'One need not be a Chamber / To be Haunted'.
Compare and contrast the use of gothic conventions in the Dickinson Anthology with
those used in The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Amongst the various themes embodied within both Dickinson's poetry and Oscar Wilde's
critically acclaimed novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, the thematic concern of the gothic is
brought to light on many occasions, consistent with the period in which each was written.
Dickinson, writing in Amherst, Massachusetts in the mid-nineteenth century, has elements
of the Female Gothic in her poems. At the same time, her poetry mocks the excesses of
Gothic Fiction, as Jane Austen did in her novel, Northanger Abbey. The Picture of Dorian
Gray can be seen as a rather curious revival of the gothic, as it was written in the last decade
of Victorian London. This essay seeks to explore the ways in which both writers utilise
literary devices and common gothic motifs to instil terror within the reader, so as to give an
insight into what the respective narrators are experiencing.
Dickinson’s use of gothic conventions is embedded within her poem, One need not be a
chamber to be Haunted, with her use of vivid, sinister imagery, particularly in the first
stanza. She writes, “One need not be a Chamber to be Haunted/ One need not be a House/
The Brain has Corridors- surpassing/ Material Place-” Evidently, the speaker is facing inner
turmoil, suggesting that horror is not always confined by walls but can be “Surpass[ed]” by
the horrors of our mind. By informing the reader that the “Brain” has “Corridors” with the
clever utilisation of a capital letter to focus our attention on the word, an image of
confinement is conjured in the reader’s mind. This oppressive feeling may be a reflection of
Dickinson’s own confinement seeping into her writing, as she bound herself within her
home in the later stages of her life, potentially causing this trapped sensation.
This intensely sinister imagery is mirrored in Wilde’s novel with his use of a metaphor in “[…]
the leafless trees shook their black iron branches to and fro.” The ‘leafless’ branches suggest
a witch’s claws and, when combined with the “iron branches,” they give an oppressive,
confining image of prison bars; it is as though Dorian Gray’s throat is being enclosed by their
imprisoning claws. One may argue these could be symbolic of the hands of his string of
victims seeking revenge, as revenge from beyond the grave is a common convention of
gothic literature. Both writers create expressive paintings of the anguish and restraint the
speakers feel by the use of the gothic, portraying them to be entrapped and pursued, as is
common in Gothic Literature. Whilst the speaker in “One need not be a Chamber/ To be
Haunted” is pursued by the terrors within her mind, Dorian is haunted by the repercussions
of his sins.
Wilde employs perverted, decaying imagery in the final stages of his novel, where the simile
in “The moon hung low in the sky like a yellow skull” has the effect of showing how Dorian’s
perception of the world has shifted from his usual aesthetic values to the harsh reality of his
sins. This degrading imagery gives the reader an insight into the ways in which Dorian’s sins
are catching up with him but also shows the degradation of his soul, as reflected in how he
perceives the natural world. Similarly, Dickinson uses the night sky to highlight the terror of
one’s mind when she writes, “Far safer, of a Midnight Meeting / External Ghost”. This
image of the all-consuming abyss of darkness, fabricated by midnight, emphasises that it is
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far “Safer” to be physically anchored in darkness than to connect with our inner life. Such
dark, ominous settings are typical of the gothic genre and both writers employ them to
exhibit the sheer terror the speakers are facing.
The supernatural is another element of gothic writing, clearly depicted where Dickinson
refers to outward horrors as an “External Ghost”. The capital letter in the word “External,”
as well as the impact of this brief line, almost dismiss stereotypical terrors and, instead,
reinforce the insurmountable power of the mind. This is further reflected by her
juxtaposition of the words “Ghost” and “Safe”, which mocks common manifestations of
supernatural horrors to convey that the true horror is what resides within us.
Wilde also makes use of the supernatural, though in a contrasting way. The line, “Dorian
Gray never took his gaze off him, but sat like one under a spell […] wonder growing grave in
his darkening eyes” is a prime example of this. Again, the reader’s mind is cast towards the
image of a witch - this time one whose “spell” has enchanted Dorian. Like Dickinson, Wilde
juxtaposes ideas; Dorian’s eyes are described as “darkening”, contrasting to his “passionate
purity” at the start of the novel. Eyes are said to be the windows to the soul, thus Wilde
employs this as a metaphor for the darkening of Dorian’s soul, as it becomes tainted by
Henry’s spell-like influence. The use of the supernatural in Dickinson’s poem sheds light on
the frightening nature of the mind; in The Picture of Dorian Gray, it highlights the terrifying
potential of Lord Henry, as well the effect this indoctrination has on every fibre of Dorian’s
being.
Both pieces embody the conventions of mystery and ambiguity - Dickinson with her lack of
clarification as to who the speaker is and Wilde by obscuring Dorian’s sinful actions
throughout the novel. Wilde makes use of the Doppelganger motif, as shown in the line,
“He … felt keenly the terrible pleasure of a double life.” Dorian’s portrait can be seen as his
other self; whilst he commits sin upon sin without repercussion, his portrait, representing
his soul, slowly deteriorates into an image of grotesque malice. Similarly, Dickinson writes
of a startling “encounter” with “one’s own self” in which “Ourself, behind ourself” is
revealed. However, there are also contrasts between the texts. Dickinson uses the gothic
motif of “Using science for a bad purpose” in referring to “That Cooler Host”, whereby the
biological term “Host” signifies the invasion of a cell by a parasite. Dickinson seems to be
using this metaphor for the mind to suggest that the mind is so powerful that it controls the
speaker, insinuating that it releases metaphorical “toxins,” which cause the speaker to feel
fear.
