From Chastity to Femininity: The Development and Growth of the Construction of an Ideal Heroine Image in Gothic Fiction/Literature

Keywords

Gothic literature is a type of literature that came into existence in the eighteenth century. It is perceived to be different in its settings, conventions, and concerns. In English literature, it is widely recognized that the Gothic genre of fiction had its beginnings with Horace Walpole who wrote a novel named The Castle of Otranto in 1764, which is thus deemed to herald the era of English Gothic literature as it has arranged and established the principles and fundamental traditions of the Gothic genre in English literature. Gothic literature has through time and space developed into 'Male Gothic', and 'Female Gothic' though. The term 'Male Gothic' is said to have come as a response, and in opposition to the Female Gothic. The term 'Female Gothic', however, is widely attributed to Ellen Mores who coined the term and used it for the first time in her work Literary Women in 1976. Even though Gothic fiction has branched into two different terms, both Gothic fiction share almost everything: from their settings, conventions, concerns, to the kind of Gothic heroine they both project. Therefore, the current research paper is intended to provide a survey of the Gothic fiction in both terms. In addition, the present study will investigate and trace the development and growth of the different constructed and ideal images attributed to the Gothic heroine.