"YOUR GIRLS THAT YOU ALL LOVE ARE MINE ALREADY": THE INESCAPABLE MONSTROSITY OF GOTHIC FEMALE CHARACTER
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2023-04-28
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Hood College English and Communication Arts
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Hood College Humanities
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Abstract
The fin de siècle in the late Victorian England concluded in various social movements that brought a new understanding of the world to Englishwomen. While the ideal of the ‘angel of the house’ was still very much present – profoundly rooted in the patriarchal system –, the figure of the ‘New Woman,’ was beginning to gain popularity at a considerable speed, which exposed women to new manners of social behavior that had priorly been inaccessible. It is with mothers, daughters, and wives that Gothic authors like Emily Brontë, Christina Rossetti, and Bram Stoker delve into the portrayal of this new figure, which often lead to the celebration of certain representative aspects, and the condemnation of others. This study analyzes the clash between what Victorians considered positive and negative female traits related to love, sexuality, and familial bonds in Wuthering Heights, Goblin Market, and Dracula, considering the relevance of reliability as well in the narrators, in order to determine whether these female characters ought to be considered victims or villains of their own stories.