Punter explores the transitional change that gothic
literature had underwent in correlation with societies alterations, the change
of the late 18 hundreds in other words the French revolution had
certainly assisted gothic literature in becoming more prominent during the 18th
and 19th centuries, no longer in France was bourgeois romantic
narratives-so favoured by the aristocrats- ideal or at all relatable, thus
replacing the predominant romantic period, this transformations is seen through the change in writers works - who are known for their romantic
novella ‘s- opting for the darker root of literature, a great example of this
would be of Robert Louis Stevenson who rose to fame with his treasure island,
yet later on the 19th century preferred a more Gothic turn in the
case of ‘the strange case of Dr.Jackylle and Mr. Hyde . According to Punter the
resurface of gothic literature and architecture, marks the progressive change
of society to the newly re-emergence of the Gothic ‘in contrast to the
classical mode revered in the earlier part of the 18th century’.
Punter gives the basic form of key ingredients that make up the gothic
structure, that we are all familiar with, one of them being the feminist aspect
in which the snow child has no control over her own self yet the count has
seemed to favour her and thus commutes his wife’s possessions onto the girl; a
power struggle plays out between the countess as she fears the count’s interest
in the girl and thus feels threatened she fears her she herself and her worldly
livelihood would be replaced with the girl and thus orders her about to regain
some of her lost stature. Though traditional Gothic literature has some
elements of melodrama; carter as expressed by punter has seemed to move from
that direction all together and focuses on the raw essence of gothic itself
without a combination of other genres.
moena
