The Female Gothic

Over the course of the semester we’ve explored the myriad ways in which Gothic tropes and imagery helped shape the social and political sub-context of the Romantic era. There are abundantly common themes such as political unrest and upheaval, class structure and identity, as well as philosophical ideals of rationality and emotion that are brought to light in many of the works. One of the less prominent themes relates gender identity and consciousness within female characters and authors of the time. This is what I wish to explore; in affect, (how) did the female Gothic character and author emerge as a catalyzing social force during the Romantic era? Can we look at this as the beginnings of feminism and gender consciousness in a society that had previously suppressed its female counterpart? Does the Gothic genre destabilize this patriarchal structure or does it in fact reinforce it? 

At the beginning of the semester we read two very distinct novels that used similar treatment of the newly-minted ‘Gothic’ storyline: Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto and Ann Radcliffe’s The Romance of the Forest. I think that these two represent a good jumping-off point for gender studies within the Gothic, firstly because the authors are of opposing gender, and more importantly, that they both have female characters involved that must seemingly either be admired, protected, desired or (eek) even killed. As evidenced by literature of former eras, the role of women in literature mirrored that of society- women were expected to be obedient, controlled in their emotions and devoid of any rebellious thought or action. The female within the Gothic succeeded in voicing female identity and experience in a way that both male and female could understand and appreciate. Diane Long Hoeveler, author of Gothic Feminism states that “the female gothic novel should be seen as functioning as a coded and veiled critique of all those public institutions that have been erected to displace, contain or commodify women” (xii-xiii). This necessitates a literary world in which females are placed within a realm of abuses and dangers, followed with a subsequent struggle to overcome them in order to reach a realization of self. There is a sense that the danger for the Gothic female lies in the suspicious, mysterious and essentially terrifying, and it is this structure of place and setting that victimizes the heroines as much as other characters and perilous experiences. Oftentimes it is other minor characters that tend toward realism and rationalism, but it is the female ‘heroine’ that possesses a more romantic temperament. This is the temperament that allows for the perception of strangeness where others (often choose to) see none. The progression of the female character, as both victim and hero, undergoes a shift from innocent adolescence to a mature figure in the story. This individual progression ties itself to the Gothic storyline and tropes (vagueness, enormity, isolation, desolation), and demands that the outward strangeness of the novel reflect the inner strangeness of self-realization. Metaphorically, the place and setting intimates that the females’ most troublesome foe is herself, and is something that must be confronted within the novel in order to reach maturation. 

There is an interesting and comfortably-informal take on the philosophical leanings of the sublime and beautiful found here, where Burke and Kant are discussed in terms of how the sublime can be seen as the masculine, and the beautiful as the feminine.

From Walpole’s own ‘Strawberry Hill archives’ is a piece of artwork that vividly portrays the enormity and mysteriousness of the setting of the book itself; the Castle. Artist John Carter produced this piece title “Procession in the Castle of Otranto” and captures the external chaos that the Gothic female had to work through.

Walpole, in his foundation for the Gothic genre, incorporates two female characters that vacillate between ‘obeying the gender rules’ and completely defying what is expected of them. As acknowledged in the post “Atypical Female Behavior”, readers see both Isabella and Matilda defy their male counterparts. Isabella, despite her initial role as a bargaining tool used by the men around her, becomes a character that strives to control her own fate and choose what path she takes; as long as it still obeys the laws of Providence, and protects her innocence. This is important- this incorporation of rebellion into the expected decency of young women allowed for “the opportunity to engage in ‘unwomanly’ exercises while still maintaining her femininity and almost never violating female propriety” (Tóth 1). She escapes her physical and societal constraints in an attempt to avoid a future of compliance and submission, while also maintaining her virginity and innocence. Matilda is the other female character in Otranto that walks the line between typical submissive female and outright rebel. She chooses to follow her own moral compass and blatantly disobey her father by releasing Theodore from imprisonment. This is not to be taken as a purely feminist leaning, however. The women of the story are still under the control of the more powerful men, and are subject to their whims, desires, and passions without regard to independent female desires. Walpole here seems to acknowledge and ‘punish’ the extreme passions and subsequent abuse of power that men succumb to. Both Manfred and Frederic are depicted as nearly mad with passion and power. It is only Theodore, of a lower-class, that does not have power to abuse and cannot force Matilda into something she didn’t also desire. 

