The relocation of the feminine gothic through
the use of the sublime.
Burke describes the sublime as “whatever is fitted in any sort to
excite the ideas of pain and danger… whatever is in any sort terrible… is a
source of the sublime, that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which
the mind is capable of feeling” (Burke, 36)”. The gothic genre has often been
divided into the ’female’ and ‘male’ gothic; irrespective of these
classifications, all gothic novels rely on Burke’s concept of the sublime experience.
Moers describes the female gothic as “the work that women writers have done in
the literary mode that, since the eighteenth century, we have called “the
gothic”” (Moers, 90). However, Milbank aligns the female gothic in the
“heroine’s emancipation”(Milbank, 101) or “liberation”(Milbank, 140) from the
house and from the patriarchal male figure. The female figure in the gothic
novel is often perceived as a dramatization of female susceptibility and
emotion. Yet, in gothic novels such as, The
Monk, Dracula and The Bloody Chamber the
women are represented as impenetrable, solid, powerful and autonomous figures. This representation of the female form
in the gothic novel has relocated the sublime experience from the female
characters to the readers and characters encountering fear-inducing female
forms.
Though the plot in The Monk involves
“women seeking to escape from castles or monasteries” (Milbank, 81), which is
considered typical of the female gothic, “the interest is not centered upon
them” (Milbank, 81). Matilda is the image
of the debauched woman, the antithesis of the stereotypical woman in the
gothic. She is placed in the life of Ambrosio to tempt him. Matilda has access
to daemons and spells that can offer Ambrosio what he perceives that he
desires. Burke finds the sublime in nature; however, Matilda inspires the
sublime in the reader as she “excites the ideas of…danger”(Burke, 36) in the
reader through her use of evil magic. Shortly after Matilda reveals to Ambrosio
what she can offer him he is ready to do as she says, ““I yield!” he cried,
dashing the mirror upon the ground: “Matilda, I follow you! Do with me what you
will!”” (Lewis, 215). Matilda becomes more and more a source of the sublime as
the book goes on. The more she is depicted performing spells, interacting with
daemons and manipulating Ambrosio, the more fearful the reader might become of
her, until it is revealed that it was the devil that sent her, “It was I who
threw Matilda in your way” (Lewis, 350). Religious superstition was
particularly prevalent when Lewis wrote The
Monk and as a result the novel would have been extremely frightening for the
reader. Burke describes fear as “being an apprehension of pain or death”(Burke,
53), and having any dealings with the devil would have certainly meant an
eternity of pain, in the minds of the populous. Lewis’ choice to represent the
devil upon the earth as female seems to suggest to the readership the concept
of the female form and the devil being intrinsically linked. Lewis’ treatment of Matilda’s character
utterly refutes the female gothic stereotypy of “feminine liberation from the
house” (140, Milbank), and this turns the sublime experience away from the
fainting woman experiencing it, to the reader becoming scared of Matilda.
In the nineteenth century the relocation of
the sublime to the female form becomes even more prevalent. With the rise of
the ‘new woman’, comes a rise in public anxiety about the place of women in society,
and what affect this ‘new woman’ might have upon it. Burke writes, “whatever is
conversant about terrible objects…is a source of the sublime”(Burke, 36). In
light of this Stoker’s representation of the majority of the female characters
in Dracula creates a sense of sublime
by associating the female form with the vampire in his novel, and using this as
a vehicle for thinking about the ‘new woman’. In Stoker’s novel Lucy Westenra
is a clear example of the extended metaphor of vampirism. Lucy represents the
women that give in to the idea of the new woman, those who embrace it and enjoy
it. “Come to me Arthur…Come, and we can rest together…There was something
diabolically sweet in her tones”(Stoker, 234). At this point in the novel it
becomes apparent that Lucy Westenra has been drinking the blood of children,
and she then begins to try and tempt Arthur into her arms so that she might
drink his blood too. Critics have claimed that the vampire is representative of
homosexuality, and Dracula is a
warning against the ‘unnatural’ state, however, I think it is more pertinent to
describe the vampire as representing “the productions of sexuality itself”
(Halberstam, 344). This can be seen in the exchange between Lucy and Arthur, it
is not homosexuality that is condemned in this scene, it is sexuality. An increasingly
open sexuality is characteristic of one of the concerns regarding the ‘new
woman’. The passage is particularly sensual and the construction of the episode
insinuates that this ‘new woman’ will corrupt men by using sexual advances.
