The Contested Castle: Gothic Novels and the Subversion of Domestic Ideology

by Kate Ferguson Ellis

The Gothic novel emerged out of the romantic mist alongside a new conception of the home as a separate sphere for women. Looking at novels from Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein , Kate Ferguson Ellis investigates the relationship between these two phenomena of middle-class culture--the idealization of the home and the popularity of the Gothic--and explores how both male and female authors used the Gothic novel to challenge the false claim of home as a safe, protected place. Linking terror -- the most important ingredient of the Gothic novel -- to acts of transgression, Ellis shows how houses in Gothic fiction imprison those inside them, while those locked outside wander the earth plotting their return and their revenge.
 

Genres: Nonfiction, Gothic, Literary Criticism, Books About Books, Feminism

248 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1989

Reviews

[Katherine Addison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, about the Gothic from Walpole to Shelley, with a great epilogue on Emily Bronte, is arguing that the Gothic is about the Fall, and about the way the Fall changes the enclosed space of the Garden (represented by the home---she also talks a lot about the ideology of separate spheres and about changing theories of child-rearing in the 18th century); it becomes either a prison you can't get out of or a refuge you can't reach, and changes from one to the other depending on where you are. (So it may start out as a refuge you can't reach, but when you overcome your trials and tribulations to reach it, it becomes a prison.) It also depends on whether you are male or female. Women are mostly imprisoned; men are mostly exiled. I found her lens extremely useful as a way of sorting out what happens in Gothic novels---and of course immediately thought of Hill House, which is the epitome of both the home post-Fall and the prison you can't get out of.

It is a theory-informed book, but it is not theory-heavy. It's a LITTLE on the dense side, but extremely readable for an academic book.

Four and a half stars, round up to five.

[Shelby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think it's sick that in the 80s you could do fanciful summarization and it would count as criticism. Joking aside, this is a text that really reminds you of the subversive feminist potential of the gothic, even if some of its arguments don't really hold up today.

[Emma Sea · Rating 2 out of 5]

very thorough, well referenced, clear writing, good ideas; just not that engaging. 2 stars for OK.

[Rebeca F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very interesting reading, mainly because, even though it's written from a feminine perspective, there's a chapter focused on the masculine archetype of the exiled wanderer (through the analysis of Caleb Williams and Melmoth). So, it's an essay that reflects on how gothic novels (considering strictly novels of the first wave of gothic literature, except Wuthering Heights) reflect and subvert the domestic ideology of separate spheres (inner/outer, home/outside world, feminine/masculine) that emerged at that time in the middle class culture and that portrayed home and family life as a safe haven.
It was interesting though quite concise and narrow in its view as it focused on the most well known works of that first wave of gothic literature (Walpole, Lewis, Lee, Reeves, Radcliffe, Maturin, etc) to follow a pretty clear premise. Still, a good recommendation to anyone interested in the genre.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this, because it's such a thorough, well-written study of an intriguing topic. It certainly made The Mysteries of Udolpho come alive for me.