Context and Related Tropes Flashcards
What is Gothic Term “Ancestral Curse” and where is it seen?
Evil or misfortune that comes as a response to or retribution for deeds committed by ones ancestors. Figures largely in the “fish” gothic romance, Walpole’s Castle of Otranto.
Example: Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables Colonel and his descendants are cursed for stealing from Matthew Maule.
AO3 Surrounding Anti- Catholicism?
The Inquisition frequently appeared in early gothic texts, symbolic of horrid repression, corruption and persecution that surrounded Catholics.
What is bodysnatching and AO3 example?
Stealing corpses from graves, tombs or morgues.
Frankenstein: Victor’s monster comes from some kind of assemblage
What is a catacomb?
an underground cemetery consisting of a subterranean gallery with recesses for tombs, as constructed by the ancient Romans.
They are typical Gothic spaces because they enable living to enter below ground a dark labyrinth resonating with presences and mysteries of the dead. Often where revenance can occur
Dreaming/Nightmares AO3
Dreams dredge up deep emotions that reflect the dreamer, what one might conceal during waking hours. This heightened emotional state is why they are used often within gothic literature. Dreams reveal to the reader what the character is often too afraid to realise about himself or herself.
EXAMPLE:
Shelley’s Frankenstein. Following two years of difficult work, Victor
Frankenstein re-animates a once dead corpse. However, the elation he
expected to feel at this conquest does not occur because he is horrified
at the monster’s loathsome appearance. Exhausted and saddened by
his prolonged work and dashed expectations, he falls into a dream
state that begins with his kissing of Elizabeth, his love. However, this
kiss changes her in the most drastic way as she transforms into the
rotting corpse of Caroline, Victor’s dead mother. Upon awakening
from this horrifying dream, Victor finds himself staring into the face of
the monster he has created.
Entrapment and Imprisonment
Favourite horror device of gothic finds a person confined or trapped. Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher” Madeleine Usher is buried alive in a coffin (the ultimate entrapment) to cure a strange malady. Reader experiences the full gothic horror of her awakening within her own tomb
Grotesque
A mutation of the character, plants and/or animals. Transforms normal features/ behaviours into extremes that are frightening or disturbingly comic.
The Haunted Castle or House
Examples: Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto. Walpole’s novel
first introduced to gothic literature its single most influential
convention, the haunted castle. The castle is the main setting of the
story and the center of activity. It is an old, dark, decaying castle
plagued by an finds herself haunted by that “horrid paper.”
Terror vs Horror
Works of terror create a sense of uncertain apprehension
that leads to a complex fear of obscure and dreadful
elements –> essence of terror
stimulates the imagination and often challenges
intellectual reasoning to arrive at a somewhat plausible
explanation of this ambiguous fear and
anxiety.
f horror are constructed from a maze of
alarmingly concrete imagery designed to induce fear,
shock, revulsion, and disgust. Horror appeals to lower
EXAMPLE:
Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho and Matthew Lewis’
The Monk, respectively, perfectly illustrate this divide between terror
and horror and helped establish the distinction throughout the 19th
and 20th centuries. The former causes the reader to imagine and
cross-examine those imaginings; the latter causes shock and disgust; the
former aspires to the realm of high literature; the latter wallows in the
low.
Mist
Convention often used in Gothic Literature to obscure objects, even in modern Gothic like “The Mist” written by Stephen Kin where terrifying creatures reside within Mist
The Pursued Protagonist
Idea of a pursuing force that relentlessly acts upon a character. Coleridge’s Mariner
The Pursuit of the Heroine
Pursuit of a virtuous and idealistic young woman by a villain, usually a wicked, older but still potent aristocrat. Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho
Revenant
Return of the dead to terrorize or to settle some score with the living
Sadism
Coined by the Marquis de Sade, sadism is a sexual perversion where one person gains gratification by inflicting physical or mental pain on others.
Somnambulism
Better known as sleep walking, one may engage in array of motor activities.
The Sublime
Sense of being overwhelmed in the face of something much bigger than ourselves e.g Landscape
In Carmilla, the schloss in which Laura lives is far away from anybody else. They live in the countryside which creates a sense of impending terror as they are surrounded by nature, it is so remote they wouldnt be able to seek help. Reinforces uncertainty and vulnerability
The Uncanny
Things which are strange, eerie, especially when both familiar and unfamiliar.
Jekyll and Hyde- when the streets of London were deserted, the protagonists region of familiarity becomes an uncertain liminal place
The other
An individual perceived as not belonging - a threatening outsider.
Frankenstein’s Monster
Irrationality
Illogical action, acting on impulse and instinct as opposed to rational thought.
The Castle of Otranto - Conrad dies and Manfred irrationally wants to marry Isabelle
Light and dark
Can refer to both contrast in settings and a symbolic light and dark within character.
Contrast between the painting and Dorian
Animals
Humans are given animalistic traits. The Tiger’s Bride deals with the abhuman. Creates fear in the reader as it transgresses science and our understanding of humanity
Supernatural
Defined as events or beings that cannot be explained by nature or science.
Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde. The supernatural is evident in Jekyll’s experiment of releasing Hyde into the world - used to counteract what is natural in scientific discovery in the Victorian era.
Terror in Wuthering Heights’
More subtly gothic text, focus is on fear of unpredictable fearsome characters (e.g Heathcliffe) who, due to their nature become objects of terror as they create constant tension.
FIRST WAVE GOTHIC AO3
1765-1820 examples include: Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Ontranto, Radcliffe’s Mysteries of Udolpho & Italian
Features:
Supernatural, medieval, remote settings, evil villains, suspense, heroines who struggle w/ villains and terror v horror
SECOND WAVE GOTHIC AO3
2nd and 3rd Decades of 19th Century
Examples: Frankenstein (1818), The Vampyre, Wuthering Heights
Romantic Gothic:
Uncanny, unfamiliar, tormented central character, more sophisticated treatment of horror elements, sublime, psychological and spiritual interest, explores sensory experiences, importance of the imagination
VICTORIAN GOTHIC AO3
Mid 18th century
Examples: Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Dickens
Features:
Fantastical elements of gothic to explore taboo subjects, explore private desires, perversion, degeneration (id/ego), contrast between high morality of victorian society and hidden darkness/sin, move towards urban settings, overlap w/ science fiction
FIN DE SIECLE GOTHIC
Turn of the century 1890s - early 1900s
Examples: The Picture of Dorian Gray, works of HG wells, Jekyll and Hyde, Dracula
Features: Reflects fears about changes in society, degeneration, decline in morality, rise in decadence, impending catastrophe, focus on internal landscape rather than exterior ones, concerned w/ potential to change, mutate, corrupt and decay features, the degeneration theory
Phantom in the Haunted Man Context
Mirroring of dialogue suggests ghost is part of the haunted man.
Phantom creates suspense because we dont know what it is
Dorian Gray context
Two personas, name itself is mixture of black and white, good and evil
Mirror Trope in Gothic Fiction
Mirrors in gothic fiction (Dracula cant be seen in mirror - highlights his inhuman nature, wolf alice gains self discovery when she looks in mirror) reveals part of characters that are hidden/ tabboo
Doppelganger and victorians
Late victorians particularly interested in having double identities –> reflect Victorian idea of having monstrous persona we keep hidden from view in juxtaposition w/ highlight reputed societal character
Macbeth Context
Clothing in Macbeth represents acting/ taking on a role
Castle of Otranto supernatural
Excessivley supernatural to modern reader e.g Conrad crushed to death by helmet
