9000+ word Gothic notes for OCR A level English Literature written over 2 years. Contains detailed notes of Gothic through the ages (Enlightenment, Romantic, Victorian & Modern) as well as a comparison of Frankenstein and The Bloody Chamber corresponding to different themes and tropes plus critics....
▪ Usually in gothic literature usually the setting consists of a castle or manor in an isolated location, away from any citizen or ▪ “Suddenly the sharp freezing
civilisation ▪ “the palace was dismantled
▪ The genre is dark and eerie, and mysterious often containing elements of terror and horror and macabre of bizarre. ▪ “a small stifling darkened ro
▪ Terra Incogita – the unknown ▪ “the wind died down, all was
▪ “an old fashioned boudoir w
Context A05 – The Bloody chamber tintinnabulation of glass cut
▪ Setting reinforces the secularisation of society. ▪ “the winter sun began to tar
▪ Setting often reinforces the deepest minds of the protagonist. The Bloody chamber
Contemporary time period ▪ “I smelled the amniotic salin
▪ The French revolution → played pivotal role as it showed many people to go against the established rules of a well-regulated ▪ “that castle at home neither
society the materiality of them both
▪ Carter would’ve most likely used setting to mock the fairy tales in which she was subverting. ▪ “I could gaze out at the tumu
▪ Setting also plays a pivotal role as its ever-changing ultimate reflecting the social change of the time period for example in the ▪ “our bed surrounded by so m
1970s the equal pay act ▪ “Daylight drifted into the roo
▪ “the corridor led to worm ea
Frankenstein ▪ “the walls of this stark tortur
The Sublime ▪ “centre of the room lay a cat
THE ERL KING
▪ Plays a pivotal role it was outlined in the lyrical ballads of the sublime as outlined by William Wordsworth
▪ Believed that the sublime meant we were insignificant in the face of nothing ▪ “The vertical colours of bras
▪ In Frankenstein the use of mountains becomes the definition of the sublime ▪ “it was a garden where all th
The natural world ▪ “I walked into the wood unti
▪
▪ Shelly plays with the natural world and its surroundings to directly contrast with victor’s use of science which she deems as
Letters: quotes
perverted and unnatural
▪ Conducts the experiment in the middle of the night – images of isolation and danger ▪ “I feel a cold northern breez
▪ Nightime = fear our psyche plays tricks on us and our sense deceive us ▪ “breeze which has travelled
18th century Frankenstein
▪ Set at the enlightenment and romanticism period it emphasised reason and analysis rather than following religious teachings ▪ “I collected bones from channel-
▪ Setting in the 18th century = constantly changing ie industrial revolution human frame. In a solitary cham
▪ → Victor
▪ “I kept my workshop of filthy cre
Mountains → link to the sublim
, CONTEXT - Religion in the bloody chamber The snow child
The Bloody chamber context ▪ The snow child has violations
her – sac-religious act
▪ 1950-2000 = secular society
▪ Summed up by Bishop Southwark as one which we have moved to a culture where Christianity is a choice Wolf Alice
▪ Carter wanted to be out-of-step with the conservative opinion ▪ “Retreated to the far corn
▪ New abortion laws 1970 which meant a challenge to religion ▪ “The nuns poured water o
▪ Immigration → multi-cultural/religious society ▪ Liminal state neither man
▪ Carter mocks the bloody chamber and compares it to the tale of Adam and Eve → The Bloody Chamber the female protagonist is human and she is not a wo
lured in with curiosity.
▪ Passions of new Eve → mocks the notion of religion by undergoing gender reassignment surgery she flaunt the notion of the Bible L.H.O.L
that God made man in his own image → links to Wolf Alice (lycanthropy)
▪ Lady In the house of love
▪ In terms of sexual appetite Carter transcends the boundaries and emphasises the notion that women should give into their female
submissive Christian teach
desires
▪ she is also a perversion of
Frankenstein and religion context something Christianity wa
▪ “The chignoned priest of t
▪ Galvanism → creation led to the origin of life Christianity hunts out the
▪ The legend of Prometheus → named as the creator of liminality and defied the Gods by teaching human crafts → Shelly drifts ▪ “the waxen figures of the c
away from the typical Christian biblical references and focuses on a multitude different religious and mythological aspects
▪ Enlightenment. period – doubted everything they took for granted → insisted people Sapere Audre (Dare to know) General religion quotes Frank
▪ Paradise Lost → Shelly relates this story the creature persistently often to the creature as he neither identify as the good
▪ “I am their plaything and t
protagonist or the bad → written by John Milton – shelleys fathers friend
▪ “No human being could ha
▪ Various philosophers and scientists → Erasmus Darwin became a controversial figure in this time period as he was often
▪ “My temper was sometim
attributed to questioning the origin of life in his book ‘the origin of life’ → evolutionary teachings which went against the OT
▪ “It was the secrets of heav
teachings
▪ “Cornelius Agrippa, Albert
▪ One can argue that Shelly often questions religion due to her scandalous past → ran away to marry Percy Bysshe Shelley
▪ “I shunned the face of man
(divorcee) and without her father’s permission as well
▪ John Milton’s Paradise Lost → explores Lucifers fall from heaven → links to loss of innocence + envy and pride in Victor Frankenstein aborting the fem
Frankenstein
▪ By aborting making Franke
▪ Cornelius Agrippa – de occula philosophia – discusses different types of magic – celestial, natural and ceremonial
implications of having a fe
notion what would happen
▪ “A hell of intense tortures
▪ “Cursed the day in which t
▪ “I was with a heavy heart a
▪
Frankenstein – creature
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