New York Cambridge University Press, 2002. Vampire poems began… Wilde, Oscar. Or so the old people tell her. Bram Stoker, 'The Judge's House' (1891) Thomas Hardy, 'The Withered Arm' (1888), 'Barbara of the House of Grebe' (1893) Margaret Oliphant, 'The Library Window' (1896) The contemporary understanding is similar but has widened to include a variety of genres, such as paranormal and horror. Gothic literature was a significant aspect of this counter-revolution in England, often being classed as romantic texts, while simultaneously invoking supernatural themes, reacting to the picturesque paradigm that was inherent in Victorian mentality which gave Wilde his inspiration (Whelan 100). 1764 The Castle of Otranto: The first Gothic novel. Lord Henry represents the nature of this hedonistic aestheticism, as he constantly makes controversial statements surrounding the nature of beauty and experiencing every sensation and pleasure. This is Margaret Oliphant's theme too in her lovely rite-of-passage story, 'The Library Window' (1896). The Gothic trend of the late Victorian Gothic novel was a philosophical observation of the absurdities inherent within the society. Thomas, Donald. Some of the best Gothic writing, like Nesbit's story, or Charlotte Perkins Gilman's very influential The Yellow Wallpaper (1892), deals with violation of domestic space. Book Description. Not all Victorian Gothic packs its ambiguity into phantom rooms, or behind liminal windows and doors. Oscar Wilde doubled his hero in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), where an immortal young aesthete goes about the dark parts of town with impunity, while his double, in the form of an increasingly grotesque work of art hidden in an attic, does his suffering for him. However, it is important to note that Lord Henry does not necessarily believe every word that he states, nor does he live by his own philosophy. The advent of scientific empiricism and education furthered the development of technology and led to the subsequent publishing of layman’s scientific texts meant that that the average person was able to gain an understanding of scientific theorems (Harkup 22). A New Companion to the Gothic. These are the words that initially influence Dorian to unwittingly trade his soul for eternal youth and Lord Henry convinces him that beauty and youth are the only things worth having (21). As well as giving you greater expertise in the field of Victorian Gothic literature, this course also enhances your knowledge and skill in other areas. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992. Reay, Barry. J. Sheridan Le Fanu, 'Authentic Narrative of the Ghost of a Hand' in The House by the Churchyard (1861), 'Green Tea' (1872), Carmilla (1872) Basil makes this assertion to Lord Henry by saying, “…don’t spoil him (Dorian). The influence of religion over the general populace was also subject to change; the focus on scientific research into the origins of creation, and post-Enlightenment rationale claimed that religion was part of prior superstition before natural phenomenon could be explained through the scientific process. Luckhurst, Rodger. It was further developed by Clara Reeve, Ann Radcliffe, William Thomas Beckford and Matthew Lewis. Lord Henry reinforces this point by bluntly suggesting to Dorian upon meeting him that “there is no such thing as a good influence… all influence is immoral…” (18). Here Professor Suzanne Daly explores the ‘Imperial Gothic’, examining the ways in which ‘otherness’ and Empire were depicted in Gothic novels such as Jane Eyre, The Moonstone, Dracula and Heart of Darkness. While in the preceding Romantic period, poetry had tended to dominate, the novel became the defining literary art form of the Victorian period. The first multi-disciplinary scholarly consideration of the Victorian Gothic These 14 chapters, each written by an acknowledged expert in the field, provide an invaluable insight into the complex and various Gothic forms of the nineteenth century. During this course, you'll: develop the skillset required to work in the heritage industry, the arts and media. Algernon Blackwood, 'The Willows' (1908) and 'The Wendigo' (1910). James is particularly good at coming up with new variants on that staple of popular superstition, the curse, as in his signature story, 'Casting the Runes'. Wilde frequently has Basil consistently use adjectives that typically pertain to personality characteristics when discussing physical beauty. Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, 'The Shadows on the Wall' (1903), 'The Lost Ghost' (1903) For example, the portrait briefly acts as a moral compass that mirrors the soul after the death of his fiancé, Sybil Vane when Dorian realizes the underlying nature of the portrait; “but here was a visible symbol of the degradation of sin. Whelan, Lara Baker. Don’t try and influence him. Due to the ever-evolving class structure and secularisation, societal moral panics surrounding sexuality, consumption, and etiquette were a common thread. