Imprisonment in the Gothic genre encapsulates both the physical and mental. Imprisoned by societal conventions, characters are entrapped in the expectations of their time in both novels and this theme comes to serve as a plot device that drives the characters to act within their limited agencies, proving the theme of imprisonment to be central in both writings. While the instances of entrapment may not be explicit, they underpin characters’ struggles and the authors utilise the ideas of societal, physical, and mental limitations to show the strength and extend of characters’ journeys. As a literary convention, imprisonment in these Gothic novels allow for Charlotte Brontë to explore and dismantle the Victorian expectations of women while Angela Carter is able to warp traditional fairy tales to explore the emergence of second-wave feminism.
Charlotte Brontë uses Bertha Mason as a foil to Jane Eyre, showing the reader and Jane what could happen should she chose to remain in Thornfield with Rochester. Similarly, Angela Carter uses the dead …show more content…
The foils are not capable of warning the protagonists of what their fates may be; they’re either dead or a ‘mad woman.’ The difference in the author’s foils may lie in the context of their times and the intentions of their works. Hysteria and madness were genuine fears in Brontë’s age and women could be proclaimed mad with no basis or proof; men would often claim their wives mad to be rid of them. Brontë’s echoing of Jane Eyre’s time in the Red Room becoming the reality that Bertha Mason lives and the death of the previous wives in Carter’s The Bloody Chamber – they are the outcome of living in the estate – are not only structurally significant, they are thematic; a leitmotif throughout both novels. Bertha is a wife who has been ruined in the estate
Charlotte Brontë uses Bertha Mason as a foil to Jane Eyre, showing the reader and Jane what could happen should she chose to remain in Thornfield with Rochester. Similarly, Angela Carter uses the dead …show more content…
The foils are not capable of warning the protagonists of what their fates may be; they’re either dead or a ‘mad woman.’ The difference in the author’s foils may lie in the context of their times and the intentions of their works. Hysteria and madness were genuine fears in Brontë’s age and women could be proclaimed mad with no basis or proof; men would often claim their wives mad to be rid of them. Brontë’s echoing of Jane Eyre’s time in the Red Room becoming the reality that Bertha Mason lives and the death of the previous wives in Carter’s The Bloody Chamber – they are the outcome of living in the estate – are not only structurally significant, they are thematic; a leitmotif throughout both novels. Bertha is a wife who has been ruined in the estate