#Gothic heroines

[forthegothicheroine]

30 Days of Horror, Day 20- favorite horror character

The Invitation (2022)

"My name sounds so Jane Austen when you say it like that."

[tantive404]

Leia Organa as the Gothic Heroine

“Through a dream landscape, . . . a girl flees in terror and alone amid crumbling castles, antique dungeons, and ghosts who are never really ghosts.

She nearly escapes her terrible persecutors, who seek her out of lust and greed, but is caught; escapes again and is caught; escapes once more and is caught . . . [and] finally breaks free altogether, and is married to the virtuous lover who has all along worked (and suffered equally with her) to save her."

-Leslie A. Fledler, Love and Death in the American Novel

The gothic novel is a genre of literature that has grown increasingly compelling to me. Defined by its mixture of romanticism and horror— or “wonder and terror”, with a “loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting”— these stories are known for their forbidden castles, ghostly mysteries, and, most centrally, their heroines, fleeing terrified into the night in a flowing white gown…

Over the years the gothic has become a genre dominated by the feminine and by women writers. And even though the first example of gothic literature, Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, was written by a man, the story is largely focused on its heroines. The central plot thread sees a corrupt tyrant prince pursuing a much younger princess for the sake of marriage and her desperate attempts to escape him, as she flees through his castle, through twisted corridors, trap doors, and all manner of danger.

I began to think of the relation between the archetype of gothic heroine and Star Wars’s female lead, Princess Leia Organa. After all, she is typically clad all in white and on the run from a dastardly Imperial villain of some sort. And it would not be so difficult for the Death Star to serve as an old manor, filled with secrets and danger… trap doors (garbage chutes), gaping chasms, masked phantoms (Sith Lords) and terrible, power-hungry old men.

The gothic heroine is a young woman often characterized by her virtue, innocence and beauty. She may be born into a position of high social status, with a wealthy or aristocratic family, or even be full-fledged royalty. Some time early in the story, however, she loses her privilege and power… orphaned, imprisoned, or otherwise inconvenienced. In Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho, for instance, our protagonist Emily St. Aubert lives an idyllic life with her well-to-do parents, only for both to die and her fortune to be lost in the first act, where she is then given into the power of her aunt and eventually her villainous uncle-by-marriage, Montoni. Leia, too, was a happy and beloved child as the Crown Princess of Alderaan, even with the shadow of the Empire looming overhead… but is captured on a fateful mission for the Rebellion and sees her planet destroyed for her troubles.

And while a gothic heroine may be physically frail she has the mental fortitude and agency to be the one who drives the plot forward. Leia, too, subverts being placed the box of “damsel in distress” with her strong will and her active fierce participation in the rebel cause.

The consistent pattern of “escaping and being caught” is another that Leia follows quite clearly throughout the original trilogy… when we first meet her, she is fleeing from her Imperial pursuers, only to be overpowered and captured. She’s taken aboard the Death Star, endures torture, and gets rescued… only for the next movie to involve yet another game of pursuit between her and Vader where she’s eventually caught yet again at Bespin. After another escape, she opens the subsequent film with an attempt to rescue her (not-so) “virtuous lover” from his prison… and she is made a slave. She escapes with her own ingenuity to rejoin the Rebellion, is nearly defeated in the perilous final battle at Endor, but with the help of her allies, wins the day and all is made right. A typical fairy tale ending.

And then there are her villainous persecutors, of which there are primarily three— Vader, Tarkin, and Jabba.

The gothic heroine is often menaced by a powerful man,?usually bearing misogynistic or patronizing sentiments. He is dark and threatening, yet can also be alluring… and the heroine strives to escape his oppressive power. So too with Leia, as representative of the Rebellion, seeking to destroy the oppression of the Empire.

In short, Star Wars is a very melodramatic, archetypal tale, and Leia’s journey both illuminates and subverts that.

[xsssy]

[plutodetective]

Is Jonathan being an orphan at the mercy of an evil noble also a Heroine thing normally?

Great question! The villain isn't always noble, but they do tend to be rich. Christine Daae, Jane Eyre, Victor Hatherley, and the narrator of Rebecca are all orphans. The Heroines that aren't, like Belle or Psyche, tend to come from families who don't put any sort of fight when requested to give them up to the villain/kidnapper. Jonathan somehow fits both categories, being an orphan, and also having been sent into danger by the man who was his father figure since his teens.

