Project Abstract

Abstract
The element of para-gothicism in Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" and Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights" has been a subject of scholarly interest due to the profound impact it has on the gothic genre. This research delves into the exploration of para-gothicism in the two renowned Bronte sisters' novels, focusing on the ways in which they incorporate elements of the supernatural, madness, and the uncanny within the gothic framework. In "Jane Eyre," Charlotte Bronte skillfully infuses elements of para-gothicism through the character of Bertha Mason, the madwoman in the attic, who embodies the haunting presence of the past and serves as a disruptive force in the otherwise conventional gothic narrative. Bertha's presence adds a layer of psychological complexity to the novel, blurring the lines between the real and the supernatural, and challenging traditional notions of sanity and madness. On the other hand, Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights" delves deeper into the darker realms of para-gothicism through the character of Heathcliff, a brooding and enigmatic figure who embodies the destructive forces of obsession, revenge, and the supernatural. Heathcliff's intense and almost otherworldly presence disrupts the conventional gothic narrative, infusing the novel with an unsettling sense of the uncanny and the supernatural. Both novels also explore themes of isolation, forbidden love, and the supernatural, creating a sense of unease and tension that permeates the narrative. The settings of Thornfield Hall and Wuthering Heights serve as gothic landscapes that mirror the inner turmoil and psychological states of the characters, further enhancing the para-gothic elements within the novels. Overall, the element of para-gothicism in "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights" plays a crucial role in shaping the gothic genre and reflecting the anxieties and fears of the Victorian era. By incorporating elements of the supernatural, madness, and the uncanny, the Bronte sisters push the boundaries of traditional gothic literature, creating complex and haunting narratives that continue to resonate with readers to this day.

Project Overview

The English Gothic Novel: A Brief OverviewAccording to Oates (2003), The English Gothic novel began with Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1765), which was enormously popular and quickly imitated by other novelists and soon became a recognizable genre. To most modern readers, however, The Castle of Otranto  is dull reading; except for the villain Manfred, the characters are insipid and flat; the action moves at a fast clip with no emphasis or suspense, despite the supernatural manifestations and a young maiden’s flight through dark vaults. But contemporary readers found the novel electrifyingly original and thrillingly suspenseful, with its remote setting, its use of the supernatural, and its medieval trappings, all of which have been so frequently imitated and so poorly imitated that they have become stereotypes. The genre takes its name from Otranto’s medieval–or Gothic–setting; early Gothic novelists tended to set their novels in remote times like the Middle Ages and in remote places like Italy (Matthew Lewis’s The Monk, 1796) or the Middle East (William Beckford’s Vathek, 1786).What makes a work Gothic is a combination of at least some of these elements:

1. A castle, ruined or intact, haunted or not (the castle plays such a key role that it has been called the main character of the Gothic novel),
2. Ruined buildings which are sinister or which arouse a pleasing melancholy, dungeons, underground passages, crypts, and catacombs which, in modern houses, become spooky basements or attics,
3. Labyrinths, dark corridors, and winding stairs,
4. Shadows, a beam of moonlight in the blackness, a flickering candle, or the only source of light failing (a candle blown out or, today, an electric failure),
5. Extreme landscapes, like rugged mountains, thick forests, or icy wastes, and extreme weather,
6. Omens and ancestral curses,
7. Magic, supernatural manifestations, or the suggestion of the supernatural,
8. A passion-driven, willful villain-hero or villain,
9. A curious heroine with a tendency to faint and a need to be rescued–frequently,
10. A hero whose true identity is revealed by the end of the novel,
11. Horrifying (or terrifying) events or the threat of such happenings.

The Gothic creates feelings of gloom, mystery, and suspense and tends to the dramatic and the sensational, like incest, diabolism, necrophilia, and nameless terrors. It crosses boundaries, daylight and the dark, life and death, consciousness and unconsciousness (Henessy, 1978). Sometimes covertly, sometimes explicitly, it presents transgression, taboos, and fears–fears of violation, of imprisonment, of social chaos, and of emotional collapse. Most of us immediately recognize the Gothic (even if we don’t know the name) when we encounter it in novels, poetry, plays, movies, and TV series. For some of us–and I include myself– safely experiencing dread or horror is thrilling and enjoyable.Elements of the Gothic have made their way into mainstream writing. They are found in Sir Walter Scott’s novels, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights  and in Romantic poetry like Samuel Coleridge’s “Christabel,” Lord Byron’s “The Giaour,” and John Keats’s “The Eve of St. Agnes.” A tendency to the macabre and bizarre which appears in writers like William Faulkner, Truman Capote, and Flannery O’Connor has been called Southern Gothic (Henessy, 1978).

Wuthering Heights as a Victorian NovelWuthering Heights is in the same ethical and moral tradition as the other great Victorian novels. Its criticism of society is as fierce as Charlotte Bronte’s or Dickens’ [Much] of the same spirit interfuses the novels of Charlotte and Emily Bronte. For both writers, society and what passes for civilization are synonymous with selfishness. Both show family life as a sort of open warfare, a deadly struggle for money and power. Both see organized religion as ineffective or hypocritical or so cold and harsh as to be inhumane and deflected from true Christian ideals. The characters in Charlotte Bronte’s first two novels have to face many of the same problems confronting the characters in Wuthering Heights, and they reach the same conclusions. Both William Crimsworth (in The Professor) and Jane Eyre reject the master-slave relationship as static and stultifying and come to the teacher-pupil relationship as the one that allows for growth and the fulfillment of human potential. Similarly, Catherine Linton and Hareton Earnshaw see the futility of Heathcliff’s desire for revenge and domination (his seeing the world solely in terms of the master-slave relationship when love fails him) and affirm civilization and civilized values in terms of the teacher-pupil relationship.