It is in this way that Walpole overlaps with Radcliffe, for they both use highly impassioned men to redefine roles in regard to gender stereotypes of emotion and rationale. As I mentioned in my own previous post- Radcliffe represents her characters’ emotions as determinate of their coinciding actions, especially when male characters are involved. At the beginning of the novel La Motte is described as an emotionally driven person (as opposed to someone of rationale), insofar as “his conduct was suggested by feeling, rather than principle … a man whose passions often overcome his reason” (Radcliffe 2). The quotation suggests that La Motte (and possibly the other men in the novel) are mostly driven by their passions and feelings rather than reason and principle. La Motte (fearing imprisonment) is overcome by his ‘passions’ of self-preservation and in turn Adeline is betrayed by this male father figure. In fact, both father figures in the novel are portrayed as suppressors; dangerous, irrational figures rather than a trusted protector or source of security. Adeline’s innocent trust in two male figures that both fail her relegates her to the role of “naive damsel in distress”. Adeline must struggle to become an actual ‘heroine’ because of this- for she (despite her small instances of atypical female behavior) is not truly independent. The scenes depicting extreme male emotion and irrationality are totally unexpected from men of ‘high’ society, and in many ways reflects the expected stereotype of an ‘unreasonable’ female affectation. The idea that men, and not just women, could be driven by their emotions and passions must have been a relatively shocking idea up until the Romantic period. Radcliffe succeeded in portraying men and women in an equally unflattering light, while still lifting the female character to a position of heroine within the novel and allowing for a balance of male and female, as well as maintained innocence and individual experience. The female is both the victim and the hero.

The problem with female identity within Otranto and Romance lies in the fact that female identity has no true continuation beyond the scope of the novel. The culmination of identity-building literary techniques seems too packaged and complete; the woman either marries or is soon to be married ‘happily’. The end. But later portrayals of the female in Gothic literature lend themselves to a more intriguing picture of femininity: one in which the female is in touch with or awakened to an emerging sexuality. The fully-realized woman must then be equated with the fully sexual women. This sexualized female protagonist can clearly be seen in John Keats’ Lamia. In a traditional sense, the Lamia is an archetypal image of feminine deceit and seduction, to the detriment of male society. More on this creature’s Greek/Latin mythology can be found in many online sources. Keats’ take on this typically vampiric, demoniacal creature is anything but traditional, and helps to shift general awareness toward a more sympathetic and respectful awareness of the feminine self. The lamia’s visual appearance is sexualized, just as in its mythology- but it is done to so in a way that inspires admiration and actual beauty as opposed to simply a siren-esque facade to something terrible. While we know that the Lamia is intended to bring destruction to men and mankind, she is adopted by Keats as a female that has more depth of character and inner morality than previously allowed, and is able to guide readers to open ourselves up to this possibility by describing her beauty through color, texture and simile- each more beautiful than the last. 

“Eyed like a peacock, and all crimson barr’d; /

And full of silver moons, that, as she breathed, /

Dissolv’d, or brighter shone, or interwreathed /

Their lustres with the gloomier tapestries-” (50-54)

I also feel that John William Waterhouse succeeds in creating a visual Lamia that is both beautiful and mysterious (below), without connotations of evil and only subtly seductive. In comparison to traditional portrayals (below Waterhouse), the reader/viewer would be much more likely to allow for the the Lamia as a sympathetic character in Keats/Waterhouse’s views.