[drac-kool-aid]

@plutodetective

I've got another entry to consider for your gothic heroine list - Ariadne from the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.

I am working a long rant explaining just why she's so perfect a gothic heroine that I am quickly losing all control over but, listen her story fills all the tropes:

Location - this is the origin of the LABYRINTH for crying out loud. Almost every gothic location is at some point called "labyrinthine" and this is why!

Dark Family Secrets - literally the setup is that her brother (HER BROTHER) is a man-eating monster that her father locked underneath the Palace in a maze out of shame.

Evil Patriarch - Minos has no redeeming features. Like none. It's all his fault and he still blames EVERYONE but himself.

Melodramatic Hero - speaking of irredeemable - look at Theseus! Honestly from Ariadne's perspective he ceases to be a hero and turns into another antagonist.

Marriage - Ariadne's hope is that through marriage to Theseus, she may escape her father. That turns out badly for her, when Theseus up and abandons her on a deserted island. And if you learn about her sister Phaedra (whom Theseus does end up marrying instead) kind of dodged a bullet there!

Marriage part 2! - No worries, she does eventually marry, it's to Dionysus. Not only the God of Wine, but of Ritual Madness, Ecstasy, who knows the secrets of Life and Death. He's also Gender. I believe Catullus has a poem of their wedding celebration where Dionysus and Ariadne switch their expected gender roles!!

Revenge - The whole plot centers around Minos getting revenge against the Athenians (his son died in a chariot accident while in Athens once, which...yeah, he wasn't really justified). Theseus takes revenge on Minos and the Minotaur. In Catullus, at least, Ariadne gets her revenge on Theseus.

Lastly, let's look at linguistics for a moment. Mystery is a big part of gothic literature. An old spelling for "clue" is, in fact, "clew". Clew is an old word for a skein of thread. LIKE THE THREAD ARIADNE GIVES THESEUS TO NAVIGATE THE LABYRINTH.

Anyway... sorry about the long post, but I feel very strongly about this.

[natalie-waite]

someone was selling their collection on vinted

[forthegothicheroine]

Who is your favorite Gothic heroine?

How much time do you have? Mina Harker and Catherine Morland and Evie Jackson and Patricia Campbell and Agnes from The Monk and Marianne Danielle and Laurie the Werewolf and Laura of Styria and Paula Alquist and...

[bluebellbanshee]

Gothic Heroine Book Cover

[plutodetective]

Gothic heroines potential beginnings:

-Marriage (literal or symbolic) to the villain/captor: Psyche, Belle, Bolívar Cambará, the nameless narrator of Rebecca, Elizabeth Lavenza (who was groomed for marriage to her captor’s son from an early age), Isabella Linton

-Professional opportunity: Jonathan Harker, Jane Eyre, Violet Hunter, Victor Hatherley, Pierre Aronnax, Christine Daae.

About 50/50. If you’d asked me before I started thinking about it in more depth, I would have said that most gothic heroines probably got married to their captors. And they’re in the majority if you don’t count the boys (I’m using heroine in a gender neutral way), but it’s interesting to notice how many start out just wanting to pay rent.

Of course, Bolívar, a rare case in period literature of a poor man who marries a rich woman, is the only man in the marriage category, and most gothic heroines hail from a time period when women were still likely to be completely financially dependent upon their husbands. So in nearly all of the cases, they’re financially dependent on the captor just to begin with, before counting the mind games and the other red flags. The only exception is Aronnax, because he’s in the job category and Nemo isn’t his boss.

[alintalzin]

she is gorgeous .

Alice Pagani

[natalie-waite]

[garlandedspirits]

Marguerite Gance in The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)

[forthegothicheroine]

Hell yeah! Here I am:

alert! to my gothic horror/vampire/werewolf loving besties! I’ve discovered this dress up game:

here’s mine!!!! one of me reading about the turmoil of our best friend Jonathan Harker & one of me and my werewolf boyfriend lol

[kayleerowena]

horror barbies legally distinct pink-themed horror dolls available now from your local t-shirt store!

[hangonsnoopy19]

Vampires: *exist*

Daniel “Monsterfucker” Molloy:

[cicada-heart]

somewhere in south georgia III

august 2016

this was such a strange, heady summer and i think of it often

(I, II, IV)