THE GOTHIC GENRE

The Role of Women in the Gothic Genre is as Victims, Always Subject to Male Authority



The Role of Women in the Gothic Genre is as Victims, Always Subject to Male Authority

Introduction

The victimization of tender, vulnerable young women is the heart-thumping stuff of gothic lore is commen. In Gothic genere the representation of women was always subject to male authority. From the Middle Ages, literature portrayed females in a number of unbearable dilemmas: daughters refusing incestuous relationships, the choice offered the Irishwoman St. Dympna; women suffering rape and dishonor, the fate of Florinda of Tangiers; alleged witches facing persecution and torment, the sentence of Jehenna de Brigue of Meaux and Alice Kyteler of Ireland; and victims of barbarism, the cause of the murders of St. Winifred of Wales and St. Ursula and her company of virgins in Cologne. Similarly, this paper will assess the representation of women in the work of Charlotte Bronte, Henry James and Robert Browning. Women in the past has been depicted as the victim of societal hardships in different genre of literature. Some represent women as a sex commodity being cosumed by male elite, others represents women as the sufferer of all the destitution of the society. Jane Eyre by Bronte starts with narrating the story of a the whole life of a girls. The novel tells the reader how Jane has been victimized by the male dominated society of that time. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James also highliths the male dominance, through the story of a governess and a family. My Last Duchess and Porphyria's lover are the novels of Robert Browning. The plots of both novels are alike, because both novel discusses how male dominated society express hosillity towards females. The Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James and My Last Duchess and Porphyria's lover both by Robert Browning depicted women in a miserable condition.

Discussion

Interpreting literary works (and maybe artworks in general), appears to be affected by claims of truth and by attitudes exclusive of other interpretations. Roman Jakobson already made it clear in 1921 that artists tend to break the barriers of convention. In interpreting an artwork we are undertaking a similar process. The gothic genre is abundant with stereotypical characters, including the human, the supernatural and the monstrous. The human characters are usually a heroic male and a 'damsel in distress' a maiden in frequent need of rescuing by the male protagonist. Fatal character flaws are emphasized and can lead to the hero's downfall. The characters are often isolated and trapped, either physically or psychologically. There can also be a villain, who persecutes the lead characters and can intimidate the weak female through his power. Supernatural characters are prominent in gothic literature, and can include ghosts, vampires and magicians. Monsters such as werewolves and Frankenstein also feature in these novels. The choice of characters is essential to gothic texts as they develop the mystery, and create fear through the use ...