        Keats’ Lamia is not evil. She is not just a seductress bent on destruction. She is beauty, and imagination, and yes, manipulation. But she does not harm anyone, nor does she wish to- the  deception she creates is done out of love and a desire to be free of her supernatural bonds. The female body and imagination represent something new here- not seduction and sin, but rather rebirth and creativity. The female of Keats’ Lamia is ephemeral and delicate, whereas the male is either overly philosophical and critical, or oblivious- not necessarily better. As we have seen in other Gothic works, though- the female is not immune from men and their abuses of power, even if they are females who are god-like and supernatural. Keats’ Lamia is exposed and ruined by men who point out her ‘fatal flaw’ and remove the possibility of a happy ending from her story. Her inner self, i.e, under the facade of beauty as well as the serpent/supernatural form, has not yet been fully addressed. She cannot therefore attain a fully matured level of character development and plot resolution despite mens’ involvement. 

We then come to perhaps the most blatantly feminist works of the Romantic era; those of Mary Wollstonecraft. In The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria, we find the female protagonist directly and obviously wronged by her husband and patriarchal society. And boy, does Mary W let you know where she stands on this. As I spoke about in my presentation, according to laws of the time women had little to no rights. Any and all ownership or property held by the female was forfeited to her husband at the time of marriage. Divorce was unheard of, if initiated by the woman. Custody went to the husband. This complete lack of social, financial, or political independence was seen as a travesty to women such as Mary W, who strove to write literature that encouraged female education, independence, and career opportunities that encompassed more than shame or deceit. Using the frame of an institution for the ‘mentally unstable’, Wollstonecraft is able to unleash the many “inappropriate” opinions of women’s rights and desires without placing them squarely within polite society. The boundaries are allowed to be broken down, and yet the institution also serves to reflect the oppression and confinement of then-accepted gender roles for women. The shared nature of intellectual discourse between Wollstonecraft’s heroine and her male counterpart is based on mutual respect and affection rather than temporary convenience or patronizing sentiment, and it was in this way that Wollstonecraft expressed her opinion of what could exist between the male and female. 

It’s obvious that the female character/author was something being explored throughout Gothic literature. There were various depictions and statements made in each work, whether it be a females’ role in society, sexual awareness, or the realization of a mature female identity. Each writer created a unique character to be identified with or repulsed by, and in this way each succeeded in involving their female readers with a personal realization of themselves. I for one was intrigued and excited at the chance to immerse myself in the world of the Female Gothic.

(Even Austen's characters realize the thrill of identification with the female heroines of the Gothic era!)

Works Cited

Black, Joseph, ed. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature- The Age of Romanticism. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Pr, 2010. Print.

Hoeveler, Diane Long. “Gothic Feminism”. Xii-xiii. The Pennsylvania University Press. 1998.Web.

Radcliffe, Ann Ward. The Romance of the Forest. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2009. Print.

Tóth, Réka. "The Plight of the Gothic Heroine: Female Development and Relationships in Eighteenth Century Female Gothic Fiction." Eger Journal of English Studies X (2010): 21-37. Web.

Walpole, Horace. The Castle of Otranto. London: Penguin, 2001. Print.

Wollstonecraft, Mary. Mary, A Fiction and The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria. Ed. Michelle Faubert. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 2012. Print.

Burke’s 'Philosophical Inquiry' as applied to Shelley’s 'Frankenstein'

I was strongly taken by Burke’s “Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful”, and find that the majority of his ideas can be applied directly to Shelley’s portrayal of the sublime and beautiful within the characters of her novel, Frankenstein. 

