Defective of characteristics traditional to the protagonist, the antihero possesses an unscrupulous lack of morality and ardour to achieve the greater good; thus still a protagonist of the narrative, yet serves as a subversion of the traditional hero archetype. Although often the antithesis of the archetypal protagonist, the antihero gains begrudged sympathy and an extent of understanding from the reader that separates itself from the concept of the antagonist. Despite belonging to two different literary eras, and being published more than a century apart from one another, Matthew Lewis’ The Monk and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess both present their main characters, Father Ambrosio and Alex DeLarge, to be the
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Characteristics such as the use of dark sorcery and omens within Matilda when aiding Ambrosio to seduce the innocent Antonia, the gothic violence and excess expressed in Agnes’ torture by hypocritical nuns and the prevented repentance of Ambrosio by the Devil, conclude The Monk to be a gothic text. Doubt elicited by the use of sorcery and the presence of the devil is characteristic of gothic fiction. Doubt, irony and scepticism are also characteristics of the era of postmodern literature, particularly in relation to society and political constructions. Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange is a dystopian post-war novel of the postmodernist era which is explorative of psychopathy and medicinal and political mind control. The literary eras of both The Monk and A Clockwork Orange therefore allow for the concept of the antihero in their characteristically dark, interpretive and cynical periods of …show more content…
Upon 1789, “France’s population of 28 million was almost entirely Catholic”, “Yet, by 1794, France’s churches and religious orders were closed down and religious worship suppressed”2 Such suppression of Catholicism was not solitarily subject to France, however, as in fact “the revolution reawakened Whig guilt at the bloodiness of English history” (Nick Groom), and therefore “a great distrust of Catholicism remained” (Nick Groom) in England – the origins of the writing of The Monk - as well as the French setting of the gothic novel; and Catholicism was additionally “expressly satirised in fiction” (Nick Groom). Despite the second-class positioning of Catholics within 18th century England, “the chastity of monks and nuns were treated with suspicion by Protestants” (Nick Groom), and the prevalent distrust of catholic tradition, power and values elicited by both the setting and background of The Monk allows for the extreme sins committed by Father Ambrosio to take place without being completely
Characteristics such as the use of dark sorcery and omens within Matilda when aiding Ambrosio to seduce the innocent Antonia, the gothic violence and excess expressed in Agnes’ torture by hypocritical nuns and the prevented repentance of Ambrosio by the Devil, conclude The Monk to be a gothic text. Doubt elicited by the use of sorcery and the presence of the devil is characteristic of gothic fiction. Doubt, irony and scepticism are also characteristics of the era of postmodern literature, particularly in relation to society and political constructions. Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange is a dystopian post-war novel of the postmodernist era which is explorative of psychopathy and medicinal and political mind control. The literary eras of both The Monk and A Clockwork Orange therefore allow for the concept of the antihero in their characteristically dark, interpretive and cynical periods of …show more content…
Upon 1789, “France’s population of 28 million was almost entirely Catholic”, “Yet, by 1794, France’s churches and religious orders were closed down and religious worship suppressed”2 Such suppression of Catholicism was not solitarily subject to France, however, as in fact “the revolution reawakened Whig guilt at the bloodiness of English history” (Nick Groom), and therefore “a great distrust of Catholicism remained” (Nick Groom) in England – the origins of the writing of The Monk - as well as the French setting of the gothic novel; and Catholicism was additionally “expressly satirised in fiction” (Nick Groom). Despite the second-class positioning of Catholics within 18th century England, “the chastity of monks and nuns were treated with suspicion by Protestants” (Nick Groom), and the prevalent distrust of catholic tradition, power and values elicited by both the setting and background of The Monk allows for the extreme sins committed by Father Ambrosio to take place without being completely