...‘As with many Gothic Texts, Frankenstein challenges set oppositions.’ Discuss this statement in light of the novel. In Gothic texts, a common theme is for the authors to write about oppositions. It is often the case that oppositions are challenged in books from this particular genre, such as the opposition of rational and irrational and civilised and primitive. This is shown, for example, in the book ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ by Robert Louis Stevenson, where the characters of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde can be seen as parts of the same person. This is further shown in Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ where oppositions are explored such as good and evil, human and monster and life and death. In particular, the novel Frankenstein is concentrated on exploring the opposition between the monstrous and human. Shelley challenges the opposition between the monstrous and human through her main protagonists: Victor Frankenstein and the Monster. Victor defines the creature as monstrous from the start, purely on the basis of his physical appearance. ‘His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.’ In this quote, Victor describes the monsters appearance and portrays...
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...only one step from the edge of despair. The author shows the theme of selfishness throughout the book by using symbolism, gothic elements, and character choices. Symbolism is used throughout The Picture of Dorian Gray to support the theme of selfishness. Dorian’s action being shaped to the portrait actions proves that...
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...Despite Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ being a pre-gothic text, a vast range of gothic notions remain present, including those of darkness and concealment. The role of darkness within ‘Macbeth’ forms a vital aspect of the entire nature of the plot, with characters such as Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and even the witches displaying the use of dark acts, such as murder, in order to achieve personal ambition “that wilt raven up life’s own means.” Additionally, concealment plays an equally vital role, with the ‘femme fatale’ of Lady Macbeth strongly displaying signs of duality as she represses her evil nature behind the charade of passive femininity. However, one must consider why and how darkness and concealment obtain a significant device in structuring both the plot and displaying the gothic elements. Within ‘Macbeth, one of the most significant roles of the gothic notion of darkness is to emphasise to the audience the chaos and distress caused by Macbeth’s disruption of the Divine Right of Kings; which Shakespeare highlights through the relentless conflict between dark and light throughout the plot. Although darkness plays a vital role in accentuating the beast within both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, it can be seen as equally significant in the literal sense, with the eclipse which occurs during and after the murder of Duncan - hiding the cruel, dark nature to Macbeth’s acts. Within Act Two, Scene One, Fleance expresses the fact that “the moon is down: I have not heard the clock” which instantly...
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...Frankenstein | Section B | June 2015 | | | | | June 2014 | “Faustus is a gothic victim, rather than a gothic villain.” To what extent do you agree with this view of Faustus’s role in the play? (40 marks) | “In Wuthering Heights love is presented as an emotion which provokes violence rather than tenderness.” To what extent do you agree with this view? [40 marks] | To what extent do you agree with the view that the novel is a total condemnation of transgression? [40 marks] | “Gothic writing is exciting because it allows us to think the unthinkable.” How far do you agree with this view? [40 marks] | | | | | To what extent do you think gothic writing is a disturbing exploration of the unknown? [40 marks | | | | | To what extent do you agree with the view that gothic writing shows that human beings are naturally inclined to be evil rather than good? [40 marks] | June 2013 | “Although Faustus is eventually punished, the play is essentially a celebration of sin rather than a morality tale.” How far do you agree with this view of the play? (40 marks) | How far do you agree with the view that, in Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte shows that more suffering is caused by a diseased mind than by a diseased body? (40 marks) | Explore some of the ways in which Mary Shelley uses different settings to contribute to the gothic effects of the novel. (40 marks) | To what extent do you agree that, in gothic writing, fear and pain are sources of pleasure? (40 marks) (40 marks) | ...