Stoker feeds the sublime experience in his novel with the image of Lucy, a
woman that cannot be saved from vampirism. Turning the gothic focus from the
“feminine emancipation” (Milbank, 101) plot to a sublime-inducing woman.
Senf writes, “Stoker's villainesses…
radiate sexuality. Responding to the sexual freedom and reversal of roles which
were often associated with the New Woman, Stoker uses the ancient superstition
of the vampire in Dracula to symbolize the evil that can result” (Senf, 39),
however, Mina Harker does not fit into Stokers group of female vampires. Nonetheless,
Mina can be seen as fitting into the stereotype of the heroine seeking “emancipation”(Milbank,
101) that is characteristic of the female gothic according to critics such as
Milbank. However, Mina is still a source of the sublime as she is transformed,
by Dracula, into a kind of semi-vampire. Mina drinks Dracula’s blood, “Her white
nightdress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man’s
bare breast” (Stoker, 313), however, she never crosses the line to drinking
human blood, and any vile acts she commits are very clearly under the influence
of Dracula. Stoker makes this very obvious, indeed Mina is wiped clean of all
evilness in the end: “Now god be thanked …
see! The snow is not more stainless than her forehead! The curse has passed
away”(Stoker, 420). The sublime is created through the character of Mina by the
transformation she undergoes into the disturbing tableaux with Dracula. Burke
writes, “Whatever therefore is terrible with regard to sight is sublime too” (Burke,
53), with Mina at the centre of this tableau, her image serves to shift the
concept of the female gothic from the fleeing woman, to an image, which is cause
for the sublime. However, as Mina is eventually redeemed it can be inferred
that she fits back into the stereotypical female gothic image. The audience is
lead to fear for Mina, not to fear Mina’s image, here in lays the essential
difference between Stoker’s two female categories in Dracula. However, Mina’s story highlights how fearsome the
character of Lucy is by comparison. One may surmise from Stoker’s treatment of
women that his opinion is that: should a woman find her self thinking or acting
as a ‘new woman’ she may save herself from killing her husband, eating her
children and becoming sexually perverse by submitting herself to a man’s
authority. Senf quotes Wasserman in her essay, saying; Wasserman “explains that the “fight to destroy Dracula and
to restore Mina to her purity is really a fight for control over women"”
(Senf, 34). By displaying a pure, as well as a fallen female character, Stoker
might ensure that his female readership understand that they will become the
frightening figure of Lucy if they embrace the ideals of the ‘new woman’, thus
undermining the idea that the female gothic is concerned with “women’s fears of
entrapment” (Smith and Wallace, 1).
Angela Carter’s novel The Bloody Chamber does, however, fall into that idea of the female
gothic as tales concerned with the “heroine’s emancipation” (Milbank, 101).
However, Carter appropriates the alternative female gothic, the fear inducing
female characters, and uses them to further the “plot of feminine liberation” (Milbank,
140). Angela Carter creates a frightening woman, not to frighten her female
readership, but to empower them. The image of the frightening woman found so
often in the gothic genre can be located in Carter’s mother figure. The mother
is described in animal terms, a technique often engaged by gothic authors, as,
by equating a character to an animal it removes their human aspects, separating
that character from others and adding to the sense of ‘other-ness’. Burke
writes, “I know of nothing sublime which is not some modification of power”(Burke,
59), Carter’s mother figure is described in animal terms and wields a riffle,
which seats her in a place of ultimate power over the other characters and
story line. “You never saw such a wild thing as my mother, her hat seized by
the winds and blown out to sea so that her hair was her white mane, her black
lisle legs exposed to the thigh”(Carter, 40). As the mother races up to the
castle she is riding a horse, and she is also described as one, her hair is
described as a ‘mane’ and the mother is also equated in this passage to the
image of Medusa. “And my husband stood stock-still as if she had been Medusa”
(Carter, 40). Burke writes that the sublime can be caused by the mind being “so
entirely filled with its object, that it cannot entertain any other, nor by
consequence reason on that object which employs it” (Burke, 53). Carter creates
this sensation of being overwhelmed within the reader, and within the figure of
the husband, with her description of the mother as Medusa. Medusa is the Greek
gorgon whose presence strikes fear into the heart of heroes and whose gaze
turns men into statues. Here Carter appropriates the appearance of Medusa and
turns her fearsome image to the use it had upon Athena’s shield, as a warning
to others and as a weapon, in order to produce fear in the husband and in the
reader. Lokke writes, “The Bloody Chamber ends as a feminist fairy tale should,
with the rescue of the daughter by her strong and heroic mother” (Lokke, 10),
which is effected by re-appropriating the image of the frightening woman and
using it to defeat the husband, in turn disrupting the way in which the typical
female gothic plot is received by the reader.
