What did you think of the exam?

Well done, my chickens, you have survived the terrible testing time! I thought the questions were good, especially 'fiend-like queen'! Told you they wouldn't surprise you that much...

Now relax from all English thoughts, and read for pleasure all summer...

Pre-exam session!!!

Be in the hall before the exam for a last-minute revision session to sharpen you up for the real thing... and good luck!

For your pleasure, and to relax please watch this video I have just created. It's not Gothic, but it might take your mind off exams for a few moments (all hits are good hits)

I think a similar one on Paradise Lost might work... what do you think?

The Gothic Heroine, and the female gothic

Ah yes... that damsel in distress (or is she?). The idea of the gothic heroine is one which is often curiously imprecise. If you ask people about it, you will tend to get the response that she is a classic fainting heroine, much given to shrieks and vulnerability. However, if you actually look aty gothic novels, you will often find that the heroines have a fair amount of fiestiness about them.

As you might expect from a genre aimed often at women, gothic heroines display more appealing characters than those of the constant victim. One of the earliest sub-genres of the gothic was what has become known as the Female Gothic. This often aimed to socialize and educate its female readers and was usually morally conservative, tending to discuss ideas about how women 'should' behave. Heroines were often lavishly rewarded for obedience, chastity and submission. However, the female gothic was sometimes used to criticise patriarchal society, and reinforce ideas of female independence--'classic' gothic heroines were often surprisingly capable.

The gothic often investigates gender differences and questions issues of oppression, as you will know from your set texts. Even in Paradise Lost, Sin talks about how gender (or apparent gender!) affects her treatment.
In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth foregrounds the whole issue of what a woman is actually able to do, or should be able to do, and connects it to the morality of men--is it the same, or different?

In Dracula the women, Lucy and Mina, demonstrate not only alarming (for the men) sexuality, but also considerable resolve and independence in asserting some measure of control over their own fate. I always like the comment about how a woman should be able to marry three men at once--is it referencing polygamy or male unfaithfulness, or a comment on female indecisiveness? Might it be possible to see the latent desires of Lucy becoming evident in her transformation, her 'voluptuousness', like that of the vampiresses, simply a way of talking about the disturbing ideas of female sexuality for the Victorian reader? Once you start thinking about this, then the use of the stake through the heart itself becomes something very easily processed in symbolic terms--as Carter realised when she used the 'impaled' image in 'The Bloody Chamber' itself.


In Wuthering Heights, you have the exaggeratedly female in Isabella, and the exaggeratedly male Heathcliff, with their counterparts in the feminised Edgar Linton and the 'masculine' (in terms of freedom and assertion) Cathy (remember how at six she can ride any horse in the stables?) In The Bloody Chamber of course, the ideas and stereotypes of masculinity and femininity are constantly explored. Gothic heroines often have slightly exaggerated features of femininity (eg swooning) so as to heighten this division--and to create a more dramatic effect when they finally gain courage.

A 'classically' gothic heroine will generally start off under the power of men in some respect, often with a villanous guardian who is trying to control her marriage. In symbolic terms, it is interesting how this oppressor is female in a novel such as Jane Eyre, but then becomes male (as Mrs Reed is replaced by the sinister Mr Brocklehurst). Female Gothic works usually include a female protagonist who is pursued and persecuted by a villainous patriarchal figure in unfamiliar settings and terrifying landscape, something that is very easily read in symbolic terms (remember your symbolic stories?)

Despite all the horror and excitement, the female gothic often avoids the more extreme scenes (such as the rape in The Monk, and it often introduces the idea of 'the supernatural explained', where the apparently supernatural happenings are discovered to be fairly natural--perhaps a way of discussing the irrationality of female fears? It might be interesting to link this trope, for instance, to Lady Macbeth's rationalisation of Macbeth's visions: 'this is the air-drawn dagger/ That you said led you to Duncan' (of course she compares his fears literally to a woman's 'fits and starts', through the comparision of a story 'told by a grandam'--a literal old-wives' tale.

Finally, as a reward for reading so far. Here's a gorgeous representation of Satan, sin and death in lego. How exciting is that????!!!

