THE ELEMENT OF PARA-GOTHICISM IN CHARLOTTE BRONTE’S JANE EYRE AND EMILY BRONTE’S WUTHERING HEIGHTS
ABSTRACT
Para-Gothicism is not a rediscovery of the gothic, but rather a rebirth of that style; it is also a modern name for Gothicism which is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. This research study is centered on the novels of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Love and struggle is the central Para-Gothic theme in both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Love is presented as a powerful force in both novels. Love is used by both authors to develop the characters personalities, and produces two different outcomes. Both novels are stories of love and how this powerful emotion was able to overcome countless obstacles. Characters within Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre overcame the constraints society had upon them, what appeared to be their destinies and characters were able to overcome themselves. These obstacles were lengthy struggles that characters within each novel were faced with and went through immense pain all for love. The research study is designed in a five chapter format, with the chapter one as an introductory aspect, which leads to the review of related literature and also followed by the Para-Gothic elements/themes of the Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, and finally, the chapter four is a concluding part of the research study.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
This research study will be dealing with the subject matter of the para-gothicism in the novels of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering
Heights. It will be very necessary to give the basics of the subject matter, before the broader look will be given the subject matter in the review of literature.
It will be very necessary to first of all make an absolute definition of what a gothic novel is. Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or
mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism’s origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled “A Gothic Story”. The elect of Gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror, an extension of Romantic literary pleasures that were relatively new at the time of Walpole’s novel. Melodrama and parody (including self-parody) were other long-standing features of the Gothic initiated by Walpole.
