IN WHAT WAY DO BOTH JANE EYRE AND WIDE SARGASSO SEA PARALLEL AND CONTRAST ONE OTHER IN PORTRAYING A GOTHIC NOVEL?
Gothic novels first became popular in the late 18th century, mostly written by female novelists greatly influenced by art and architecture. They were identified as including the following themes; supernatural effects/encounters, remote locations, complicated family histories, ancient houses, castles, dark secrets and mysteries, as purpose to create a gloomy and/or chilling mood . Themes which are included throughout both novels set in different historic periods. This essay aims to explore the comparisons in themes throughout both novels and how they are similar in portraying the gothic novel; ‘a type of novel characterised by horror, violence, supernatural effect and a taste for the medieval ’.
Jane Eyre, written in 1847 is seen as a classic example of a Gothic novel, with elements in the novel adding to emotional and philosophical tensions, along with providing addition anticipation to the important turning places in the plot. In fact, Bronte could be described as broadening the definition of Gothic literature creating the ‘new gothic’ by exploring places of heightened passions in daily life. Robert B. Heliman describes her work as ‘releasing her from the patterns of the novel of society and therefore permitted the flowering of real talent- the talent for finding and giving dramatic for to impulse and feelings which…increase wonderfully the sense of reality in her novel ’. On the other hand, Katy Prendergast sees Charlotte Bronte’s work as being focused towards another type of novel as well as the Gothic, the Romantic; two aspects different to the typical classical novel of this period. In her essay ‘The Gothic Tradition’ Prendergast describes Bronte’s work as a ‘Gothic novel, distinctive for its fascination with the horrible, the repellent, the grotesque and the supernatural in combination with many characteristics of the Romantic novel, both...