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...the introduction of Gothic architecture and troubadour poetry. Although the Middle Ages began as a time of violence, the emergence of Gothic architecture and troubadour poetry are examples of devotion and expression. During the tenth and eleventh centuries cathedrals were constructed (367). The style of the cathedrals resembled Roman architecture, which was the preceding time period. (367). Features of Roman architecture included “massive walls, rounded stones arches, and small windows” (367). By the twelfth century, this new style gained the name “Gothic.” The Gothic style introduced new engineering improvements and emphasized more emotional expression. The structures of Gothic architecture consisted of pointed arches, high ceilings, and flying buttresses (367). A flying buttress carried the weight of the roof. “Midieval Archtechture” states: “The walls of Gothic buildings could be thinner than previous styles of architecture because the weight of the roof was supported by the arches rather than by the walls. The pointed Gothic arch provided greater flexibility could also span greater distances, allowing vaults to be taller and wider. Thinner walls had wider window openings which encouraged the use of stained glass and the distinctive Gothic Rose windows.” The style was adopted by most religious buildings proving a devotion to faith. In France there stood eighty cathedrals, five hundred abbey churches and thousands of churches constructed in Gothic style. Town...
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...Gothic Horror is a term used to depict fictitious work that has incorporated a lot of horror scenes as well as elements of the unreal world, exploring the conflict between good and evil and dealing with the supernatural in some sort of way. The episodic novel Dracula written by Bram Stoker in 1897 and the movie Blade by Stephen Norrington created in 1998 bring to the fore many conventions relating to the Gothic Horror genre despite their vastly different contexts. Gothic elements of imprisonment, death and blood are clearly represented through each of the texts. Stoker and Norrington present these conventions through a variety of literary and film techniques, paying particular attention to character and setting to explore the elements of the genre. Through these interactions, the audience can feel a sense of Gothic Horror in which the composers of the two texts aim to convey. The setting is a prominent aspect of Stoker’s novel, as it creates the mood and atmosphere and affects the characters of the novel. The castle in Dracula is the main setting that the reader is introduced to and sets the journey on a mysterious, evil and suspenseful road. Jonathan believes that “the castle is a veritable prison” and he is the prisoner. Dracula’s castle is situated in a rural location, said to be the superstitious west were all the mythical creatures from vampires, ghosts, witches and wolves are found. To reinforce the concept of imprisonment, all the doors in the castle are locked and Jonathan...
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...Diana BANEGAS ME 1 Commentaire littéraire This is the end of this short story, set in the (imaginary) town of Jefferson, Mississippi. Make clear how the Gothic theme of time and decay is brought in and developed. The text is an extract from a William Faulkner's short story: A Rose for Emily. Divided in five sections, this extract is the end of the text, compounded of the section III, IV and V. Published in 1930, the story takes place in the fictional city of Jefferson, Mississippi and it is introduced by a mysterious, unnamed narrator who is sometimes grouped with the townspeople and sometimes completely exterior. A Rose for Emily is usually read as a gothic fiction because of the forbidding and eery atmosphere, the heroine's tragic destiny and the focus on morbid ambience. We are in the context of the Reconstruction, after the Civil War. Townsmen are trying to build a new society, modernizing transport and communication. In parallel, this is a story of a mysterious women, Emily Grierson struggling against the time, the society, the tragedy of life and hiding a terrible secret. In this analysis, we will ask about the way to treat the gothic fiction chosen by William Faulkner trough the themes of time and decay. First of all, we will study the obvious confrontation between past and present and the unconventional approach of Faulkner to manipulate time. Secondly, we will analyze the weight and the power of death and how the theme is presented and interpreted. In a third...
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...How does Matthew Lewis use Gothic conventions in The Monk? One of the main conventions of Gothic writing is a pursued female character and this extract is no exception. The female character is “beneath” the monk who “witnessed without mercy the convulsive trembling of her limbs”; he is described as “inhuman” and this reinforces the idea of male dominance in Gothic texts because it is clear to see who’s in charge. The monk is physically empowering the female character which creates a sense of horror within the extract since it is physically happening to the victim. The extract is introduced with “The monk continued to kneel upon her breast”, so from the very beginning the unnamed female character is sexualised and also presented as weak and powerless in the extract. Lewis has done this because it is typical of the Gothic genre to present women as powerless towards men. Gothicism pressures the rules and morals of religion by representing it as being corrupted. Lewis has used this convention throughout the whole extract since it is a monk that has raped someone and the only colour that is mentioned then is “blackness”, this could connote the corruption of the monk’s soul since he is no longer pure or innocent the way he should be. The narrative voice is in third person which shows omniscience and since this is about monk it could be the voice of god who knows and sees the sins he has committed and his “future punishment” could be hell. Representing religion as corrupted is a real...
