Uneasy Lie The Bones Critical Analysis

Bram Stoker and Sheridan Le Fanu’s texts, Dracula (1898) and “Carmilla” (1872), use gothic tropes in similar ways to captivate readers with horror and terror. This essay will illustrate how, in comparison, both texts include the gothic tropes: the New Woman, sexuality and setting, in order to provoke emotions and reactions from the audience. To do this, I will focus on the women that challenge traditional gender roles and stereotypes, and deconstruct each text in regards to the very strong undertones of homosexuality; specifically between Carmilla and Laura, and Dracula and Harker. By discussing the harshness and darkness of the environments described, including ruined castles and isolated landscapes; I will also explore the ambiguities of

Early gothic literature would use female stereotypes as literary techniques, usually placing women as a victim or placing them as the dangerous predator that should be avoided. Sometimes the Gothic text would not even include a woman. They were often used as a plot device to generate fear in the reader or audience. Often if the woman was not the victim, then the female ‘predator’ would be hunted and punished for her ‘crimes’. Carter uses gothic elements but seems to turn them upside down, placing women as the main protagonist in texts such as ‘Werewolf’ where the entire story is female dominant. She explores the use of women being victims and instead manifests a fearless, dominant girl. Where gothic texts would have the female predator in

What role do the female plays in the gothic literature? As the time elapsed since the 18th century, the women had taken the task of playing different important roles in the literature world. As much as in the medieval, renaissance, baroque, gothic, neoclassical, romantic, and modern literature, they help the stories to unfold in a more interesting way, which leads them to awaken an eloquent attraction in the reader since they always stand out as the victims or the central point of the narration. However, long before the gothic literature was invented the woman was better known as the most beautiful being that existed on the face of the earth, so much so that the man took it as a reward to cover the domestic tasks of the house. But, as the years

Gothic Literature is surrounded upon romanticism that involves various emotions. Horror is a relevant and popular theme of emotion in numerous gothic stories including the following literary pieces: “The Black Cat”, “The Feather Pillow”, “A Rose for Emily”, and “Prey”. Authors such as Edgar-Allan Poe, Richard Matheson, William Faulkner and Horacio Quiroga include various gothic elements such as supernatural entities and entrapment that support the idea of horror and fear as well as good versus evil in their literature.

Throughout time society has gone through countless gothic/ dark times in history. We have had to overcome monsters, death and violence in multiple occasions. However in order for society to improve our humanity and social order it has had to face these horrific things in order to flourish. Yet we are still far from perfection and will still have many more dreadful things to overcome in the future.

The Gothic presents the young heroine having to deal with the fear of the patriarchal system. The other world displays men treating women as being beneath them, unequal and weak. Highlighted in the Gothic genre is the perspective of women and the way the patriarchal system treats women during the Eighteenth Century. The young female heroine is exposed to this degradation and is placed in a patronizing situation in which the heroine must attempt

The relationship between opposing genders and species within literature is interesting. Women are known for being the weaker link, the brutally murdered, the intentesly stalked. One of the first to die and if they are kept around its usually because they fit the other half of a romantic relationship with the heroine. However, while monsters often prey upon women, in modern horror stories sometimes the women take on the roles of both victim and heroine. In this instense it is usually because they are apart of a bigger play of events. The turbulent relationship between women and monsters has been characterized by conflict.

To many the word Gothic suggests the supernatural, the sinister. To others it’s an erotic charged nightmare; a representation of undisclosed human desire. The term, "Gothic", was first used by Italian Renaissance artists as an insult to describe anything that did not originate from ancient Greece and Rome, a culture them deemed ‘civilised’. To them, it meant barbaric, wild, and dark, dismissing centuries of medieval art and architecture as crude and worthless. (Bloom, Clive, 2010, p. 20)