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) manifested an eastern threat that could upset modern technological might with ancient supernatural power. London in the Age of Industrialisation: Entrepreneurs, Labour Force and Living Conditions, 1700-1850. As a result of these key factors, England began to secularise. Read more London: Wordsworth Classics, 2001. Vampiric figures appeared in 18th-century poetry, such as Heinrich August Ossenfelder’s “Der Vampyr” (1748), about a seemingly vampiric narrator who seduces an innocent maiden. Akin to other Gothic literature, Dorian’s portrait becomes the grotesque phantom that haunts his existence. To support OCR Literature A Level study. In a desperate fit of rage and anguish, he believed that destroying the portrait was the only way he could undo the damage and in doing so he destroyed himself. L’ouvrage de Jarlath Killeen, Gothic Literature 1825-1914, se propose, non pas tant de synthétiser les études des trente dernières années sur le Gothique, mais d’aborder la littérature « Gothique » du dix-neuvième siècle et du début du vingtième siècle d’une façon peut-être plus neutre. As a literary phenomenon, the Victorian gothic manifests itself in fin-de-siècle literature both as a subversive supernatural force and as a mechanism for social critique. Gilbert, Palmela K. Mapping the Victorian Social Body. The late Victorian period saw the publication of some of the most enduring and popular Gothic texts in English literature. Its origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled (in its second edition) "A Gothic Story". Hawthorne shows how admirably Gothic can focus without synthesis the light and dark sides of human nature. The Victorian Underworld. Something profound but abstruse is being said by Wynne about the nature of perception and memory, and the story's gentle but firm ambivalence is clearly its point. “Withered, Wrinkled, and Loathsome of Visage: Reading the Ethics of the Soul and the Late-Victorian Gothic in the Picture of Dorian Gray.” In Victorian Gothic: Literary and Cultural Manifestations in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Ruth Robbins and Julian Wolfreys. Ambrose Bierce, 'Incident at Owl Creek Bridge' (1890), 'The Eyes of the Panther' (1897) Most lists of Gothic fiction rightly include Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, but somehow manage to forget this book by the youngest Bronte sister. In our world this is a fantasy, indulged and then abruptly curtailed as he drops through the air to his death. White, Jerry. London: The Biography. Prostitution and Victorian Society: Women, Class and the State. Dorian eventually realizes the emptiness of his life and believes that he may be able to change for the right reason after he meets a woman he is genuinely attracted too (174). Like all literature, late 19th century Gothic literature is to some degree a product of its social and cultural environments. They are black novels. He argues that Lord Henry’s true philosophy is one of “inaction… beyond good and evil… Lord Henry never acts and never falls” (124). The result of this was a call for social segregation of the working class for any further successful development of London suburbs (Ackroyd 523). Class, Culture, and Anxiety in the Victorian Era. Oscar Wilde, 'The Canterville Ghost' (1887), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) USA: New York University Press, 1998. Dorian Gray not only symbolizes the hypocrisy of this duplicity but also the complex nature of a nation undergoing a significant industrial, social and cultural revolution. But there is no window. Punter, David. Gothic. The Living Dead: The Study of the Vampire in Romantic Literature. Seaman, L. C. B. House, Humphry. Pater’s faith in Christianity waned as he began advocating for human character and morality driven by sensational pleasures, a philosophy that Wilde was partial too in his advocacy for “art for art’s sake” rather than the Victorian necessity to assign moral lessons for the middle and upper classes and social education to the artwork. Selected Bibliography . The Picture of Dorian Gray is a comedy of manners and a horror of beauty that corrupts the soul and the picture acts as a mirror to the soul to show the monster within. New York: Routledge 2010. In the time of early Victorian technology, steam-trains and the electric telegraph, many writers retreated into a backward-looking world of sentiment, chivalry and terror, often modelled on the Medieval Gothic of Ann Radcliffe and Walter Scott. Both Emily and Charlotte Brontë included intimations of the supernatural within narratives that were otherwise attentive to the realities of time, place and material constraint. Wilde had intended the text to be simultaneously controversial and provocative as a critique of Victorian aesthetic obsession with beauty and its culturally believed correlation with moral sensibility. Lord Henry presents Dorian with an obscure book without a title that in his youth had shaped many of his opinions that he promotes (19). It is every bit the equal of its literary siblings. Anne Bronte, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. | download | B–OK. Great Britain Johnathan Cape, 2007. The extreme example is Ayesha, H. Rider Haggard’s femme fatale, in She (1887), who dreams of taking over the male-dominated British Empire from her fastness in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein. Where other Gothic texts seek to expose insecurities of external pressures or anxiety, Wilde illuminates the danger of the superficial morality inherent with the confines of the fast progressing industrial urban empire. The Victorian period was wrought with a multitude of complex cultural oscillations surrounding societal expectation, technological innovation, religion, and