Date

12-4-2025

Department

College of Arts and Sciences

Degree

Master of Arts in Literature (MA)

Chair

Brenda Ayres

Keywords

Gothic Literature, Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde, Dorian Gray, Turn of the Screw, Fingersmith

Disciplines

English Language and Literature

Abstract

Gothic literature of the nineteenth century is haunting due to its frequent use of ghosts and monsters. However, the true terror lies in a deeper horror, one that is more intimate and destabilizing– a fright that leaps out of the text, looking into the heart of the reader: the fractured mind of the self torn between reality and repression, haunted by its own, newly manifested internal disunity rather than external monsters. The characters of Gothic fiction are typically caught in a psychological turmoil. They battle with split morals between duty and desire, morality and madness, and science and spirituality. Specifically, the following Gothic novels, Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) by Oscar Wilde, The Turn of the Screw (1898) by Henry James and Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (2002) use narrative form and symbolic structure to delve into the theme of psychological fragmentation. These texts not only dramatize the loss of identity but also reflect the pressures of rapid social change. The Industrial Revolution brought mass migration from rural to urban settings, destabilizing traditional roles and relationships. This shift, along with the anxieties about science, religion, and morality, fueled a fear of fractured selves. These five texts dramatize the loss of identity and mirror the cultural anxieties of repression and the unknown areas of the human mind.

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