The first gothic novels were called ‘gothic’ because of their medieval aesthetic, but further gothic fiction was recognizable for the use of other conventions: persecuted heroines, empowered villains, young heroes, ruined castles, labyrinths, convents… but mainly, because the aim of such stories was to shock and terror the readers. That aim is still present today in everything that falls under the label of ‘gothic’: the gothic has to shock and distress and its way to achieve that is by including the element of fear in its narratives. But, how is fear produced? A first step towards the recreation of that element is by using certain images that produce strong emotions and trouble the mind. Such are the images that became popular in the first

The gothic world is dark and can contain evil, dark and mysteries. The short stories “A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner, “The Black Cat” written by Edgar Allen Poe, “Prey” written by Richard Matheson, “The Feather Pillow”, written by Horacio Quiroga and the novel “The Night Circus” written by Erin Morgenstern all represent several gothic elements. Isolation or entrapment is a gothic element that is found in “The Night Circus”, “A Rose for Emily” and “The Feather Pillow “. Violence or revenge is a gothic element that is well represented by the short stories “The Black Cat”, “Prey” and the novel “The Night Circus”. The narrators use these types of gothic elements to prove that if you stay away from people around you or force others to isolate themselves from the world and act evil towards others, it will lead to your own catastrophe.

There are a multitude of purposes for gothic literary elements to be used within fictional stories. The interconnectedness of the elements—such as a fascination with the past leading to isolation or the presence of the supernatural causing someone to obtain a fear of the unknown—allows Gothicism as a whole to span over a wide range of effects within a story. In many cases, gothic elements are used to either prove or disprove the innate evil of humankind or the circumstances of which they live amongst. Similarly, Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Black Cat” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” as well as Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects can be related in that each story uses the gothic elements of psychological issues and violence to further enhance the

The texts of Edgar Allan Poe and Angela Carter both contain gothic elements that frame women in their short stories. The elements used include, isolation, intensity of feeling, pursuit, vulnerability, the supernatural and the weakness of women. However, Angela Carter distorts gothic elements to make feminism and men’s awe of women a strong theme.

During the twentieth century, definitions of gothic books and films have broadened and changed significantly almost beyond original recognition. However, one of the reasons for the gothics continued popularity is its ability to change and recreate itself. There are some key elements that characterise twentieth-century gothic, one of them would be that in the early part of the century, the manner in which the real-life horror of two world wars takes over from the imagined horrors of the super natural and superstitious. Tortured individuals who in the nineteenth century refused to play dead began to do so on a massive scale during and after the First World War Armitt (2011)

In his seminal study Gothic, Botting compares Gothic literature in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries with respect to their different ways of addressing terror and horror. He notes that the novel of terror dominated the eighteenth-century gothic writings for its transgressive efficacies. Female Gothic writers examine the terrors of patriarchal oppression while verbalizing the heroine’s anxiety about her entrapment into the confines of domesticity. In other words, the gothic heroine is plunged into a state of terror stimulated by her own imagination yet, reflected her social reality. Although the heroine engaged herself in a subversive journey to flee the terrors of the social order, the gothic genre at that period espoused a restoration and revitalization of the normalised order through the exorcism of the threatening and vicious characters, as Botting writes: “[V]illains are punished; heroines well married” (Gothic 10).

Gothic literature is an enchanting and frightening blend of horror and romance. From Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto to Shelley's Frankenstein, and Edgar Allen poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart. The Gothic novel has been around for centuries, and, despite a few major changes, has maintained some of the basic elements of classic Gothic romance since its very origins. The height of Gothic literature, which was closely aligned with Romanticism, is usually considered to have been the years 1764-1840, but its influence extends to the present day. Gothic literature was focused on elements of death, decay and both physical and psychological terror. These elements were often portrayed by setting, characterization, form, and recurring motifs. The Gothic style also suggests a belief in the supernatural and thus many gothic texts contain an air of mystery and intrigue. Another key aspect in any gothic text is 'evil'. During the emergence of the Gothic literary movement, it is perhaps not surprising that the period was characterised by widespread terror, namely from the French Revolution. Subsequently, the genre became very popular among writers as it enabled them to express their sympathy and concern over such political movements. The presence of the quintessential elements of gothic horror consequently helped to make the genre so alluring to both readers and authors.