The Creature itself embodies the terror of Victor’s sublime idea in sharp contrast to the beautiful expectation he held for it. According to Burke, the two cannot exist together in one object, for beauty stems from pleasure and the sublime stems from pain. The passions which stir a sense of pain (or danger) concern us with a sense of self-preservation, which leads to a strong sense of horror that our life could be affected by illness, malformation, or death. Something of this nature cannot therefore be categorized as beautiful- no matter its appearance. “…my first observation… will be found very nearly true; that the sublime is an idea belonging to self-preservation. It is therefore one of the most affecting we have. That its strongest emotion is an emotion of distress, and that no pleasure from a positive cause belongs to it.” (Burke)

Burke also has something to say when it comes to Victor, who is a character defined by his solitude and ambition. Victor, who chooses solitude, and the Creature- who is forced into it, both experience “The total and perpetual exclusion from all society, (which) is as great a positive pain as can almost be conceived” (Burke). Burke’s version of the ‘passions of society’ can be broken down into three large categories; sympathy, imitation, and ambition. Sympathy, as a form of substitution, places us in the place of another man. As we discussed in class, we see this occur between Victor and his Creature- but it becomes a cycle that relies on self-preservation and fear as opposed to sympathy and/or pity. Within this cycle is imitation, which the Creature both lacks (because he is shunned), but also strives for as the ‘son’ to his Creator and father figure, Victor. Over the course of Victor’s ambition towards Creation- he realizes that he has pressed too close to danger and has stepped beyond the natural. By Burke’s standards- it is this closeness that makes it impossible for him to feel any pleasure in his Creation. For, “when danger or pain press too nearly, they are incapable of giving any delight, and are simply terrible” (Burke).

Separation of the Self; Frankenstein's Flaw

For me personally, the apparent separation of the ‘self’ from society is one of the most striking and terrifying elements of the novel. When I think of someone living on the fringes of society, I typically associate two extremes: one being the solitary monk of a monastic order, and the other being a loner/crazed deviant of society. Neither of which play into the story, I know. 

In Frankenstein the laboratory has replaced the monastery, and the ‘passions’  reflect obsession and scientific ‘exploration’ as opposed to religious reflection. Victor himself is separated from society of his own volition- choosing to indulge his obsessions and block out any persons he cares about. It’s important to see his connection to his creation, however, as both a father and brother character. This unnatural brotherhood ignores all natural progressions of life and subsequent death, or even the natural order of birth. By choosing to identify with the monster over people in society, Victor gives in to his idealization of what his creation could be. 

This identification of ‘self’ with the monster drives him further from the natural order, and yet quickly turns to revulsion upon its realization. Here the separation comes between F. and the monster (who is in many ways an avatar for Frankenstein himself). F’s monster then physically and mentally reenacts the cycle of separation by his own right. Firstly, in his physical presence, we see his body to be a collection of separated parts that are perversely joined together. Secondly, the monster acts to further push away the people that Frankenstein cares about, just as F. did during his experimentation. Notice that NONE of this results in good outcomes? 

(Presentation notes) Women and the Law; Addressing Inequality, Imprisonment and Madness

Women were viewed by society to be the weaker sex, and faced unequal treatment regarding rights by law, job opportunities, and education. Men had the ability to sue their wives for adultery, gain full custody of children in the case of divorce, as well as a full range of educational and legal resources at their disposal. Women on the other hand were unable to sue their husbands (unless attempting to prove physical danger - which was RARELY proven), were seen as the property of their husbands (along with any assets they owned prior), and faced a lack of educational resources and occupational options.

Mary Wollstonecraft is seen by many critics to be the ‘Mother of Feminism’, drawing from many of her own life experiences to form the basis of many of her feminist and ‘radical’ writings. Mary advocated for the rigorous education of young girls into their adulthood, something that was lacking in her time. She also rejected the idea that women were inherently weaker or less capable than men, and strongly fought against the subjugation of women, both in marriage and society. Coming from a family composed of a violent father and a submissive mother, she strove to avoid facing the same ills, but like many others before her- also faced her own demons when it came to her personal life. Pregnant and unmarried (Mary Shelley is the wonderful result of this pregnancy) Mary Wollstonecraft surrounded herself with friends who strongly supported her publications as a means of supporting herself independently, and only later met someone with whom she found herself an equal. 

