Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey is brilliant. Jane Austen did a wonderful job in creating a novel where the character’s naiveté is what makes the gothic tendencies occur. As a the young seventeen year old Catherine is introduced into the well-to-do society of Bath, she is also pushed into the social and gossip scene as she makes instant friends with Isabella Thorpe.

One of the major scenes in the book that helps to carry this as a gothic novel occurs when Catherine horribly embarrasses herself in front of Henry. When Catherine mischievously goes snooping around in Mrs. Tilney’s room she is disappointed to find that nothing unusual is there. Even worse is that she is caught red handed by her love interest Henry (surprisingly not Theodore) and now he knows that she thought his father (General Tilney) killed his mother (Mrs. Tilney) and was trying to cover it up.

 

This novel being placed in the gothic genre is entirely through the ironic thoughts of Catherine. While her imagination starts to run wild, she finds herself eager to open a chest that is sure to have something incriminating but sadly, it only turns out to have old laundry lists encased.  Henry and Catherine’s banter on how her first night in the abbey will go is entirely mocking. They feed off each other’s recollections of the countless numbers of books they have each read. Of course, her first night goes nothing as they depict, but nonetheless, it’s still entertaining.

It’s interesting to me that Catherine is well read and yet still unable to read people. A variety of things pass completely over her head the entire novel.  Another thing that I didn’t realize until after I finished reading was that Fredrick (Captain Tilney) was leaving to go and help the Anti-Napoleon efforts.

Romance of the Forest Pt.2

The second half of Romance of the Forest Adeline finds herself back at the abbey with La’Motte, whom she deeply distrusts now and her love Theodore has been wounded and arrested.  The upset Marquis tells La’Motte to kill Adeline, and he intends too but suddenly feels pity and sends her off with his trusty servant Peter.  

She falls ill again, since that is one of her many talents and she wakes up in a nice place near the lake. She has been taken in by La Luc who has a daughter that can heal people. Clara, La Luc’s daughter, and Adeline become quick friends and Adeline begins to mesh into their family.  Upon a rather grim diagnosis, La Luc’s doctor advises him to vacation. Upon their travels, they run into Louis La’Motte (La’Motte’s son) who tells Adeline that he has been sent to tell Theodore’s father that he has been sentenced to death.

As it turns out La Luc is Theodore’s father and whole family goes to visit Theodore in prison.  After a high drama trial occurs and many secrets are reveales, Theodore is pardoned from his sentence, the Marquis’s reputation has been destroyed as we find that he is actually Adeline’s Uncle and that he had killed Adeline’s father,  La Luc recovers fully, and La’Motte is exiled.  The Marquis kills himself and leaves his money to Adeline. Then her and Clara get married in a double wedding and everyone ends up happily ever after.

I found it strange that the love interest in both Castle of Otranto and Romance of the Forest had the name of Theodore. So, I did a little bit of research on the name. The name Theodore is of Greek origin and it has two roots, theos (meaning god) and doron (meaning gift). Theodore literally means God's Gift, which may be the reason that both Walpole and Radcliffe used that name for the hero character. Although Romance of the Forest is a bit wordy overall, this book was much better than Castle of Otranto.

Romance of the Forest Pt.1

In the first half of Romance of the Forest, I wasn’t surprised to find that one of the first action scenes takes place in a forest.  Adeline, our damsel in distress makes her first debut in a cabin with some criminals who pawn her off on La’Motte, who of course is fleeing from debt collectors. It’s only fitting for a damsel to quickly fall ill and be so charming that the whole lot of characters instantly fall in love with her. As the plot makes haste, La’Motte, Peter, Annette, and the rest of the crew find themselves in an old abandoned abbey in the forest.

In the absence of his money, La’Motte robs the Marquis and hides his newly acquired booty in the forest. As the lot becomes comfortable in the abbey, Adeline makes frequent walks through the forest where she breaks out into spontaneous poetry. Go figure.  Because La’Motte and Adeline venture into the forest often, Madam La’Motte soon begins to suspect a love affair.

As the suitors begin to pile up for the fair Adeline, she finds herself amidst the Marquis who miraculously survived La'Motte's attack during the robbery. The Marquis promised not to press charges against La'Motte as long as he was given full sexual access to Adeline. To her horror, the Marquis is pursuing her despite the fact that he has a wife. After Adeline’s refusal, the Marquis decides to do the logical thing and abduct her to his chateau. In his scheme, she meets a boy in service to the Marquis named Theodore, and they fall in love.

As I read this half, I began to be able to pick out every theme that merits gothic literature. We had skeletons in the closet, old abandoned mansions, mystery, suspense, high emotion, and women in distress.  This novel is a classic example of gothic literature at its core.

What I think is interesting is that during the early 17^th century, most people would have been running from the plague and seeking seclusion from disease, but La’Motte is running from money and seclusion from debt collectors.

Castle of Otranto

Dear Horace Walpole,

I am writing to tell you how I respectfully dislike your work, Castle of Otranto.  Upon my curiosity of gothic novels, your book ended up in my hands. My first impression was one of intrigue.  Your catching my attention in the beginning with a murder, was clever, I’ll give you that.  I was enthralled to keep reading.  However, can I ask what a helmet is?  Although mysterious and slightly vague, I resent being left to imagine what thing crushed poor Conrad.

                          

I found the chase for Isabella disgusting and demeaning. Although Isabella’s lack of interest for Conrad was apparent, it was a nasty thought to sick Manfred, the father of her fiancé, on her trail.  In the terms of this book, that is incest and then to develop a whole plot line on how to subdue young Isabella is repulsive.  I find it demeaning that you assume that the women in this book are so distractible as well.  Offering up jewelry for secrets is low and to write that assumption of women into the plot is disappointing. 

I recognize that fears of marriage and male dominance where prevalent issues at the time of this novel’s creation however, I felt like this story is a not-so-different tale of the life of King Henry and his many wives and mistresses.  Manfred’s quest for Isabella and Manfred’s disinterest in his own daughter for lack of her ability to take on the thrown sounds like King Henry’s mistresses and his dislike for his daughters who also couldn’t carry the title.  Also, the declaration of a false marriage based on the fruitlessness of the wife is a painful comparison to King Henry’s denial of one of his own marriages based on that very same thing.

I recognize that fears of marriage and male patriarchy were dominant issues at the time, so I can understand why you worked those issues into your novel but I found the story too familiar and bland. However, I commend you on your ability to pioneer the thought of gothic novels into society.

Sincerely,

Stephanie Spencer

Introduction

Hi, my name is Stephanie S. I am from Fort Worth and am a junior 1 Nursing Major. At this point I plan to go into a specialty in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit post graduation. After that, I am considering going through the Nurse Anesthesia Program and becoming a CRNA.

In the past, Gothic Literature has never been an interest of mine. I typically tend to like a good mystery thriller or historical fiction but am open to seeing what I think about Gothic Literature. I know that Gothic Literature tends to be more on the dark side and usually contains a mythical element but that is about all I knew of this genre before the beginning of this course. I hope to gain a good understanding of the basics of Gothic Literature and to hopefully find at least one book that I like throughout this course.