A young governess whose name we never learn is dispatched to a country house in Essex to give care and guidance to two young orphans. Through the housekeeper, the governess learns of two former employees, both now dead, who seemed to have had an unhealthy grip on the children.
In the course of the tale, the governess comes to believe that the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel are attempting to claim her charges. And therein lies the question at the heart of the tale: do these wraiths really prowl the halls of the old estate?
In a word—whatdunit? Early on, she tells the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose—a solid, unimaginative ally—of some mysterious sightings. Grose responds:. I found I had no need to think. What is he indeed? On one side you have Team Quint, those readers who believe that the vile valet and his consort have truly returned from the dead to stalk the children.
Over the years, many scholarly somersaults have been made defending one view or the other. And what did the author have to say on all this? Fans of Downton Abbey will be happy to know, though, that Dan Stevens is on screen here with Dockery before that show as the psychiatrist. This intensifies the creepy atmosphere already present in a Gothic ghost story. Thrillers recently achieved a lot of popularity with this same feature, such as Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train. The unsettling feeling of not being able to trust the person who is actually relating a story is something that has a lot of impact.
And of course, horror is all about impact. She loves her parents and her dog Lily. She has to have acting, film, reading, and dance in her life. Her hobby is editing fan videos. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account.
You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Website Powered by WordPress. Like this: Like Loading Pingback: Halloween Surreal Tales — Femnista. Interact With Us: Cancel reply Enter your comment here Aspect 2: Gothic Characters and Personnel 2. Aspect 3: Gothic Essentials. The focus of this paper is on the tradition of gothic fiction.
This popular literary tradition has remarkably transformed since its first officially accepted work The Castle of Otranto in Stepping back in time one hundred years, one can find yet another outstanding achievment of gothic literature.
This work, which already at the first glance seems to be much more then pure gothic fiction, is to be investigated in its relation to gothic fiction. This is the main question of this essay.
In order to answer it the following pages will introduce three main apsects of gothic fiction and will try to identify them in the respective novella.
This aim will be achieved in three steps: First, the term gothic will be explained in its origins and historical development. Second, the rising popularity and development of gothic fiction in the 18th century and its main aspects are briefly discussed. Due to the limited space of an essay the last step will be taken by pure exemplification and thus will only list respective aspects found in the novella by Henry James.
The following paragraphs intend to show the origin of the term gothic and its historical development. First the focus is on the etymological and historical origin of the term Gothic itself. Afterwards, the historical development is briefly discussed. The etymological origin of the term Gothic goes back to the Roman Empire.
The Romans referred to the habits and cultural aspects of the Germanic Tribe of the Goths by using the Italian word gotico, meaning uncivilized, barbarian and rude. Thus, the semantics of the term gothic is to be seen as a negative one. Ellis, , p. The historical origin of the term Gothic goes back to the renaissance. Art critic Giorgio Vasari used the term in the same meaning as the Romans, to express his depreciation towards the art and architecture of the medieval period.
By this, he coined a term that was from then on used for the cultural heritage of the Middle Ages. From the renaissance up to the middle of the 18th century, the term gothic had a negative connotation. A growing interest in the art, architecture, myths, literature, music and nobility of the medieval period developed. By this, the term gothic slightly transformed its semantics into a positively connotation.
From the 18th century on, the term Gothic was referred to by this revised and more positive concept.
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