The Gothic Hero

Ah, the Gothic hero--thrilling creature! So very appealing and yet so very naughty, he was the creation of a kind of fiction that was, let us face it dear readers, aimed mainly at the ladies. He is the hero not in the sense that he is heroic, but in the sense that he is the main male characater--like a tragic hero, who may, like Macbeth, not be very heroic in modern terms at all. He is unlikely to rescue kittens from trees.

As such, a gothic hero is a kind of hyper-alpha male. He has some features of the tragic hero--he is the protagionist, we often see things from his point of view, and yet we can also see that he has a fatal flaw (and sometimes more than one). Often, he is a character who battles the forces of good and evil within himself (think of Milton's Satan as the pattern for this kind of hero--we sympathise, we even find him appealing, but we know which choice he ought to make).

The Gothic Hero resembles the Byronic Hero in some respects. He is generally intelligent, perhaps cunning, certainly cynical and self-aware, he is conscious of (and may share with the reader his consciousness of) his own flaws, though this doesn't seem to stop him pursuing his own way. He typically despises convention (may, like Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre, appear to despise conventional moral codes) yet is appealing and even seductive. He will often have a dark secret in his past--his identity, a etrrible thing that he has done or has had done to him--which influences his behaviour.

To put it simply--he is the ultimate rake that women want to reclaim and reform. Heathcliff is a good example. He is selfish and yet wounded, and his vulnerability shows through even his cruellest acts. Remember when he says to Isabella that he is only killing her dog because he's jealous of it? The excuse of abusive relationships down through the centuries echoes in that little exchange. It appeals to herthough, because it offers that little chink of possibility that he is sincere, and that he oves her.

Gothic heroes often have dark secrets in their past. In an early novel such as The Castle of Otranto Manfred is the hero/villain who is battling with his own wicked passions and Theodore is the hero (with the mysterious past)who is true and good and the victim of mistaken identity. In later novels they seem to more often become one and the same person, or more obviously parallel 'splits' of each other.

It's interesting that the Brontes dealt quite firmly with their gothic heroes. Mr Rochester is mutilated and blinded--'tamed'--before Jane can marry him (she rejects his offer of a bigamous marriage, or a liaison outside marriage). Heathcliff dies without ever winning Cathy so that the second generation of lovers may live peaceful lives. In Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, the heronine stands up to her abusive husband altogether,and refuses to submit to his treatment--a sort of more feisty Isabella.


Gothic heroes are often made sympathetic; sometimes seen as victims even at their most vicious ('the artrocious lineliness of that monster') and often suffer through events that for others would be seen as good--such as adoption or a respectable marriage (again, think of Heathcliff here). The hero is also often seen as 'animal', at the mercy of his darker instoncts of sexuality, predatory and yet helpless (very Angela Carter). In this way, he can become a sorty of everyman figure, ruled by his passions, yet yearning to be better than that.

Gothic heroes are still popular--just think of Twilight, or Mitchell in Being HumanI quite like Kirstin Miller's take on the idea of the gothic hero. She has some good points!

Powerpoint--and section B questions

It was terrific to see so many pf you at the revision sessions, so thank you for that! I hope it was useful. I have put the section B powerpoint in the shared area, for those of you who would like to look at it again, and I attach the list of section B quiestions from past years.

As I said, I suspect that the gothic hero would be a good line to revise, as well as extremes, shock, horror, terror and all such key terms and ideas. Also, it struck me that they might ask about the gothic being a revolutionary form--which I think would be an interesting question.

Don't forget--lots of practice essays to get you used to the timing, and don't write long introductions for section B--nice short sharp precise address to the question,, mention your texts, then straight onto your first analysis.

Gothic Example Questions for section B

Sample Paper
• 19 ‘Gothic texts show the supernatural intertwined with the ordinary’. Discuss this view in relation to the texts you have been studying.
OR
• 20 ‘Gothic literature is concerned with the breaking of normal moral and social codes’ Discuss.
OR
• 21 ‘If a text is to be labelled as Gothic, it must convey a sense of fear and terror’. Discuss this view in relation to the texts you have been studying.

January 2010
• 19 To what extent do you think gothic literature is characterised by a fascination with death?
OR
• 20 ‘Gothic settings are desolate, alienating and full of menace’. In the light of this comment, consider some of the ways in which writers use settings in the gothic texts you have read.
OR
• 21 Consider the view that gothic writing often explores the powerlessness of humanity when faced with the power of the supernatural.

