Gothic a Revival of Culture

The Gothic, with the motif of the double explores the struggle amid the groovy and vileness inside man To what extent are Poes short stories, Coleridges Christabel and R. L Stevensons Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde explorations of the duality of man. The gothic, as a fictional genre, came ab disclose as a result ot cultural changes in the eighteenth century these cultural changes began to chassis through the renaissance. This transitional period between the Medieval Era and the modern world changed the way of thinking. The devise it egotism means revival or rebirth.Moving further away rom religious devotion it allowed virgin-fangled ideas to form, thus the maturation of the gothic. Hlstorlcally, the Goths were one of several Germanic tribes Instru affable In the fall of the Roman imperium they left no literature or art of their own, and were remembered only as the invaders and destroyers of the great Roman civilization. 1 This historical aspect allowed the development of the new boundary pushing form of literature, Introducing elements of horror and romance Into pertly formed gothic texts.The first gothic reinvigorated published was The Castle of Otranto, subtitled as A Gothic Story written by the English author Horace Walpole. This new style of writing was imitated both through prose fiction and theatrical drama through the texts Coleridges rime Christabel, many of Edgar Allan Poes short stories and R. L Stevensons Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Through snip the interpretations of a gothic text changes, allowing the readers to challenge what they read. All three texts were published in the 19th century, excerpt the first edition of Christabel (published 1797).This time period was primarily based around religion and Biblical Interpretations. And so, these new strange ideas may arrive angered the audiences due to the lack of religious devotion from the authors onto the characters, The double, otherwise cognise as the Doppelganger, was defined by Federick S. Frank as a second self or tack together Identity, sometimes, but not always, a physical twin. The Doppelganger in demonic form can be a reciprocal or lower bestial self2 The double motif suggests that we are burdened with a dual, for example, Dr.Jekyll and his bad double Mr. Hyde are contrasted to represent the battle between the rational, intellectual self (Jekyll) and the irrational, unholy selt (Hyde). The double characters featured In texts are often paired within common relationships, such as family relations, hero/villain, creator/creature, etc. R. L. Stevensons novel. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde expresses the idea of the duality of human nature however this motif did not arise fully until the last few chapters, when the relationship between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Is revealed.We have already witnessed Hydes overriding hysteria and have seen the contrasting gentle and honorable Dr. Jekyll, One of the main themes of the double is physical appearance as Hyde is portrayed in ani malistic erms short, hairy, and like a troglodyte with gnarled hands and a horrific face. But, In contrast, Jekyll Is described In the most elegant manner tall, refine, polite, with long elegant fingers and a handsome appearance. This suggests Jekylls experiment reduces his being to its most basic form, allowing evil to run freely, ignoring the unwritten rules of society.Stevenson explains the motif of duality toys uslng tne cnaracter 0T Jekyll as ne claims, Man Is not truly one, out truly two, as all(prenominal) soul contains traits of both good and evil, but one is always empowering. This novel is perhaps one of the most renowned examples of literature using the doppelganger idea another theme stemming from the extra of man is the psychoanalytical interpretation and the presentation of Freuds theory of the id and superego. Dr. Jekyll represents the superego and Mr. Hyde the id. It is in fact his mind that is the ego, bringing him stake and forth between the two characters but Dr.Jekyll acknowledges and does what is morally best. The ego, hidden in his unconscious, is constantly debating between the superego and the d, its the good vs. evil and conscious vs. unconscious. The term unconscious is similar to that of the unknown, leading to a scary factor of a double as the living being is simply unaware of their instincts and desires, making them equally unaware of their capabilities. Sigmund Freud developed the theory of mental life called psychoanalysis, emphasising the psychodynamics of the mind.His most important assumption was the force driving a persons mental life, affecting their behavior operating at an unconscious level in one bulge of the personality call the id. The id industrial plant primarily on the pleasure principle bound up in self-gratification and uncaring to others- again perating entirely at an unconscious level. Two other types of personality were assumed ego and superego. The ego functions the realism principle, while the supere go represents the persons ideal self, presenting the moral standards of society.The Juxtaposed types of personality id and the ego are initially the two results we are left with when a character has a double. Similarly, In Coleridges Christabel, the character of Geraldine becomes Christabels evil double- arguably her id. The cause of a shudder in his blood from Dr. Jekyll in the presence of Mr. Hyde is not simply one characteristic of his nature. It is the confederacy of evil and disability. Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarfish he gave an impression of deformity a sort of murderous salmagundi the realisation of obtaining murderous mixture expands Freudian theories of evil, the id, taking over the person.This uneven ratio of personalities causes such malice ideas of murder to form. Likewise, the perception of the divided self is also presented in Coleridges Christabel. In this poem, the character of Geraldine becomes Christabels evil double. Arguably, the poem explores the, struggle of e vil and innocence, and the manner in hich evil works upon and transforms innocence,3 as in the extended poem we see Geraldine attempts to use Christabels innocent image as an advantage clearly demonstrating the divide between good and evil within the two female characters.The same sex double is equally destinen within the two male characters of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The idea of a same sex double, accentuates the concept of similarities between the actual self and the duplication. The same psychoanalytical approach, as used to interpret Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hydes doubling, can also be used to indicate many concepts, from Coleridges poetry. The poem, the Kubla Khan, according to Coleridge, he claimed the visions highlighted in the poem, occurred to him in a dream demonstrating -Freuds hypothesis of the unconscious, as the development of dreams is prominent in the unconscious region of the mind..Setting is also, a very important aspect of Gothic literature. The garden of nirvana i s often used as a symbol in western literature to show life before sin and mottleion, the ophidian and its temptatlons towards Eve, explore tne corruptlon 0T tne Innocent, temptatlons ana evil. This religious interpretation of the setting featured in Christabel differs to that of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. As Stevenson describes Dr. Jekylls laboratory as, a certain sinister block of building This bore in every feature the marks of profound and sordid negligence. With its decaying disguise and air of neglect, the laboratory quite neatly symbolizes the corrupt and perverse Hyde. The idea of the laboratory indicates the influence of the renaissance and the new science interpretations being made, unlike the religious, Garden of Eden imagery. The city of London itself is also represented in contrasting terms, as both a foggy, dreary, as a nightmarish place, and a well-kept, bustling centre of commerce. Just as the characters Jekyll and Hyde and Christabel and Geraldine, have both positiv e and negative qualities, so does society.Doubling is yet again present in the second part of the poem of Christabel, whereby the dove being strangled by the bright green snake presents the spell casted from Geraldine onto Christabel, to tongueless Christabels true speech and emotions. The image of the white dove shows Christabels innocence, which had lost the battle between the envious snake (Geraldine). The imagery of the serpent emphasises how religion was a prominent influential factor towards this poem, ymbolizing the Biblical translation of the serpent in the story of Adam and Eve.