The role of horror in Northanger Abbey (1817) and Frankenstein (1818) is to illuminate the anxieties of the time through the Gothic imagination. Northanger Abbey asks: “what if… a reader navigated real life as if it were Gothic fiction?” (Kareem 186) Although Jane Austen parodies Gothic convention, she reveals a more tangible horror than the supernatural, patriarchal cruelty and the social and sexual threats young women face in this society. In contrast, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein asks: “What if… a “hideous phantom” straight out of Gothic fiction was brought to life?” (Kareem 186) With the scientific context of Galvanic reanimation of the dead, Frankenstein’s creation did not seem scientifically impossible in this period; upon its publication one reviewer even declared Frankenstein to have “an air of reality attached to it.” (Rushton) The role of horror in Frankenstein highlights the dangers of ambition, as the titular character does not consider the responsibilities of parenthood and the consequences of bringing a creation into the world without human love or nurture.
In Northanger Abbey, Eleanor Ty sees John Thorpe’s persuasion of Catherine to go on the journey to Clifton “as a reworking” of a Gothic abduction. (Fuller 96) “Pray, pray stop, Mr. Thorpe. I cannot go on. I will not go on…” But Mr. Thorpe only laughed, smacked his whip, encouraged his horse, made odd noises, and drove on; and Catherine, angry and vexed as she was, having no power of getting away, was obliged to give up the point and submit.”
Catherine’s determination is wilfully crushed by the brutish nature of Thorpe. The dynamic verb “smacked” suggests Thorpe’s capacity and enjoyment of violence, he is not just humoured by Catherine’s distress but seems to be revelling in his control of her, taunting her into subjugation. The resignation of Catherine as she is “obliged to give up… and submit” is evocative of sexual assault, her complete loss of power and submission to Thorpe’s will presents him as a figure of patriarchal cruelty, a threat to the young women of society and fully capable of sexual violence.
Mrs. Allen reinforces this statement when asked about “young men and women driving about the country in open carriages.” She responds: “Open carriages are nasty things. A clean gown is not five minutes’ wear in them. You are splashed getting in and getting out; and the wind takes your hair and your bonnet in every direction.” This humorous and characteristic response may initially be dismissed by the reader, attributing such a statement to the satire of the vanity of her character, yet Mrs. Allen warns Catherine of the danger of being alone with “young men… in open carriages.” “Austen uses clothing in other novels to signal women’s loss of virginity” and here is no exception, the staining of the gendered “gown” symbolises the defilement of the female self through the journey; the dishevelment of the body signifies the male capability of sexual violence, a violence not just experienced by Catherine through John, but a shared fear for women of the time. (Fuller 91) The role of horror here is not Gothic in its presentation, there is no Radcliffean danger like Catherine has read in the The Mysteries of Udolpho yet, Austen cleverly links the Gothic genre to the sentimental novel, revealing the very real horrors of a male-dominated society where women must be wary of sexual exploitation.
Catherine’s Gothic imagination comes to life in Northanger Abbey. “This is strange, indeed! I did not expect such a sight as this! An immense heavy chest! What can it hold? Why should it be placed here? Pushed back too, as if meant to be out of sight!” Catherine finds a place to project her Gothic imagination onto in the concealed space of the “chest”. This distinctly descriptive narration is comparatively different to the rest of the novel, Austen mirrors the language and Gothic devices of Anne Radcliffe – “the most commercially and critically successful female Gothic novelist of the 1790s.” (Wright 102) Here, however, they are used to embellish the mundane.
Austen adopts Gothic devices, to distance the reader from the expectation. The reader is aware that there is no supernatural association with the “heavy chest”, there is no danger lurking in its concealed space. There is instead, an urge to direct Catherine to the real horrors of her society hiding just beyond her awareness. Catherine registers gothic fear in a way that she does not when real dangers are presented to her, a shown in her encounters with John Thorpe.
When Catherine suspects General Tilney to have murdered his wife, her Gothic imagination magnifies the cruelty of his character. When Henry Tilney confronts Catherine’s dark imaginings, his emphasis on order, religion and development is seen in contrast to her gothic fantasy. “Remember that we are English, that we are Christians… Do our laws connive at them? Could they be perpetrated without being known, in a country like this… where every man is surrounded by a neighbourhood of voluntary spies, and where roads and newspapers lay everything open?” The reader, however, feels as much disbelief with his view as they do with Catherine’s. Henry’s nationalism leaves no space for the imagination, with his dismissal of the Gothic he does not consider the dangers of the real world.
With the context of the aftermath of the French Revolution (1789-1799), the reference to “voluntary spies” suggests the government surveillance of the state to ensure there were no similar plans of revolution in England. Henry, through this, hints at the dangers of having such sinister thoughts about the patriarch. As the reader later discovers, there is a suggestion that General Tilney reads Catherine’s mail, hinting at his surveillance of the house. Although Catherine is misguided in her perceptions, she does observe the immorality of General Tilney’s character. “Though what is monstrous about him is only social greed and banality”. (Levine 335) However, in exiling Catherine from the Abbey unguarded and alone on her journey, susceptible to the real horrors of the world, his brutality is revealed.