June 2010
• 1 9 ‘Religion is central to readings of gothic texts’. How far do you agree with this statement?
OR
• 2 0 Consider the view that gothic writing explores the ‘nightmarish terrors’ that lie beneath the orderly surface of the ‘civilised mind’.
OR
• 2 1 ‘In gothic writing, women are presented as either innocent victims or sinister predators or are significantly absent.’ Consider the place of women in gothic writing in the light of this comment.

January 2011
• 1 9 “A melodramatic genre, where extremes of emotion have disastrous consequences.” How far do you agree with this view of writing in the gothic tradition?
OR
• 2 0 Consider the view that literature within the gothic genre is always shocking.
OR
• 2 1 “Characters in gothic writing are haunted by their past mistakes and often have to face terrible consequences.” Discuss some of the characters in the texts you have read in the light of this comment.

Next revision session is on Thursday

It was very good to see so many of you there today--thanks for coming, and I hope it was useful! I have saved the powerpoint from the session in the shared area in the MMC folder, if you want to have another look at it. It also has sample exam questions, if you need some for practice.

Thursday's session will be on section B, and after that there are going to be other revision sessions, as advertised on the English office door:


Thursday 9th June 2pm
Dr McCarthy
Approaching Section B

Friday 10th June 11.15am
Mr Gray
10 things to remember about Macbeth

Monday 13th June 11.15am
Mr Gray
Wuthering Heights and Bloody Chamber

Monday 13th June 1pm
Miss Davies
Approaching Dracula

Tuesday 14th June 1pm
Mr Gray
Need some AO4? Come along.


Thursday 16th June
Exam
I shall probably run a very brief revision 'top up' session just before the exam, as I did last year, to get you into the mood for it--but I'll let you know for sure on Thursday

Macbeth Act 1, Scene 1

Hello my lovelies--look what I found!

entertaining, no?

REVISION SESSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, in response to increasing demand, there will be a revision session on TUESDAY at 2pm in ROOM 6. It will focus on how to answer questions for SECTION A, and I shall cover all texts my groups are doing (Macbeth, Paradise Lost, Wuthering Heights, Dracula, The Bloody Chamber) unless you say otherwise. It will concentrate on how to write an essay for section A, how to make the most of your quotations, neat ways to hit AO4, planning an introduction, and so on. I shall aim to deal with any queries that you have about the paper.

On THURSDAY at 2pm there will be a similar session for SECTION BI attach a poll for you to vote for what you'd like me to focus on in the first session. It will go on to at least 3, but until 4 if there is sufficient demand.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD so that if students from other groups would like to come as well, they can.

If no-one comes, I shall sulk.

Exam Questions for Dracula

Stop me if you've seen these... but exam questions for Dracula have been...

Sample Question

Consider the view that in Dracula Victorian science and technology are pitted against a threatening and irrational past, as represented by the Count.


Jan 2010

In Chapter 14, Van Helsing claims, “'There are always mysteries in life'.”
To what extent do you think that, in Dracula, Stoker shows that science cannot provide answers to every question?

June 2010

'The role of the female vampires in the novel is to warn of the dangers of female
sexuality'.”

Consider the role of the female vampires in Dracula in the light of this comment.

Jan 2011

Explore the ways in which Stoker uses different gothic settings to contribute to the gothic effects of the novel.

Other possible questions? Perhaps...

To what extent do you agree with the view that, in Dracula, Stoker is exploring the dark side of the human psyche?

or...

‘The Gothic elements of Dracula are made credible by the novel’s setting and narrators’.

How far would you agree with this view?

or...

'Although the Count is seen as a villain in the novel, there are elements of his character with which we sympathise'

To what extent do you think Stoker makes Count Dracula a sympathetic character?

Writing about the Witches in Macbeth

The witches are often seen as one of the most gothic things about Macbeth. To revise all about the witches, try going through these questions. If you're not sure about them, you may need to revise some key extracts

The witches appear in three scenes in Macbeth, although it may be argued that their influence stretches far beyond this space in the play. Each appearance of the witches, however, tells us important things both about Shakespeare’s attitude towards them, and about their dramatic purpose. In each scene they are closely connected to Macbeth, and his reactions to them develop his character in interesting ways.

