For the love of Goth

For the love of Goth

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Northanger Abbey


The novel is one of the most popular one from Jane Austen. The novel is about a girl growing up as a tomboy and later become sexually matured women. While coming of age mean being able to drink or graduation from high school or get bitten by thousands of ants depending on what society you belong to, in this novel coming of age for a girl means being able to attract a romantic partner and get married. In chapter one the description of the girl in the first sentence hints us the total theme of the story. The author did not hesitate to reveal the protagonist in the first few sentences, unlike the other stories we read where there is a series of events that revels the main character. Catherine Morland who grows up playing games like boys grows up as her interest grows form childish games to books. Books are her window to the world of mystery and interpretation of people. However she does not think about the emotional horrors that people have in mind as she fails to understand people more.
The setting of this story is in England where the nobles have extravagant lifestyle of fashion and ball-room dances. It is different in style from the regular Gothic genre as the Dark castle; spooky hallways are only fragment of the protagonist's imagination. It is more about the internal conflict of the characters than the external conflict. The Protagonist, Catherine Morland tries to understand more about people but usually she fails every time. Miss Morland is just 17 years of age and never had affection is attracted by well mannered and humble Henry Tinley, the son of General Tinley. General Tinley seems to be interested in the brewing love between his son and Miss Morland. He is represented as a dynamic character as he seemed all nice but later turns out to be antagonist. Mr. Thorpe is used as a Foil character as he admits that the Morlands are poor. This creates a twist in the story where everything happens very fast and it seems chaotic. General Tinley upon finding that the Morlands are poor and not the heir of the generous Allen family turns against Catherine as he orders her immediate leave without escort or protection from the abbey. He is not all evil but certainly no saint as he seems to have won his three children through orders and not love as the mother’s room is restricted to the children which make Catherine more suspicious of his intentions. This is the point where the reality and imagination conflicts. The imagination is not so different to the ones fueled by Gothic books that Ms Morland reads and I believe that is a satire to Ann Radcliffe and other Gothic writers which rely on vague and cynical elements to create excitement and thrill upon readers. This novel is written very cleverly as this contains no supernatural events and yet promise to deliver the same thrill to reader. If the mind is playing tricks on the characters it can be equally horrendous. That is the point Jane Austen wants to make in this literature. The character such as Thorpe and Isabella add instability to the relations that the growing girl is trying to make. She is emotionally tested in every moment of her stay in bath and in the abbey. The society seemed to have high opinion of the higher class and the amount of wealth one could get after being married. However Henry is consistent but not willing to fight for his love until the end of the novel where he goes to visit Catherine and the Morlands to ask her hand for marriage.
There is a happy ending to this but the point the writer is trying to address is that real life is different than the imaginary world of literature and a growing girl should try to understand people more than books with imagination.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Romance of the Forest - Fin


This is the point where we all admit it was a really long story with lot of unnecessary details. I kept wandering off and was a hard read. Adeline is now trapped in a unique situation. Her beauty attracts the Marquis as expected from the novels of this genre. She is trapped in the abbey where its lord has incestuous desires towards her. There is a discovery of a manuscript by Adeline as she wanders through the secret chamber in her room. The manuscript appears to be written by a prisoner of marquis who was tortured and the accounts of the atrocities were in the manuscript. This puts Adeline in dire stress as she realizes that Marquis who is even willing to Pardon La Motte for the robbery and assault against him provided he could have his ways on her sexuality. This is the antigonist The protagonist cannot trust anyone this point and she is feeling betrayed. This is typical of a gothic literature as we read the Castle of Otranto where the female characters are shrouded by the evil intentions of the male counterparts. The twist in the story is that Adeline's father was killed by Marquis and he turns out to be his brother. At this point all things start to become chaotic and Marquis ends up taking the distressed heroine Adeline away and keeps her locked up. Finally Adeline manages to escape to meet the love of her life Theodore. Unlike castle of Otranto there is no sad ending. The protagonist finally has her ways and makes her own decision by marrying Theodore. The Heroine makes her own decision which is not that common in those times. This shows the protagonist has power though fainting on numerous occasions.