Carter’s heroine does fit into the remit for
the stereotypical female gothic. The Bloody Chamber follows a plot that
is reminiscent of a Radcliffian gothic novel, the “persecuted heroine in flight from a villainous father
and in search of an absent mother” (Smith and Wallace, 2). In this way Carter’s
short story fits very neatly into the female gothic genre. However, Carter’s
story differs drastically in that, though the story of The Bloody Chamber bares significant resemblance to the story of
Bluebeard, which is referenced in the book by Carter (p. 40), the heroine is rescued by her mother,
not her brothers. This difference seems to encompass the message of Carter,
that this is a tale of women triumphing. This variance allows Carter to
relocate her tale in the alternative female gothic that is characterised by
sublime-inducing women. Carter sets up a frightening female character in The Bloody Chamber, but though this
character fuels the sublime experience, she is also the answer to it, the cause
of the dénouement. The fact that the mother is the perpetrator of the heroines
rescue allows Carter’s novel to be redeemed from the state of female gothic and
be considered a second-wave, feminist, short story. This can also be seen in
the fact that the stain, which is reminiscent of Mina Harker’s stain in Dracula, is not removed. Carter is not
concerned with making her female characters worthy of rescue through purity,
nor does she need to justify them.
The recurring use of decapitation serves as
both the cause for the sublime experience and also as the vehicle for the
resolution of the story. Decapitation itself is a source for sublime experience
as it “excites the ideas of pain, and danger,” (Burke, 36) which Burke claims
are the foundation of the sublime. The fear of having ones head separated from
the body is disturbing in a very fundamental way; it is troubling as it is the
notion of separating one’s ability to think from their body. The young bride
asks her husband how she will die, “‘My
virgin of the arpeggios, prepare yourself for martyrdom.’
‘What form shall it take?’ I said.
‘Decapitation,’ he whispered, almost
voluptuously”(Carter, 36). Decapitation by men is what Carter is warning
against, which is far removed from Lewis’ warnings against the evil woman. Men
defeating women by removing their head is a direct metaphor for the feminist
view that men wanted to control women and would often eradicate individuality
and autonomous thought as a way of doing so. However, in Carter’s story the
mother decapitates the husband. This gives a clear metaphoric picture of how to
defeat the patriarchal man, “Now, without a moment’s hesitation, she raised my
father’s gun, took aim and put a single, irreproachable bullet through my
husbands head” (Carter, 41). Carter describes this moment as “irreproachable”(41),
as blameless and faultless, displaying clearly that this, in Carter’s story, is
not evil. Carter’s mother figure creates the sublime, however, the mother also relieves
the sublime experience by removing the husband’s ability to think
independently, by violently separating his head from his body. Makinen
describes Angels carter as an, “avant-garde literary terrorist of feminism”
(Makinen, 2), and in light of Carter’s treatment of the stereotypical images of
women in the gothic this seems an apt description. Carter is violent in her
brutal representation of the patriarchal male figure and her answer to
defeating men is equally ferocious and sublime.
Stoker, Lewis and Carter have taken the
concept of the female gothic and relocated it, through the use of the sublime,
in to the image of the fearsome woman.
The public anxiety of the transforming role of women in society allowed
Lewis and Stoker to create frightening female characters by playing on the
notion of women outside of the social norms. Carter, similarly, used the social
unrest surrounding the feminist movement to inform the image of the mother, giving
her much of the gothic property often allotted to the male form. Rather than
representing women as hysterical, emotional beings, Carter, Stoker and Lewis
have represented women as immovable, over-whelming and fearsome images. These
three authors have chosen to do so to invoke that ‘enjoyable fear’ that is
characteristic of the sublime, however, Carter differs from the others as,s
instead of using the sublime-inducing woman to scare her readership, she uses
the mother to defeat the patriarchal male figure of the husband.
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""Bluebeard" and "the Bloody Chamber": The Grotesque
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