LITERATURE QUESTIONS
THE GOTHIC NOVEL
|
Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
|
|
|
Satire
|
|
|
First-person narration
|
|
|
Realism
|
|
|
The uncanny doubling of characters
|
Detailed explanation-1: -The Mysteries of Udolpho is characterized as a Gothic novel, a genre popularized in the mid-1700s with the publication of Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto in 1764, that combines elements of suspense, horror and romance.
Detailed explanation-2: -The Dangers of Materialism and Greed The desire to acquire property is a prominent theme in the text. At one level, the novel critiques a person’s relentless need to acquire and improve property, as in the case of characters like M. Quesnel, Madame Montoni, and Montoni.
Detailed explanation-3: -Like other Gothic novels, The Mysteries of Udolpho contains ruined castles, beautiful countryside, a virtuous heroine and a villain. There are a number of strange occurrences in the novel which seem to be supernatural, but which are revealed to have rational explanations.
Detailed explanation-4: -Sigmund Freud wrote a celebrated essay on ‘The Uncanny’ (1919), which he defined as ‘that class of the frightening which leads back to what is known of old and long familiar’. Gothic novels are full of such uncanny effects – simultaneously frightening, unfamiliar and yet also strangely familiar.