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...The term 'gothic' has many different forms. The most important and original form is architecture during the medieval period. It starts out with the great cathedral, Saint-Denis, of Paris. Then the Westminster Abbey of London was built. These are characterized by their pointed arches and flying buttresses. Gothicism also came in the form of art. Tres Riches Heures du duc de Berry, by the Limburg brothers, showed elegance through statements in the best known way of gothic art. This popular style of art is called manuscript illuminations. Manuscript illuminations are text followed by decoration, usually gold. During the mid-18th century, literature took a new step having the first gothic novel, "The Castle of Otranto," first published in 1764. This novel was combined with a horror and mystery genre (Martindale). Gothicism began to be apart of churches by having stained glass windows and pictures of biblical people. The style of nudity from Adam and Eve was also portrayed to be gothic. As Gothicism grew it rose to the 1980's and started a movement called punk, and later related to Fantasy Art. It then, in the 1990s, blossomed to what is called Neo-Gothic Art. It is inspired by Charles Alexander Moffat and is a period when the people wanted to express themselves as more than normal in a number of ways. A person of example would be Marilyn Manson, whose personal style and music is characterized as being "dark" and "mysterious" (Folkenroth). Characteristics of gothic novels have...
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...declining and this lead to a strong belief that the next life in heaven would be better than the current life that they were in. The basic government and society in Europe during the middle ages was based around the feudal system. (Eco, U. (1986). Because Christianity played an important role during the Middle Ages, early Christian art icons were popular such as images of Christ, the Virgin Mary or saints. Also popular were illuminated manuscripts that were of a religious nature. Because of the radiant glow created by the gold, silver, and other colors that were used, these handwritten and decorated or painted texts were called illuminations. These were still being created in the Middle Ages. Architecture of the Middle Ages also focused on a Christianity theme. Two styles of architecture introduced during the Middle Ages, included the Romanesque and Gothic style. (MindEdge, 3.11). Romanesque style elements included massive doors, bronze baptismal fonts, wall-sized painting, and objects in gold and silver. Some other characteristics of Roman Architecture, besides massive structures, were small windows, thick walls, and rounded arches. Romanesque style...
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...The Red Room The Red Room at Gateshead is the place where Mr Reed, Jane’s uncle, had died. “Mr Reed has been dead nine years; it was in this chamber he breathed his last; he lay here in state; hence his coffin was borne by the undertaker’s men; and since that day, a sense of dreary consecration has guarded it from frequent intrusion.” Themes The Gothic * “curtains of deep red damask” and “crimson cloth” indicate blood, linking to Mr Reed’s death. * Strange noises and odd furniture such as the mirror that distorts Jane’s image gives an eerie mood, making the reader wary of what is to happen. (links to identity) * Jane imagines how the ghost haunts the room, heightening the sense of horror she feels. The supernatural is a key element in a Gothic novel. * There is an overall sense of foreboding and spookiness that makes the reader empathise with Jane as she is so young. * The lack of realism heightens the sense of the supernatural. * The romantic scene of the rain in the moors sets up the Gothic theme for the rest of the novel. Passion * The purity of her childhood as she endures intense and bitter feelings that arise due to unpleasant life experiences. * She cannot control her temper, and is therefore punished. She is labelled a “picture of passion” as women were expected to remain calm and ladylike. Her anger comes as a shock to everyone at Gateshead, hence her punishment. * Red is the colour of passion, as well as danger and embarrassment...
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...Laurita Uzaite 2/25/2014 Mr. Demos Quiz #5: Middle Ages, Christianity and Gothic Period Although now the images of Jesus and the narrative scenes of Life of Christ are the most common subjects representing Christianity but before the fourth century , not to discover anything Christians were not allowed to draw and take pictures ,symbols and signs of God. As time passed more and more people of all classes started to belief in Christianity, as well as, the art became slowly two-dimensional. Christian artists were going for a more spiritual symbols and pictures rather than material empire. They also began to flatten spaces and increased stylization of their figures. The adoption of Christianity by Constantine Christian art derived its style and much of its iconography from popular Roman Art. That is why new Christian artists still had some Roman features in their artworks. At the time the most attention received the Christian artworks, that had both surface meaning and symbolic meaning, for example, Token of St. Agnes. This excellent idea about color and light were launched by Abbot Suger. He also accomplished the idea about expanding window area and using pointed arches rather than the round Roman-like arch. Pointed arches spread the force and weight from upper floors. Gothic architects invented buttresses that took of the weight off the walls, at the top of them were slim projections called flyers because they symbolized wings. The facade of the cathedral...