1. How do you think the appearances of the witches relate to the events in the rest of the play? Why are they placed at these points?
2. How does Shakespeare clearly associate these characters with witchcraft in the first scene? (think of using quotations—or references to stage directions—to reinforce your ideas here)
3. When the witches reappear in scene iii, what have they been doing? How does this help to build up the audience’s sense of their evil?
4. What in the witches’ comments might remind the audience of contemporary events?
5. How does the metre that the witches speak in make their speeches distinctive?
6. In I iii, in what sense does Macbeth mean that the day has been ‘foul and fair’, do you think? Why might Shakespeare want to emphasise Macbeth’s awareness of contrast here?
7. How do Macbeth’s opening words prepare the audience for his encounter with the witches? What metre is the line in (and why might this be important?)
8. Why is it not a surprise to the audience when the witches hail Macbeth as ‘Thane of Cawdor’? What is the effect of this knowledge on how we view the ‘prophecy’?
9. Which prophecy does Macbeth seem to be more surprised by (Thane of Cawdor or King?) Why might this be?
10. What is Banquo’s reaction to the witches? How does this contrast with Macbeth’s response? How can we tell how Macbeth responds from what Banquo says?
11. Why do you think that Shakespeare differentiates the two men in this way?
12. When the witches disappear, it injects a note of the real supernatural into the play. In some productions their disappearance is made to seem more naturalistic (e.g. they go to a hidden door which only Macbeth sees). How might such direction change the ways in which the audience perceive the witches?
13. Why do you think that Banquo and Macbeth discuss the idea that the witches might be an illusion?
14. Why does Shakespeare make the two men repeat (and joke about) the prophecy?
15. What has happened between Act I and Act IV to change Macbeth’s character?
16. In the third scene where the witches feature, in Act IV, there is an extended description of their potion-making. How do the details of this help to interest the audience?
17. Why do you think that Hecate (the queen of the witches) appears in this scene?
18. What is interesting about the comment that the second witch makes just before Macbeth enters? What does it suggest about the ways in which Macbeth has changed in the interim?
19. Why is it significant that at this point Macbeth has come to seek out the witches, rather than the witches seeking him?
20. When Macbeth says that he ‘conjures’ the witches, what would this word suggest to a contemporary audience?
21. Macbeth names a number of possible natural disasters that the witches might create. How does his knowledge of these make his character seem more evil?
22. Why is it significant that Macbeth asks to hear the prophecy from the mouth of the witches’ masters, and not from the witches themselves? What would this suggest to a contemporary audience?
23. The first apparition is described as ‘an armed head’. What might this symbolise?
24. Why might the second apparition seem like ‘a bloody child’?
25. Macbeth is reassured by the prophecy that says he cannot be harmed by one ‘of woman born’, and says that he will not kill Macduff. He then almost immediately changes his mind. What does this suggest about his character, and how it has changed since the start of the play?
26. The third apparition is a crowned child. What might this suggest?
27. The third prophecy advises Macbeth not to worry about conspiracy and ‘who chafes’ under his rule. Is this good advice? What might this suggest about the apparitions?
28. Macbeth’s final words about the witches are a curse: ‘Infected be the air whereon they ride / and damn’d be all that trust them’. Why do you think he says this? How do his words and his actions conflict?
29. In Act I scene v, Lady Macbeth has a soliloquy where she talks about things that a contemporary audience would have thought to be associated with Witchcraft. How many things of this nature can you identify in this scene, and what do they suggest about Lady Macbeth?
30. Is there anything else that Macbeth or Lady Macbeth do in the play which might be associated with witchcraft? Why would Shakespeare include such actions?

Well done! You are now well equipped to write an essay about the role of the witches in Macbeth.

Some really interesting writing on Carter

I have much enjoyed reading the reviews and analysis of Carter on this site--The Scriptorium. It has a lot of interesting ideas about The Bloody Chamber in particular. I'd like to delve a little deeper when thinking about the Beauty adn the Beast stories, and their oedipal content, though--in some ways aren't they very simple metaphors for the anxieties attendant on marriage arranged by parents, and the consequent loss of control?

Angela Carter meets wordle.

The Snow Child

The Erl King

The Bloody Chamber

A weekend task...

