light and shadow:
reflecting the
characters of the
protagonists,
innocence v's darkness
and corruption
ambiguity: between
good and evil, natural
and supernatural
Polarities: virginal young female protagonist v's the corrupt,
inhumane male villain. Light and dark not only oppose but
compliment eachother: there is something about the dark,
sexually promiscuous male that hints at duality-an escape to
the dark side
sexual difference:
power/experience
of the male,
virginal curiosity of
the female.
Transgression
breaking
boundaries: sexual,
social
Contextually:
reaction against
intellectual
atmosphere of
the
Enlightenment
WOMEN: gave them
a place to explore
rebellion
feminist
interpretations: women
becoming sexually
libertaed, freeing
themselves from the
shackles of society.
female/ gay male
authors- against the
grain of the patriachal
novel
women= explorers, disobedient
female
protagonist
and unsexed
male
safely, without society
being turned on its head-
the thrill, but returning to
normality, ultimately
unthreatening.
perversion, sexual
desire, obsession,
voyeurism, sexual
violence
Claustrophobia and entrapment
constraint:threat
and isolation,
physical or
psychological
gothic novels set
during moments of
transition: from
girlhood to
womanhood,
enlightenment
period, autumn to
winter etc
opposition but also
mysterious affinity
between present and
the archaic past
Freud: The UNCANNY: " That class of
the frightening which leads back to
the old and unfamiliar"
ex. Ghosts: disrupt the present with the past
a world of doubt:
beyond human reason
and power
Edmund Burke: The sublime
Beyond the beautiful- no
order, harmony or
proportion- the mighty,
terrible and the awesome.
Excess and awe.
'a pleasing melancholy'
Structural:
elaborate narrative
structure; many
narrators, found
texts and stories
within stories
vicarious
pleasures, illicit
thrills
typical symbolism
colours, usually red v's white to
insinuate loss of virginity/purity
mirrors: identity, sense of
self, vanity, worldliness,
sensuality, isolation, a door to
an alternate reality.
light and dark: polarities
passageways,
locked doors, keys:
sexual discover,
perhaps forbidden