Romance of the Forest - Part One


The second reading for the class was The Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliff. As it is a Gothic novel we expect to see scenes of horror, suspense, incestuous motives, a ruined castle or abbey and other elements of Goth like in The Castle of Ortanto by Walpole. The novel revolves around a Protagonist who is not the usual kind in the Gothic literature. Unlike The Castle of Otranto the protagonist is a lady in distress. When we start reading the book it takes a while for the author to introduce Adeline, the protagonist, and makes us wonder how she can be the main character in this story. Since this novel is a Female Gothic novel we do see the familiar struggle of female against the antagonist Marquis, the lord of the ruined abbey. For a start we know that Adeline was a motherless girl and she was captured by bandits from her father. The story begins when La Motte and his family who have been running away from the creditors stop at a place to find shelter. They discover the shelter to be housed by bandits and the bandits spare their lives in a condition that they take Adeline away from the place as soon as possible. This is the point where the quest of the distressed and vulnerable Protagonist begins. This is a very typical characteristic of a Female Gothic where there is a tale of travel of the distressed.
The setting of the novel is the late 18th century and early 19th century England where the characters are introduced and develop along dense forest, hiding trails, abandoned house and a ruined abbey. The society has its own ways with women as they have two choices; either to get married by force or get extinguished with the perils the society throws at them. Adeline being abducted by the bandits and being transferred to the Motte family represents the vulnerability of women in the society. La Motte perhaps would not have agreed to the bandits if his life was not at stake but there should be some sort of insecurity growing in lady Motte as they find Adeline very fragile but beautiful. At this point it was clear that the charm of a lady in distress is bringing a storm of events in their lives as it happens that their lives are connected by a chance.
The runaway along with Adeline go through much trouble along their way to find almost uninhabitable abbey or a castle where it looks as if La Motte gets another chance as he could reside there and be protected from the creditors. They clean up the place and soon discover the abbey belongs to the Marquis, the antagonist. This is the inclination point of the story.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

"The Castle Of Otranto"



The Castle Of Otranto is an interesting read. The story is of a new Genre as it defines the new literary style of Goth. The author published it with a claim of finding a manuscript with a different name. This was intentional as he wanted it to have the effect of suspense and awe. The literary elements may appear crude in some ways but the story has all the literary elements. The story is filled with mystery, prophecy, secret pathway, giant statues, swords and supernatural which we discover that will set the benchmark for future Gothic literature.
The exposition of the story begins with a scene of a marriage where the descriptions of the characters are unfolded. The scene takes place in a castle setting which depicts the life of the upper class. As the story unfolds there is a twist. The marriage of the young sickly prince, Conrad with Isabella is interrupted by an accident which kills the groom. There is a mystery being unfolded as people discover what really killed him. The giant helmet of Alfonso, the true ruler of Otranto falls onto Conrad killing him instantly. There is a little that is known how that happened but people relate this to a prophecy that tells them that the ruler of Otranto and the castle, Manfred did not gain the title by inheritance and the illegitimate rule would end when the true ruler arrives. So the story is about keeping the true heir away from power by submission or marriage.
After the death of Conrad, Manfred with his incestuous desires tries to submit Isabella for marriage. This moment is the point where everything becomes chaotic. The secret pathway is revealed and amongst the darkness Isabella finds an unselfish helping hand that helps her escape from the evil intentions of Manfred. The descriptions of the castle appear very strange as the runaway finds herself passing through dark corridors of the castle. The intensity of the actions in the story fluctuates as Isabella settles into the sacred shrine where she thinks she is safe from her fears. This is the point where there is a conflict between the characters. Manfred wants Isabella but he is powerless as he cannot force her as she is safe in the holy sanctuary. Jerome the pastor would not approve this either. Jerome wants to know if Hippolita, Manfred's wife approves of the unholy matrimony and he cannot support Manfred's cause until she approves. So the characters have conflict with their ideas. This is an example of external conflict. Internal conflict arise when Matilda (Manfred’s daughter) and Isabella both fall for Theodore (the peasant arrested and later revealed to be the true heir and descendent of Alfonso).
There are different characters in this story. The Antagonist Manfred is the bad guy who has all the bad motifs including incest (Isabella being like his daughter by marriage with Conrad). The Protagonist Theodore is disguised by his peasant appearance in the story of upper class but soon we find him as a prince who is a direct descendent of Alfonso. He changes a lot through the story as we discover him as a peasant, then Jerome’s son and a great knight and descendent of Alfonso. He is also a Dynamic character. The other Dynamic character is Jerome who loves his son and is willing to compromise his piety to keep him away from the hands of Manfred. Hippolita is a static character as she is so much faithful to Manfred that she is willing to accept the sinful marriage of Manfred. She does not change herself very much in the story.
The story is a story of Irony. As the story is unfolded it becomes clear that the person who Manfred hates the most his daughter loves him, and in the end when Manfred tries to kill Theodore he kills his own daughter. This is also called the irony of situation. This is the climax of the story. From here the falling actions takes place. This includes the change in Manfred as he finds his daughter on a death bed. His evil intentions are gone and he doesn’t have the desire to rule anymore. Everyone is unhappy and things start to slow down. The resolution would be the possible marriage of Isabella to Theodore despite Theodore loved the dying Matilda. This would not take too long as we find out in these stories people get over and fall in love easily. The denouement of the story is making Theodore the prince of Otranto while Manfred and Hippolita voluntary exile to a holy sanctuary for the sin Manfred committed. However I don’t understand why Hippolita has to suffer because of this. May be thatwas how the society would have perceived the position of women in society in those times.