moral panic. Gothic literature began in the mid-eighteenth-century with Horace Walpole’s ‘The Castle of Otranto’, which is widely considered to the first true work of Gothic fiction (‘The Castle of Otranto’). England: Blackwell Publishing, 2012. Though Dorian engages in a hedonistic lifestyle that is never fully explored in the initial text, leaving much to the imagination, Dorian’s reputation in the public sphere does fall under scrutiny and scandal. E. A. Poe, 'The Fall of the House of Usher' (1839), 'The Pit and the Pendulum' (1842), 'Annabel Lee', 'For Annie' (poems) H. Rider Haggard, She (1885) This use of the double recurs in many Gothic works, for example Dante Gabriel Rossetti's agonising artwork, 'How They Met Themselves' (1860-64), in which halves of split personalities confront one another. The Victorians became very aesthetically focused on surfaces and surface beauty. Your influence would be bad” (15). 'Atavism', fear of regression to an earlier, less civilised state – the knights, we are told, belong back in 'Catholic times' – was a fear Victorian Gothic regularly played on. Just one little boy in the story's long Scottish summer twilight sees what the girl sees: 'yon windy yonder in the library that is nae windy.' This, however, did not stop threats from being created to take advantage of the fear of the empire’s populace losing their position. New York: State University of New York Press 2004. The vampire makes a spectacular come-back. The Fall of the house of Usher is one of the most famous Victorian Gothic novels and Poe was the first writer to introduce psychological madness into gothic fiction. M. R. James, an accomplished scholar and academic in his day-job, very fond of this quotation, plants half-forgotten demons in cellars and dusty tomes, suggesting that men of learning, like Dr Jekyll, should be careful what they wish for, or at least search for. Poe's Gothic world was imported from Europe, but there was by now plenty of past to exploit in America. Gothic literature was a significant aspect of this counter-revolution in England, often being classed as romantic texts, while simultaneously invoking supernatural themes, reacting to the picturesque paradigm that was inherent in Victorian mentality which gave Wilde his inspiration (Whelan 100). 'Atavism', fear of regression to an earlier, less civilised state – the knights, we are told, belong back in 'Catholic times' – was a fear Victorian Gothic regularly played on. After the defeat of the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815 by the English at Waterloo, there was no significant rival to this economic expansion (Cornwell 342). While this is the case, the text also alludes to Christian themes surrounding the sanctity of the soul and the role of corruption. Despite the fact the portrait has been removed from his sight, the portrait is always on his mind and he begins to visit it periodically after consumption and indulgence as another form of pleasure seeing how much damage he has done (103). The mummy is periodically brought to life by its owner, when it does service as a kind of hit-man, persecuting other undergraduates. 'The past is not dead, it is not even past.' Next: Jane Austen, excerpt from Northanger Abbey (1817), Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. London: Oxford University Press, 1960. Stevenson, Wilde and Bierce use realism to ground their stories, but Victorian Gothic likes to mix it with 'impossible things', as in the nonsense writings of Carroll and Lear. The main elements of Gothic literature are the combination of both the horror and romance genre. Though many of his social entourage know or have heard of his exploits, they don’t ostracize him due to the fact that “civilized society is never very ready to believe anything to the detriment of those who are both rich and fascinating… manners are more important than morals and… the highest respectability is of much less value than the possession of a good chef” (113). Lessons (to follow Sublime and Early Gothic Fiction) enabling students to understand key features and identify contextual factors that impact Victorian Gothic. However, he indicates that Wilde was not interested in terrorizing his readers as he was in “saying something quite specific about the dynamics of artistic creation” (173). Cornwell, Bernard. Scholars such as Jerrod Hogle, Kenneth Womack, specifically evaluate the use of the Gothic and its inherent supernatural elements as the tool of Wilde to express his ethical criticism of society and artistic culture (169). Within this moment, Dorian briefly removes the influence of the portrait by locking it up, so he can freely publicly observe his hedonistic lifestyle without the shame of the portrait’s degradation thus subscribing to the influence of Lord Henry rather than Basil. He would often use his observations to inspire characters for his own texts such as Oliver Twist (1837) A Christmas Carol (1843), and Great Expectations (1861). Science as a discipline had existed for some time, but had steadily… Covering a range of diverse contexts, the chapters focus on science, medicine, Queer theory, imperialism, nationalism, and gender. Their love of medieval, classical and biblical myths and legends — coupled with the romance of the Pre-Raphaelites, gothic literature (Romanticism), great strides in archaelogy and even a fascination with magic and the occult — permeated