General Tilney’s character draws upon the real horror of Austen’s society – patriarchal cruelty. Once Eleanor tells Catherine of her exile, her address to her is full of Gothic fear: “I seem guilty myself of all its insult; yet, I trust you will acquit me, for you must have been long enough in this house to see that I am but a nominal mistress of it, that my real power is nothing.” The reader has seen the mistreatment of Eleanor from the hands of her father and her unwillingness to be around him alone and his command of her. Yet when this mistreatment extends to Catherine “her feelings burst forth, fittingly, in a gothic manner.” Austen uses language of power as she did in the scene of Catherine’s ‘gothic abduction’ to Clifton. Female absence of power is the patriarchal tool for control within the novel, Eleanor can do nothing but sympathise and apologise, for she knows the cruelty of her father too well. Catherine may have misplaced the violence of General Tilney, but her Gothic perception drew out the cruelty nevertheless. When Eleanor asks Catherine to redirect her letter to “Lord Longtown’s, … under cover to Alice” the reader sees the censoring of her letters by her father and although General Tilney is not guilty of the ‘horror’ Catherine assumes, he is guilty of the “real gothic crime of abusing his daughter.” (Fuller 102)
Frankenstein also makes use of the gothic imagination. However, Mary Shelley’s protagonist has the scientific intelligence to bring this fantasy to life. The role of horror in Frankenstein is to illuminate the danger of ambition and scientific progression beyond the natural order. By focusing these anxieties onto the supernatural body, Shelley symbolically and physically brings these fears to life.
Shelley lends a sense of realism to the supernatural as she was inspired by the contemporary Galvanic experiments with the reanimation of the dead by using electricity, “Luigi Galvani found that frog’s legs twitched as if alive when struck by a spark of electricity… attempting the reanimation of hanged criminals.” (Rushton) When Frankenstein brings his creature to life, he does so through a “spark of being”, he sees “the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs…How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form?” Frankenstein describes the creation as a “catastrophe.” He imitates the role of God, and in doing so breaches the laws of nature. Yet his creation is not human, a “hideous thing,” denied parentage and any human connection except that of his master, who refutes him before his full animation. Parental anxiety directs Shelley to asks herself if, as a parent you can love something so “hideous.” In Victor abandoning his creation, he has failed as a parent in his duty of responsibility.
Frankenstein’s ambition is seen, as he says, “Life and death appeared to me in ideal bounds, which I should first break through and pour a torrent of light into our dark world. A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs.” The ‘light’ of scientific enlightenment symbolises knowledge and creation, but Frankenstein’s creation “moves down rather than up the evolutionary ladder, suturing his creature from both human and animal body parts (he obtains his materials from cemeteries and charnel-houses, from “the dissecting room and the slaughter-house”. (Mellor 18) As Shelley blends the bounds of life and death, she also blends the human and the non-human, the natural and the unnatural, the human and the animal.
The creature is a physical embodiment of the anxieties of the time, his jaundiced “yellow skin” represents fear of disease, whereas the “ new species” represents the contemporary fear of the racial other, as Shelley urges the reader to look beyond appearance. Through Frankenstein’s desire for recognition and ‘gratitude’, Shelley inverts natural procreation as he wishes for his creations to have a duty towards him – to worship him as a God and to appease his growing ego. Frankenstein, however, does not consider “what his own responsibilities toward such a creature might be” or “whether such a gigantic creature would wish to be created”; thus, in abandoning his creation he has failed as a parent to his creation, neglecting him of human connection and love. (Mellor 11)
Frankenstein’s creature acts as a foil to himself. Victor says, “I considered the being whom I had cast among mankind, and endowed with the will and power to effect purposes of horror, such as the deed which he had now done, nearly in the light of my own vampire, my own spirit let loose from the grave, and forced to destroy all that was dear to me.” In the animation of this being, Frankenstein has transferred a sense of himself onto his creation, the creature is his “vampire” brought back from the dead. The sense of two selves is highlighted through the vampire- the self in life and the self in death, as Frankenstein has manipulated the natural order, the bounds of life and death, he is to be punished by the very creation that violated this. The anxieties of parenthood are seen again; as parenthood, can be viewed as a sense of immortality through procreation but as Frankenstein neglects his parental responsibility in having no duty of care towards his creature, this sense of ‘immortality’ is corrupted. Frankenstein’s creature is instead, the vampire, a being who must feed on the life-blood of humans to stay alive, he is destructive but this destruction has ultimately stemmed from his creator as he has brought him to life.
In conclusion, the role of horror in Gothic writing of the Romantic period is to highlight the anxieties of the period. Although Austen parodies the gothic in Northanger Abbey, through dichotomising rationalism and the supernatural she discerns the genuine fears of her society- patriarchal cruelty and the social and sexual fears of women in a male-dominated society. The role of horror in Frankenstein highlights the anxieties of parenthood as well as the anxieties of radical scientific experimentation of the time.