Moors.
Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish author who penned this classic gothic novella whilst under the influence of cocaine. The story tells of a physician named Dr Henry Jekyll who transforms into a psychopathic monster, named Mr Hyde, after ingesting a drug which was intended to separate the good from the evil in a personality. Dr Jekyll slowly descends into madness as he eventually succumbs to his murderous, evil alter ego.
The full details of his transformation are gradually revealed in layers, with the science behind the transformation being chronicled. And what a novel it is! The story is a beautiful and brooding account of a man, Dorian Gray, whose inherent vanity leads him to wish for everlasting youth.
Although The Picture of Dorian Gray was written years ago, it is often startlingly modern in its sexual and moral ambiguities. The novel provides a great insight into the lives of the upper classes in society in the late s.
The story of Dracula focuses less on Count Dracula, himself, and more on the hunt for him. The most famous vampire in history acts as a metaphor for the pollution of English blood; and the hunt for Dracula is symbolic of the determination to stamp out and eradicate the source of the corruption. Dracula has strong elements of graphic violence, sexual tension, and the vampire as an enigma, which all serve to explain why the novel, like its lead character, has become immortal.
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