For a little extra interest, if you are doing Paradise Lost, I suggest that you mosey along to the Ashmolean.

There, on the third floor, in Western Art, amongst the impressionists and so on, you will find a wonderful bronze statue of Satan, just past the Degas ballerina sculpture (I attach an image, but it is sadly not a patch on seeing the real thing--perhaps bronze does not photograph well?)

It's by Jean-Jacques Feuchere, and the copy in the Ashmolean is actually owned by Jeffery and Mary Archer (I wonder why it is not in Cambridge?) and only on loan. The Louvre has a version as well. It's quite large, and very impressive, and some of the detail is worth an essay in itself.

While I was looking for an image, I came across two other Satan statues, by two brothers, Joseph (1808–1885) and Guillaume (1805–1883) Geefs, which have an intriguing history.

The statue is called L’ange du mal, or sometimes Le genie du mal (the genuis of Evil). Though both Geefs brothers were sculptors (they came from a talented family; their brother Jean was also a famous sculptor), it was the younger bnother, Guilliame, who was first given the commision in 1837 for St Paul’s Cathedral in Liège. Accordingly in 1843, the statue on the left, bearing Joseph's signature, was installed in the cathedral.



It didn't stay there long. The church authorities were disturbed by the beauty of the satanic figure sitting at the foot of the pulpit, declaring 'this devil is too sublime'. It was criticised for not representing the Christian ideal, and even for distracting the 'pretty penitent girls' who should have been listening to the sermons, according to the local press (did it distract the less beautiful, I wonder?)

Finally it was removed from the cathedral because of its 'distracting allure' and 'unhealthy beauty', and Guilliame stepped up to the mark and replaced it with the statue on the right in 1848. As you can see, he has been much more explicit with the Christian iconography, including a bitten apple, a broken crown and sceptre, horns, chains and much more closed body language, but it's still a fairly beautiful male figure, and taps into the Romantic idea of Satan as misunderstood hero. Apparently, L'ange du Mal is still seen as a 'dangerous' image, because it links Satan with the figure of chained Prometheus (Prometheus was a favourite subject for the Romantics), and this encourages a level of satanic tourism (something I didn't realise existed).

A curious link to the gothic here: in a 1990 essay, Belgian art historian Jacques Van Lennep discussed how the conception of Le génie du mal was influenced by Alfred de Vigny's long philosophical poem Éloa, ou La sœur des anges ("Eloa, or The Sister of Angels"), published in 1824, which explored the possibility of Lucifer's redemption through love. In this "lush and lyrical" narrative poem, Lucifer sets out to seduce the beautiful Eloa, an angel born from a tear shed by Christ at the death of Lazarus. The Satanic lover is "literally a handsome devil, physically dashing, intellectually agile, irresistibly charismatic in speech and manner": in short, a Romantic hero. "Since you are so beautiful," the naïve Eloa says, "you are no doubt good." Reminiscent of Heathcliff, no?

Thursday's Lesson

... will not now take place, as I have been invited back for another day of interviews. Many apologies, as obviously, I would far rather be teaching you. There are two things that I suggest you do with your time today:

1) Can I suggest that you use some of your time by reading more widely in some of the criticism that surrounds the gothic, so as to reinforce your knowledge of AO3?.

The word 'unheimlich' means something like 'uncanny' though not exactly (it's hard to translate). There is an interesting selection of articles related to this idea at the University of Virginia site (you may already know this) via a rather unpromising link from a glossary. Anyway, here it is, more directly, and I've added it to the list of useful sites as well. There are articles by Freud, Toderov and so on, which you should find interesting. We shall discuss the use of the unheimlich at our next lesson.

2) you could, of course, do a timed essay from the selection of section B questions that I have already posted, and e-mail it to me.

Many thanks, and apologies again,
MMc

Beauty and the Beast

It's lovely,isn't it--though of course Carter makes something much darker of the base story than Disney. Why do you think that she effectively 'doubles' the story by giving us 'The Courtship of Mr Lyon' as well as 'The Tiger's Bride'? Does she want us to simply know the base story to ring the changes on it? Or is there more to Mr Lyon than there appears to be at first sight?

Remember your question:

“Gothic texts often present a powerful opposition between dominance and submission” Discuss how far you have found this to be the case in any three of the texts you have studied.