“The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria”- the asylum setting parallels the lack of physical and mental freedoms that women experienced in society (i.e. the protagonist is imprisoned by her husband unjustly)

“Was not the world a vast prison, and women born slaves?” ( pg. 167)

Mary felt that by denying women serious, rational pursuits, society relegated them to a lifetime of vanity and weakness/inequality. She uses fiction to address feminist ideas of education and morality, medical theories of the mind, and gender differences in a way that is approachable and instructive to the women readership. This novel also helped to pioneer the celebration of female sexuality and cross-class identification between women. 

The heroine’s inability to relinquish her romantic fantasies of life and character reveals women’s collusion in their oppression through false and damaging ‘sentimentalism’. The novel criticizes the patriarchal institution of marriage and the laws that protect it by aligning women with the insane: a minority to be championed in Romantic society. 

This representation reflects a Societal view rather than an Individual view; addressed the wrongs done to women (repression), and by women (sentimentalism).

'Mary Wollstonecraft' by John Opie

 'A Rake's Progress' by William Hogarth (Bedlam depiction)

 'Mary Wollstonecraft' by John Opie

'The Nightmare' by Henry Fuseli

WORKS CITED:

Black, Joseph, ed. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature- The Age of Romanticism. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Pr, 2010. Print.

Blake, William. "Drawings for Mary Wollstonecraft's "Original Stories from Real Life"" (c. 1791): Electronic Edition. Library of Congress, n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2013.

"Mary Wollstonecraft." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 July 2013. Web. 04 Apr. 2013.

Wollstonecraft, Mary. Mary, A Fiction and The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria. Ed. Michelle Faubert. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Pr, 2012. Print.

Stanza 3 of Keats “Ode to a Nightingale”; Death and Disjunction

This particular stanza very clearly depicts a disjunction between the nightingale (nature and life) and the speaker, presumably Keats himself. In fact, the bird isn’t physically present at all in this stanza- it has ‘faded’ away at the end of the previous stanza, into “the forest dim” (line 20). Keats expresses his desire to fade away with the bird before going into detail as to why he is separate from and yet longs for this connection to the bird, and why it isn’t present within this part of the poem. The only physicality present in this stanza is mortality and death, as represented in “the weariness”, “the fever”, and “palsy shakes”- all of which reflect Keats own personal experience with death, both as a former medical student as well as his experience with death of his family members. Here, in this reality, “Beauty” and “Love” become irrelevant and temporary, superseded instead by only sorrow and despairs. In fact, Keats clearly states that “to think is to be full of despair” (line 27), indicating that what he longs for is the nightingale’s ignorance of death and mortality. He desires to “quite forget/What thou among the leaves has never known” (lines 21-22). Merely existing, and thinking about existence, is what Keats dreads and sees as something sorrowful. To “fade far away, dissolve” (line 21) is essentially Keats call to Death as a reprieve from the sorrows, pains, and losses of life. The bird, in its absence from this stanza, reflects Keats distance from life and a desire to live. 

Love as Subject to Time; Keats "When I Have Fears"

I think that one of the most interesting things about Keats' poem 'When I Have Fears...' is that fact that not only does it deal with large ideas of love, accomplishment, and time... It also seems to embrace the idea that there may not be anything wrong with not accomplishing all. The concern with time is supported throughout, especially with the repeated use of the word "when"- but it is his emphasis on love as subject to time that strikes me as interesting. Love is referred to in brief terms- his love is the "fair creature of the hour", and in fact- this stanza is more compressed than the others, suggesting that it (like love) is short-lived. It seems that by the end of the poem Keats has accepted the fact that in death, one is essentially alone ("I stand alone", in contrast to "the wide world"). This solitude places him in a position of reflection regarding his own emotions, and leads him to reach a point of acceptance. This crossing over, if it can be called that, seems to be represented in the imagery of the shore. As a place where two separate worlds collide (the sea and the land) the shore acts as a bridge between Keats initial desire for love and fame, to an acceptance of their unimportance upon time of death; an end to his endless fear of not having done enough or been enough.