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...By considering the connections between the texts, we gain an insight into the way values have changed over time. To what extent is this true of the two texts you have studied? (Minimum any 2 scenes, 4 quotes and roughly 1200 words) It is the relationship between context, text and responder that helps the audience to create meaning from a text. Through Pacino recontextualising Shakespeare’s Richard III, the audience is able to develop a better understanding and newfound appreciation of Shakespeare’s text. By comparing the structure and language of both texts the responder is able to go on their own journey of understanding and interpretation. Pacino builds a bridge that enables us to cross over and understand Shakespeare’s context. Pacino develops our understanding of ‘Richard III’ and helps us to recognize how values can be encoded within a text. This can be seen through the different values, beliefs and attitudes towards women reflected in Richard III texts in Act 1 scene 2. The wooing of Lady Anne demonstrates the climax of Richard’s role as a villain. The stichomythic language engages the audience which allows us to be seduced by Richard, for example when Lady Anne say, ‘‘o wonderful, when devils tell the truth’ and Richard replies ‘More wonderful, when angels are so angry’. This short declarative verbal exchange creates momentum in the scene resulting in the audience being in a state of anticipation. It reveals the power of language to persuade and Richard is able to capture...
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...“The role of women in the gothic genre is as victims, always subject to male authority.” Compare and contrast the extent to which this interpretation is relevant to your three chosen texts. “The wolf consumes red riding hood – what else can you expect if you talk to strange men, comments Perrault briskly. Let’s not bother our heads with the mysteries of sadomasochistic attraction” Angela Carter; Foreword to Perrault’s Short Stories. In much of today’s feminist writings, the Gothic era is frequently defined as a period in which the oppression of females was at its most intense. In response to fin de siècle anxieties of a social revolution in which gender stereotypes could be overhauled, gothic writers, it is claimed, sought to reassert cultural and gender norms – a reassertion which inevitably resulted in the oppression of women. In view of such contemporary analysis, it is thus all too tempting to offer a sweeping judgement of gothic literature as victimising, oppressive and misogynistic; Dracula’s “victims” are all “unambiguously women[1]”, Poe victimises through an “idealised and dehumanising image of women[2]”, while Carter is a “pseudo feminist” who merely “reinforces patriarchal views” with her “pornographic” writing[3]. Yet such views are largely artificial, and are primarily based on potted summaries of the above works, rather than a closer textual analysis. If one takes the definition of a victim as a being who is subject to the successful predatory actions of...
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...Shoqarqwa@hotmail.com Date of Submission: February 29, 2016 Student ID: 2739275 Table of Contents: 1. Introduction 1 2. [Main Part I] 2.1 Gothic Element 2.2 Feminism 3. Conclusion 1 [Bibliography] 1. Introduction: “All meanings, we know, depend on the key of interpretation.” By Georg Eliot It goes without saying that the more one ponders upon the masterpiece written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the more compelled one finds themselves to, not only reverence what she brought forth, but to also acclaim the diverse interpretations one can come up with of a text written well over a century ago. The story talks about a woman who is diagnosed with "temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency" (Gilman 1) and thus is sentenced by her physician to a rest cure. Following her husband’s and doctor’s orders, her suffering grows worse and worse and signs of depression, anxiety and dissociation manifest, quite the opposite of what was supposed to happen. Having the ability to scare and horrify the reader, this unique story had been considered as a classic in Gothic literature. However, it has recently been perceived as an early indictment of the patriarchal social structure and therefore has become a classic in feminist literature. There are many signs of Gothic elements and feminist ideas presented via symbolism, and one of the most prominent figures presented in the story is the house. In this paper, I will...
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