into all aspects of Victorian life, from architecture to clothing and most certainly names. The text does not begin with a skin-crawling atmosphere typical of other popular Victorian Gothic horror texts so this event that sparks the decline of Dorian is one that is intended to shock the spectator. London in the Nineteenth Century. Gothic fiction(sometimes referred to as Gothic horror) is a genre of literature that combines elements of both horrorand romance. Noté /5. Ironically Basil and Lord Henry are the two key influences over his character development throughout the text and in keeping with the theme of aestheticism, both present Dorian with a piece of art that aid in Dorian’s character development. Accessed on Sunday, January 17, 2021. Scholars such as Fred Botting, Joseph Carroll, Richard Ellman, and Angela Kingston discuss the conflict between “homoeroticisms correlation with male sexual phycology and the Christian ethos of good and evil as Wilde conceives it” that seemed to correlate with this secularisation (3). While Dorian and Lord Henry open up the public areas of his house to maintain outward appearances and charm the other members of the aristocracy with celebrated musicians, dinners, exotic artworks, and decorations of gold and silver, the portrait is hidden in the same space (103). James Twitchell contends that the text best represents Gothic revival of the late-nineteenth-century sharing the same “deathless limbo, the same disdain for living, the same sadistic glee at the pains of others, and the same almost uncontrollable desire to destroy what is innocent and good” with the likes of Bram Stoker’s character, Dracula (173). In Ambrose Bierce's 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge' (1890), the double life of the Confederate saboteur is short and sharp. Subsequently, late Victorian Gothic novels such as The Picture of Dorian Gray are often immersed in the darker elements of the urban landscape of London: Mary Shelley’s (1815) creature of science is cast out into the urban and rural landscapes amongst civility, Bram Stoker’s (1897) Count Dracula is an invading foreign entity with ancient supernatural abilities that could counteract modern progression, Robert Louis Stevenson’s (1886) Mr. Hyde is let loose on the streets of London to conduct murder and depravity. These … Victorian Gothic: 1832-1901 "In the Victorian era, Gothic fiction had ceased to be a dominant literary genre. Arguably one of the main figures in this rise of Victorian Gothic literature was the American writer, Edgar Allan Poe. They’re … Gothic Literature in the Eighteenth Century, Edmund Burke, from On the Sublime and Beautiful (1757), Horace Walpole, excerpt from The Castle of Otranto (1764), Clara Reeve, excerpt from The Old English Baron (1778), William Beckford, excerpt from Vathek (1786), Mary Wollstonecraft, From A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (1792), Caleb Williams; or, Things As They Are (1794), Anne Radcliffe, excerpt from The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), Matthew Lewis, excerpt from The Monk (1796), Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Review of The Monk, Mary Shelley, excerpt from Frankenstein (1818), Jane Austen, excerpt from Northanger Abbey (1817), Charlotte Brontë, excerpt from Jane Eyre (1847), Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), Oscar Wilde, excerpt from The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). No Man’s Land, Elder Gods and Monsters: The Modern Gothic from 1900-1932. Guy, Josephine M. The Victorian Age: An Anthology of Sources and Documents. References and further Victorian Gothic texts to explore: Nathaniel Hawthorne, 'Young Goodman Brown' (1835) With the influence of the portrait removed, Dorian finds himself captivated by this new influencer (102). London: Vintage, 2001. Sampson, Fiona. New York: Cambridge University Press 1992. About | Accessibility | Legal Notice | Privacy, Creative Commons - Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license, Inspirational literature from the University of Oxford. As a literary student, you should expect to write a dissertation on this genre of literature. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980. The major setting for scenes as depicted in Gothic literature are Victorian style huge mansions. Edith Nesbit, 'Man-Size in Marble' (1896) But upon seeing portrait after his attempt to reverse the damage that he had caused, all he saw was hypocrisy appear on the face of the portrait (176). ———. Robert Louis Stevenson also perpetuated this fear of internal threats from human nature itself with the publication of the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Oxford: European Academic Publishers 2003. The story begins with the arrival of mysterious Mrs Graham at the long-dilapidated Wildfell Hall. The environment is key to the trope and sets the atmosphere as the supernatural trope needs the appropriate atmosphere to be effective: Dracula’s castle, Frankenstein’s lab, and the Phantom’s opera house to name but a few. The literature of this era was preceded by romanticism and was followed by modernism or realism. Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray is a key example of these trends in Victorian Gothic literature. Drew, John M. L. “Introduction and Notes.” In The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde identifies these hypocritical dualities of beauty and immorality, the sublime and the grotesque, and influence and the monstrous, and creates Dorian Gray as the embodiment of these observations and how a monstrous individual can remain morally infallible if they are physically beautiful. Upon its publication, the text fell under scrutiny for being controversial, vulgar, and immoral but is now regarded as one of the most provocative and philosophical texts of the late nineteenth century. Careers and opportunities. Retrouvez The Victorian Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion et des millions de livres en stock sur Amazon.fr. (Guy 177). Here, Wide is exploring his alchemic combination of aestheticism and Christian moral virtue through the use of the portrait as a gauge to detect sin. The vampire is often gender-switched too, as with the eponymous heroine of J. Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla (1872) or Mary Elizabeth Braddon's terminally ill but eternally living 'The Good Lady Ducayne' (1896). In the chaste Victorian era, Gothic literature provided an outlet for the exploration of sexuality. Watching Hannah: Sexuality, Horror, and Bodily De-Formation in Victorian England. 1. United States: Duke University Press, 1981. While this revolution was gaining momentum in England and social revolutions raged over the world, the Victorians also reigned over one of the most powerful economic empires in the world due to the cotton industry, that produced immense amounts wealth. New York Oxford University Press 2005. Basil paints the portrait and presents it to Dorian, having intended to capture the innocence and beauty of the man but instead introduces him to vanity and a rival. Wilde once again, adds another level of irony as Basil had just finished a monologue about the captivating influence that Dorian has over Basil’s artistic creativity which he concludes by stating that, “as long as I live, the personality of Dorian Gray will dominate me” (13). Shelley’s education plus having the benefit of being privy to intellectual conversation among her father’s friends would become a significant influence for her in creating Frankenstein (1818). Kingston, Angela. 'The Willows' (1908)is about the unbearable swishing of trees on a canoe holiday down the Danube, while 'The Wendigo' (1910) takes us to Northern Ontario where an exhausted Kanuck tracker is snapped up by a vengeful Algonquian Demon, twenty-five feet high. The text focuses on a supposed psychological study of a Parisian man who experimented with the pleasures and sensations that are renounced as sin for the sake of nineteenth-century virtue (100). Victorian literature is literature, mainly written in English, during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901) (the Victorian era).It was preceded by Romanticism and followed by the Edwardian era (1901–1910).. His associate Lord Henry is very interested to meet the boy who could inspire such artistic inspiration, but Basil is very protective of Dorian as he fears that his character could be manipulated under the wrong Influence. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 'The Yellow Wallpaper' (1892) London: Yale University Press, 1957. England: Wordsworth Classics 1890. In the beginning of the text, Basil Hayward has been in the process of finishing a portrait of Dorian, whose physical beauty has inspired him. In traditional Gothic novels, villains took the form of autocratic, male characters, often in authoritative positions like that of priests or kings. Whereas Dorian naively enacts Lord Henry’s philosophy whilst maintaining the façade of his manners and morality within the Victorian social landscape. Walkowitz, Judith R. City of Dreadful Delight: Narrative of Sexual Danger in Late Victorian London. Mary Shelley’s father William Godwin was instrumental to this movement for accessible education by opening a library and publishing house called Juvenile Library and believed that his daughters should also be well educated despite their gender (Harkup 23). The Victorians use of art as a tool for social education and moral enlightenment, and to reinforce the superficial nature of this idealistic moral society. Edouard Roditi specifies that the perversion of Lord Henry’s true doctrine a key element to the text. This gains ground after the occupation of Egypt in 1882, which brought a flood of reanimated mummies and other tomb furniture onto the literary market. Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles. It was a period of revolution; the steam engine changed the nature of transport, industry and the economy which also lead to rapid urbanization as the rural working class and immigrants began to migrate to the city center for refuge and work in the growing industrial city which held a population of over three million toward the end of the nineteenth century (Schwarz 1-2). Buckton, Oliver S. Secret Selves: Confession and Same-Sex Desire in Victorian Autobiography. This fascination with this juxtaposition also extended to the home which was an example of how individuals could occupy both public and private space (30). The Dickens World. If women’s lives are confined to the home, they are perhaps more likely to tune into sad feminine afterlives still housebound after death. Achetez neuf ou d'occasion Ackroyd, Peter. “Introduction.” In Late Victorian Gothic Tales, edited by Rodger Luckhurst. 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