Passionate Emotions of Radcliffe's Male Characters

Radcliffe represents her characters’ emotions as determinate of their coinciding actions, especially when male characters are involved. At the beginning of the novel La Motte is described as an emotionally driven person (as opposed to someone of rationale), insofar as “his conduct was suggested by feeling, rather than principle … a man whose passions often overcome his reason” (Radcliffe 2). The quotation suggests that La Motte (and possibly the other men in the novel) are mostly driven by their passions and feelings rather than reason and principle. When Adeline rejects her father’s request to become a nun, her father is driven by anger and violence rather than reason to send his daughter to her (probable) death. 

In contrast, La Motte is seen by Adeline as her salvation, but still as a character driven by emotion. At the beginning of the novel La Motte is affected by Adeline’s grief and beauty as “She sunk at his feet, and with supplicating eyes, that streamed with tears, implored him to have pity on her.… he found it impossible to contemplate the beauty and distress of the object before him” (Radcliffe 5). His feeling and sentiments toward ‘beauty in distress’ overcome his reason; he takes in Adeline without thinking of the consequences. However, later in the novel La Motte’s feelings overcome his sense of principle rather than his reason, and he deceives Adeline with the Marquis to serve his own advantage and sense of security. La Motte (fearing imprisonment) is overcome by his ‘passions’ of self-preservation and in turn Adeline is betrayed a second time by the character who is supposed to be her protector and security. Both father figures in the novel are portrayed as suppressors; dangerous, irrational figures rather than a protector and a source of security. Adeline’s innocent trust in two male figures that both fail her places her in a role of the naive damsel, and although the two men succumb to their passions in different ways, they both end up betraying their duties and principles in favor or ‘fits of passion’. 

Moreover, the Marquis is thought (at first glance) to be a very noble and mature noble man of status; typically someone seen as proper, rational, and moral. At a second look we see that he is also driven by his passions... for Adeline. Reason does not seem to be a consideration when the Marquis declares his feelings for Adeline, namely when “the Marquis threw himself at her feet, and seizing her hand, impressed it with kisses” (Radcliffe 122). This scene is totally unexpected based on the description of the Marquis, and in many ways reflects the expected actions of an ‘unreasonable’ female affectation.

The idea that men, and not just women, can be driven by their emotions and passions must have been a relatively shocking idea up until the Romantic period. Radcliffe succeeded in portraying men and women in an equally unflattering light, while lifting the female heroine to a position of higher influence within the novel. This flip of stereotypical gender roles helps add a layer of the unexpected to the novel.

Repetition as a Foundation of the Uncanny and Strange

Linking the past, present and future is a key theme of ‘The Castle of Otranto’- but it is the recurrent use of time and human emotion as a link between the characters and their determined fates that presents itself as repetitive, and therefore, uncanny.

Human experience places a sense of superstition and unease around anything that repeats, mirrors, doubles or seems too coincidental to be natural. We see this in our fears and fascination regarding doppelgängers, mirrors (as bad luck), or twins as elements of potential horror plots. It all creeps us out, often at a very basic or unconscious level. Theodore seems to be a doppelgänger to Alfonso the Good, the true heir (as seen in the portrait in the castle) and causes a panic in Manfred upon sight.

At a basic narrative level the novel employs repetitive use of exclamations and shouts of terror or understanding. “The prince! The prince! The helmet! The helmet!” (18) is shouted by Manfred’s domestics upon their discovery of the young Conrad’s mysterious demise. Repetition of “the hand! the giant! the hand!” (90) on Manfred’s part also adds to the sense of something uncanny and overly strange at the end of the novel, bringing things full circle and repeating the link of past and present.  
     Readers can also regard the castle itself as a remnant from the past, and something that links the histories of two fated families. The mysterious prophecy presented at the beginning of the novel invokes a sense of determined fate, and creates a link between past and future. These recurring repetitions alongside uncanny coincidences and parallels, as well as the overall sense of the cyclical nature of past/present/future all lend toward the creation of what we call the ‘Gothic’ novel.