'Gothic writing remains fascinated by objects and practices that are negative, irrational and immoral' - How far would you agree with this statement? Jane Eyre? WHY the focus, why the preoccupation?

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‘Gothic writing remains fascinated by objects and practices that are negative, irrational and immoral.’ How far would you agree with this statement? Jane Eyre? WHY the focus, why the preoccupation?

Introduction

        

It is typical of Gothic writing to be fascinated by objects and practices that are negative, irrational and immoral.(define key term in terms of gothic elements) Such objects and practices are usually shunned by the society, much of which are very controversial. However, the Gothic being didactic in nature uses these objects and practices to challenge and convey a certain moral agenda. In this essay, in the context of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, we are going to explore the different objects and practices in these novels that are negative, irrational and immoral and show how they can convey a moral agenda. There are several objects and practices in which portrays the immoral obesssions??? of  Victorian society. Practices such as polygamy, voyeurism and rape, , incest and the……… Oedipus complex are such of immoral practices in which shows that the Gothic is fascinated in its writing.

        

Polygamy is regarded immoral in Victorian times as men are traditonalluy monogamysupposed to have relationships with more than one woman. The blood transfusion scene …in Stoker’s Dracula of Lucy by Arthur Holmwood, Quincey Morris, Van Helsing and Doctor Seward depicts the controversies of polygamy.

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In page 225, Arthur claims that “he felt, since (the blood transfusion), as if ‘they too had been really married and that she was his wife in the sight of God”. This shows that Arthur, in Freudian terms, is already ‘married’ during the transfusion, along with the other men. If the idea of transfusing as a divine practice of marriage, the fact that, the other three men had also transferred blood to her would mean that they too have married her. This fulfils Lucy’s desire of “letting a girl marry three men… as many want her”, as it has been ...

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