“A Gothic hero should be passionate, obsessive and unsettling in equal measure.”
In light of this comment, discuss the representation of both heroes and heroines in the Gothic texts you have studied this year.
Gothic heroes were first known as Byronic heroes being ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’; they normally had a problematic and secretive past therefore isolating themselves from the world be it physically or mentally. Gothic heroines are stereotypically seen to be young, innocent and a blameless victim of a corrupt and oppressive patriarchal. This can be seen in young Hester from “The Old Nurse’s Story” where she laughs about the ghost which shows her lack of sense.
The gothic heroine in the novel is subjected to fears and is incapable to adjust to all the horrors she is disclosed to. Angela Carter re invents the gothic in the 20th century and says that the way to think about the new gothic heroine is to question whether she is an agent in her own story or a victim in someone else’s. Catherine is seen to taking her life into her own hands and not being pushed about which implies she is an agent of passion like Heathcliff. Also, Bridget in The Poor Clare is one of the first women to take the role of the gothic hero, not heroine. She is the agent of her own fate, extreme …show more content…
Gilbert and Gubar describe characters like Catherine and Bridget as “proto feminist” and argue that “the Victorian angel’s scheming, her moral fleshliness, and her repressed (but therefore all the more frightening) capacity for explosive
In light of this comment, discuss the representation of both heroes and heroines in the Gothic texts you have studied this year.
Gothic heroes were first known as Byronic heroes being ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’; they normally had a problematic and secretive past therefore isolating themselves from the world be it physically or mentally. Gothic heroines are stereotypically seen to be young, innocent and a blameless victim of a corrupt and oppressive patriarchal. This can be seen in young Hester from “The Old Nurse’s Story” where she laughs about the ghost which shows her lack of sense.
The gothic heroine in the novel is subjected to fears and is incapable to adjust to all the horrors she is disclosed to. Angela Carter re invents the gothic in the 20th century and says that the way to think about the new gothic heroine is to question whether she is an agent in her own story or a victim in someone else’s. Catherine is seen to taking her life into her own hands and not being pushed about which implies she is an agent of passion like Heathcliff. Also, Bridget in The Poor Clare is one of the first women to take the role of the gothic hero, not heroine. She is the agent of her own fate, extreme …show more content…
Gilbert and Gubar describe characters like Catherine and Bridget as “proto feminist” and argue that “the Victorian angel’s scheming, her moral fleshliness, and her repressed (but therefore all the more frightening) capacity for explosive