6. Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, Elly talks about two novels that draw on Gothic themes and ideas. Whereas novels like Walpole's Castle of Otranto and Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho are set in exotic, Italian locations, both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights bring Gothic horror into the domestic space. Both novels also make use of the supernatural, but the focus seems to be on the inner workings of the characters that see the ghosts rather than the presence of ghosts themselves.

Course

For many, the genre of gothic horror is epitomised by the novels Frankenstein and Dracula. In this course, we explore the origins of the genre through lesser-known, but no less influential works, the Castle of Otranto (1764) and The Monk (1796): the former is generally regarded as the first gothic novel, and the latter (which was described by Samuel Taylor Coleridge as “the offspring of no common genius”) one of the most important gothic novels of its time - decades before Frankenstein, and over a century before Dracula.

Lecturer

Elly is a second-year DPhil student at the University of York. While her thesis is on the reception of Arthurian legend in children's literature, she is au fait with all Victorian literature. In her spare time, she writes a food blog called 'Nutmegs, seven'