AQA LITB3 Elements of the Gothic: Essay Plans

‘There is more horror than terror in Carter’s treatment of the Gothic’ Consider this view in the light of at least two stories from ‘The Bloody Chamber’

 Terror  the feeling of dread that precedes the horrifying experience  suspense creates terror  characterised by obscurity and indeterminacy  a source of the sublime  Horror  the feeling of revulsion after a frightening event  more related to being shocked or scared

The Bloody Chamber – Terror  foreshadowing of heroine’s death  ‘the necklace that prefigures your end’  heroine‘s fear of her husband’s return  all build up suspense and increase terror  suspense when heroine is about to unlock the bloody chamber – no light down the corridor, Marquis calls it his ‘enfer’ = French for Hell  metaphors of Marquis as a beast and as God invoke terror in the reader as he is very powerful, dominant Gothic male  ‘All the better to see you’ – perverse imitation of childhood fears  terror

The Bloody Chamber – Horror  ‘instruments of mutilation’ are displayed grandly  funeral lilies create a parallel with bridal chamber  makes more of an impact on the reader?  ‘walls gleamed...as if they were sweating with fright’  horror found in the bloody chamber – same for all stories?  much less horror than terror, but still very gruesome, Gothic, scary

The Lady of The House of Love – Terror  Almost no horror  Countess’s thoughts in capitals – ‘Now you are at the place of annihilation’, ‘Fee fie fo fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman’ – increases terror and suspense  Tales of Countess’s hunger that ‘always overcomes her’ increase sympathy for the soldier  Story seen through the eyes of the Countess – French words dropped into narrative: ‘chinoiserie escritoire’

Conclusion  Carter uses horror to shock and scare her audience  However, it is her use of terror that appeals to the reader’s intellect, creating suspense and fear – typical of Gothic novels  Terror created by foreshadowing and language  Terror is more important and more prominent in Carter’s stories and this makes them fit in so well with the Gothic genre

What have you found striking about Carter’s presentation of character? Discuss this, using two stories from ‘The Bloody Chamber’

Transformations  Almost all of Carter’s characters are different people at the end of her stories  Form of a short story makes these transformations more significant  Heroine is nearly always stronger, male is nearly always weaker  Human  beasts/beasts  humans both highlight the animalistic nature of humans: ‘she showed us what we could have been’ (WA)  Show supernatural elements of story - Gothic

Fairy Tales  Carter aimed to extract the ‘latent content’ of fairytales  Heroines sexualised e.g. Red Riding Hood, Snow White is raped  Keeps animals as characters e.g. Puss in Boots  Monsters/villains have more than one side e.g. Lady of the House of Love, less ‘black and white’ than fairytales  Much fewer knights in shining armour – men seem to need help/be villains

Gender  Fairy tales and Gothic genre: women weak, men strong  Role reversal: Courtship of Mr Lyon (‘as if, curious reversal, she frightened him’)  Carter’s Gothic reinterpretations outweighed by her feminist views – females are strong – not characteristic of Gothic literature or fairytales  Heroines evoke sympathy from the readers – even ‘villains’ e.g. Lady of the House of Love

How is Gothic language and imagery used to develop themes and characters in ‘Dr Faustus’?

Language  Faustus begins to use prose in the last scene – highlights Faustus’s demise  Lots of punctuation shows his blind terror and panic at the end of the play – typically Gothic, suspense, fear  Classical references – Icarus’s ‘waxen wings’ – tell audience Faustus is going to fail, also Achilles’ fatal flaw – typically Gothic, looking back to the past  Religious – deliberately blasphemous e.g. ‘necromantic books are Heavenly’  Spells are in Latin – language of the educated, Renaissance, Gothic

Imagery  Blood  Faustus’s blood congeals  Old man refers to redemptive power of blood of Christ  Faustus sees Christ’s blood running across the sky on his last night  ‘Stab thine arm courageously’  ‘With my proper blood, I assure my soul to be great Lucifer’s’  Supernatural/religion  Nothing significant is accomplished through magic  God is most powerful – doesn’t save Faustus  Good and Evil angels

Themes and Characters  Medieval language highlights theme of ‘conflict between Medieval and Renaissance values’  Imagery of Hell as ‘under the Heavens’ and using trap door – Medieval imagery  Creates conflict as Mephistopheles says ‘this is hell, nor am I out of it’  Faustus uses eloquent, oratorical, resonant language – highlights his downfall  Lots of repeated words ‘damned’, ‘desire’, ‘Hell’ – Gothic words that highlight themes of the play