Try considering how the repetition of the story strengthens or changes the ideas of dominance and submission...

Of course one other thing that repetition does is strenghtens or changes our preconceptions. One thing that inetrests me is the way that the beast is portrayed. I remember watching an inetresting interview with the animators where they discussed how they had come up with the Disney version--apparently a Wildebeest was a majoy contributor. The picture above seems very leonine, which goes with Mr Lyon (lions are also mentioned in The Tiger's Bride, and of course lions and tigers do interbreed (interesting but ultimately not very useful fact), and are both considered in some sense royal or dignified.


But what if the beast is not very attractive as an animal--if he is really beastly? Look at these illustrations, one by Walter Crane and one by Arthur Rackham. Neither seems to show the beast as particularly attractive as an animal in the way that a tiger or lion might be. How does this affect the story, and the transformation?

I especially like Rackham's rather piggy beast, because the incongruity is so great between his manner and his appearance--the way that he seems to be taking tea in a perfectly civilised manner in a smart suit, making polite conversation, with the head of a wild boar, though Crane's beast has a good deal of appeal as well. He seems to have cornered the market on pathos, looking rather like a sick frog in a ditch, though this is perhaps because of the point in the story from which this is taken. Anyway, neither of them look exactly like romantic heroes, whereas a more leonine or tiger-like beast seems to me to be closer to what human think of as attractive--what do you think?

Questions for Paper 3

For all those of you who want some section B practice, here is a copy of the sample questions. I'm happy to mark any answers to these you want to produce, but do please be aware that first priority in my marking folder goes to those students who turn up to lessons on a regular basis--and if you are at the bottom of the folder it might be a long time before your work becomes a priority. Those who are in lessons have nothing to fear--I'll try and get you back work within a lesson or so.

1. “Gothic texts present good and evil in ways that sometimes seem ambiguous” Discuss this view in relation to any three of the texts that you have been studying

2. “Gothic literature is concerned with portraying complex states of mind in its protagonists” Discuss how far you have found this to be the case in any three of the texts you have studied.

3. Discuss the presentation of evil or wickedness in any three of the texts that you have studied.

4. “Gothic texts rely on sharp contrasts and oppositions” Discuss this view in relation to any three of the texts that you have been studying

5. “Gothic texts often seem to deal with the melodramatic, the extreme, the exaggerated”. Discuss this view in relation to any three of the texts that you have been studying

6. “Gothic texts often rely on powerful imagery to create dramatic effects” Discuss how far you have found this to be the case in any three of the texts you have studied.

7. “Understanding the symbolic realm is key to an understanding of the Gothic; objects or characters in Gothic literature almost always represent something more than they might at first appear” Discuss how far you have found this to be the case in any three of the texts you have studied.

8. Discuss how authors create sympathy for characters that do evil things in any three of the texts that you have studied.

9. “Gothic texts often present a powerful opposition between dominance and submission” Discuss how far you have found this to be the case in any three of the texts you have studied.

10. Explore the presentation of victims in any three of the texts that you have studied.

The Bloody Chamber

I have just found a really interesting site which is rather like this (though with fewer followers--which is a shame, as it deserves more), from a school in Canterbury.

The author has included a rather interesting piece on The Bloody Chamber which might be really helpful if you are working on it--looking closely at some of the key themes and images. Take a look and let me know what you think of it. I've been looking at how it compares to Wuthering Heights--it's quite an interesting comparison.

Macbeth--dark doings

I think it's time I considered Macbeth in this blog. In many ways, one of my favourite plays (certainly the most memorable in many ways--if not the most edifying). One thing that always strikes me in the play is the ways in which images of darkness and light are used in the play. They are there from the first moments, when the thunder and lightning that opens the play introduces the witches, through the frequent invocations of darkness made by both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, to the bloody conclusion of the play, where Macbeth exclaims ‘I gin to be aweary of the sun’. Perhaps more than in any other play by Shakespeare, this dichotomy of light and dark dominates the imagery used throughout by all the major characters.

This sharp differentiation of light and dark, a focus on shadows, as well as a symbolic interpretation of what darkness might represent are all features of later gothic writing. When thinking about Macbeth as a gothic play, it is therefore worth examining how the literal distinction between darkness and light, or night and day, becomes transmuted, throughout the play, into a powerful symbolism that reflects good and evil.

