Psychological Obsession

The expansion of the British influence on the rest of the world shaped the way literature was written and percieved. After expeditions into the east, the British people were awakened with new art, food, clothing, music and ways of living. This became an enormous influence on how people percieved the outside world. It is a very common thought that people are afraid of the unknown, this is where I believe the darkness of gothic literature comes into play. The theme of madness is one of my personal favorites. The interest in the psychological decline of a human being and the questioning of what is real and what is imagination is extremely important when dealing with the question of whether the supernatural is real or imaginary. Tales of ghosts and spirits and supernatural abilities have been around for centuries, which completely go against the ideals of the enlightenment. The Enlightenment authors, philosophers and teachers would tell you that this is the wrong way to look at reality. The diminishing of the enlightenment period, the rise of the violence of the French Revolution and the growth of British exploration became the major components of the growth of the British gothic literature.

With the dark, violent overtones, and the hinting of some sort of omniscient supernatural power, it is easy to see why madness might have taken over our protagonists' psychological state. As a generation raised by science and reason, for the most part, we automatically look at Gottfried Burger's "Lenora" and see a very elaborate, artfully embellished fantasy. The dead coming back to life to visit you on horseback to take you, and ride off into the afterlife? --Nonesense. Even Lenora's mother, someone who was raise by the enlightenment, tries to not let her greif take over her sound mind, and tells her to let go of the fantasy and chalk it up to prayer. Her mother prayers for her, her enlightenment upbringing be shaken by her daughter's inability to trust in reason, God and what she has been taught. Instead, her daughter is relying on her sensory ability to see, and feel something else around her. From the way her mother way brought up, this is considered blasphemy, but to Lenora, what she is feeling is completely justified.

"Almighty God! O do not judge
My poor unhappy childe;
She knows not what her lips pronounce,
Her anguish makes her wilde."

When Lenora finally does submit to the darkness that her greif is trying to take her to, she is taken on this journey by William on horseback see some incredibly dark imagery. Corpes, ravens, a funeral train and the full moon. All images that leave a darker image in our minds, or malicious foreboding.

"O William, enter first my bowre,
And give me one embrace:
The blasts athwarte the hawthorne hiss;
Awayte a little space."

"Tho’ blasts athwarte the hawthorn hiss,
I may not harboure here;
My spurre is sharpe, my courser pawes,
My houre of flighte is nere."

As we spoke about in class, the repition is used very cleverly. It leaves us with a sense of a psychological imbalance. Like there is something just a little bit off about Lenora. In my mind repetition is a sign of anxiety, stress and that moment when you are starting to lose it a little bit.To me, the moment above is when we really start to see her disappear into her sadness and let go of reality.

The gothic period is so interested in the psychological state, and understanding more than what we can readily see, that this is the beginning of a very difficult time for female protagonists, and for women living in this era. Female sexuality is seem as madness, and many women were "medicated" by barbaric means of hospitalization and were often locked up in asylums for having sexual needs of desires. This is something I will explore more with my presentation.