There's a theory that all the scenes take place in darkness, or near-darkness (dawn and dusk). Very gothic. Do you think there's enough evidence to back this idea up?

Truth is stranger than fiction...

Just as I wrote the post below... What do I find? Truly there is nothing new under the sun.

Is Gothic literature the equivalent of today's chicklit?

Just because it is rather focused on alpha males and trembling heroines--and also because it was considered to be not very serious literature at the time of writing. Certainly Mrs Radcliffe was considered to be very 'girly' in its target audience, as Austen points out. Her hero Henry Tilney is seen as being very much a 'new man' in admitting to liking Gothic novels... interesting side question, is Henry Tilney deliberately opposed to the type of the Gothic hero, ot is he a version of one?

When I was at school, back in the dawn of time, we would never have studied Wuthering Heights as a Gothic text, because the Gothic was seen by my teachers to be a little trashy in some ways, though to be fair they had fairly high standards when it came to the canon (certainly we wouldn't have done Frankenstein for GCSE, for instance, that would have been very lowbrow) and to think of a text as a 'gothic novel' would be to diminish its importance as a serious novel. I suppose this is a hangover from the 'follow-ups' to the Gothic, the Victorian 'sensation' novel. Texts such as East Lynne (which inspired Mrs Doubtfire) or Lady Audley's Secret were certainly not the kind of literature you could study for an exam. How things have changed!

You can see this view reflected in Austen's take-off of it in Northanger Abbey, which shows you how long ago I was at school (about 1789), but it lasted for quite a long time. Now, of course, we look at the Brontes and there are plenty of gothic features, and it seems strange to think that such a novel wasn't always in that genre... What do you think?

The Company of Wolves-The Wedding Party

Look everyone--some truly easy gothic revision. Question for discussion--how closely do you think it relates to Angela Carter's real themes?

Liminal Matters

The Latin word for threshold is Limen, and for this reason we have the adjective 'liminal', which is a key word for the Gothic. A liminal state has been described as a state where identity becomes uncertain, a state of transition or disorientation, where normal boundaries and sensations are dissolved.

In Gothic Literature, the idea of the liminal, and of liminal spaces, is an important one. You only have to think about Gothic texts for a little while to see how important the concept can be. So you might consider how Frankenstein (the scientist, not the creature) breaks boundaries with his research, or how Cathy in Wuthering Heights climbs into windows (and all that symbolises!) or how Dracula creates a sense of the normal boundaries of life and death being shifted and changed, or how the gate of Hell is described in Paradise Lost.

Thresholds mean doors, which may open into experiences, different worlds, for good or bad. Can you think of any other examples of liminal spaces in the texts that we have studied? In The Bloody Chamber it seems to me that thresholds of more than one kind are important--what do you think?

Frankenstein and Paradise Lost

Intertextuality is my joy--at least it is with these two texts. Look at the section where Frankenstein meets the monster, in Chapter 10, and compare it to the semantic field of Paradise Lost.

He approached; his countenance bespoke bitter anguish, combined with disdain and malignity, while its unearthly ugliness rendered it almost too horrible for human eyes. But I scarcely observed this; rage and hatred had at first deprived me of utterance, and I recovered only to overwhelm him with words expressive of furious detestation and contempt.
“Devil,” I exclaimed, “do you dare approach me? and do not you fear the fierce vengeance of my arm wreaked on your miserable head? Begone, vile insect! or rather, stay, that I may trample you to dust! and, oh! that I could, with the extinction of your miserable existence, restore those victims whom you have so diabolically murdered!”
“I expected this reception,” said the dæmon. “All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us. You purpose to kill me. How dare you sport thus with life? Do your duty towards me, and I will do mine towards you and the rest of mankind. If you will comply with my conditions, I will leave them and you at peace; but if you refuse, I will glut the maw of death, until it be satiated with the blood of your remaining friends.”
“Abhorred monster! fiend that thou art! the tortures of hell are too mild a vengeance for thy crimes. Wretched devil! you reproach me with your creation; come on, then, that I may extinguish the spark which I so negligently bestowed.”

Is't it interesting how Shelley seems to echo Milton to create her creator/rebel conflict?