To conclude, both texts are prime examples of gothic literature, suited to the times in which
they were written, in their use of various conventions from obscure settings and characters
to spine chilling, sinister imagery. Although there are a myriad of similarities and
differences in the gothic elements embedded within each text, both have the effect of
exhibiting the vivid horrors that the speakers face.
Abir Sayed
April 2015
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'One need not be a Chamber / To be Haunted'.
Compare and contrast the use of gothic conventions in the Dickinson Anthology with The
Turn of the Screw.
In order to answer the question, “how are gothic conventions used by Emily Dickinson in her
selected works and by Henry James in The Turn of the Screw?”, one must first establish what a
‘gothic convention’ is: by drawing on the concepts first conceived by Horace Walpole in The Castle of
Otranto which were then embellished by Ann Radcliffe thirty years later, in 1794, in her novel The
Mysteries of Udolpho, I hope to establish what James and Dickinson themselves (both circa 19th
century) would have perceived to be a depiction of the Gothic. “The Castle of Otranto blends
elements of realist fiction with the supernatural and fantastical, laying down many of the plot
devices and character-types that would become typical of the Gothic: secret passages, clanging
trapdoors, hidden identities and vulnerable heroines fleeing from men with evil intent” [The British
Library Board], whereas Radcliffe sought to explain the supernatural occurrences featured in The
Mysteries of Udolpho by rooting them in psychological causes, such as heightened emotional
sensitivity. I will, therefore, look for both the classic and more nuanced form of the Gothic in both
works. By doing so, I hope to reveal that both James and Dickinson use the genre as a gateway into
far deeper waters; the macabre and mysterious – Gothic, as it were – nature of the mind.
Both James and Dickinson engage with Gothic settings and atmosphere to enhance the extended
metaphor in The Turn of the Screw, which is also a pervasive theme in Dickinson’s poetry, of selfdeceit and illusion. The Turn of the Screw’s governess remarks that Flora showed her Bly “step by
step and room by room and secret by secret”, and that “There had been a moment when I believed I
recognised, faint and far, the cry of a child; there had been another when I found myself just
consciously starting as at the passage, before my door, of a light footstep”. By painting Bly as being
a labyrinth, the physical vastness and the governess’ confused mental state are conflated. James
forces the reader to confront the most contentious aspect of his novella – that, much to the despair
of all A-level English Literature students, all other contentions rest upon – whether the apparitions
‘seen’ by the governess are real or an overwhelming psychosis. Since James coats this issue with a
thick layer of Gothic cliché, one could easily take the apparitionist view that the naïve, “untried”
governess has been influenced by the literature that she was reading. She notably mentions Ann
Radcliffe’s famed novel and hints at “an insane, an unmentionable relative kept in unsuspected
confinement?”, fancying herself as a Jane Eyre figure; ergo entertaining the idea that she could be
heroic and moral heroine at the mercy of a Byronic ‘master’, which is a recurring notion in Gothic
literature.
Dickinson subtly hints at this concept in her poem ‘My Life had stood – A Loaded Gun –‘, when she
mentions a “Master”: “And when at Night - Our good Day done - I guard My Master's Head –“ ,
which implies that the “Master” holds some form of secret, safely guarded by a speaker with the
unnatural “power to kill, Without - the power to die -”. The pause indicated by the two hyphens
illuminates the irregularity of the speaker’s power. As with the governess, the speaker has acquired
a sense of heroism due to a masculine influence. This is typical of Gothic literature, as can be seen in
the famous novel Dracula.
What this flexibility demonstrates is the fickle nature of one’s mind. This is what Gothic literature
seeks to exploit; how a change in circumstance can invert one’s actions and situational perception
completely. Conversely, a total lack of understanding can arise from this, which leads to the
overwhelming confusion that is generally experienced by Gothic protagonists. This is demonstrated
by Henry James’ governess as her opinion of Flora and Miles changes throughout the novella. At
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first, she views them as “angelic” and “beatific”, but this view encroaches on the ironic, as she later
describes them as having “false little lovely eyes” – here the governess has gone from admiring the
children with almost divine reverence to belittling them in a cruel assertion of her greater maturity,
as shown by James’ use of the word “little”.
This lack of conviction can make monsters out of anyone – the governess, Frankenstein’s Monster,
who goes on a vicious rampage after realising that he is “hideous”, and many of the speakers in
Emily Dickinson’s poetry. In ‘It was not Death, for I stood up’, the speaker cannot identify what she is
feeling and so is forced to find resolution by omissive reasoning; “it was not” this, so it could
therefore be that. This confusion causes the speaker to contrast images of the natural world with
more dark, visceral metaphors, such as “Repeal the beating ground”. Although figurative, the
“beating ground” suggests that the speaker has inner feelings of “chaos”, ferocity and turbulence;
emotions that are ubiquitous in Gothic literature.
To conclude, both Henry James and Emily Dickinson make use of Gothic themes, such as hidden
secrets, women becoming ‘willing’ victims at the whim of almost omnipotent masculine presences,
and how one can be so easily influenced by circumstance, to demonstrate that “One need not be a
chamber – to be Haunted –“; the real horror lies within ourselves.
Carla Klein
April 2015
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'The marriage market is a slave market'.
To what extent does this statement apply to The Prologue and Tale of The Wife of Bath, The
Tempest and Tis Pity She's a Whore?
For a marriage market to resemble a slave market, it must exhibit a master-servant relationship and
some sort of commercial transaction between parties must occur. In Ford’s play, the young
Annabella is courted by many suitors, two of whom display their wealth as a means to acquire her
hand in marriage. Donado tries to secure Annabella as a wife for his foolish nephew, Bergetto, by
assuring her father that he will have ‘Three thousand florins yearly during my life / And, after I am
dead, my whole estate’. Later when Donado reveals that Annabella is still not interested in him,
despite the jewel he gifts her, Bergetto shrugs, saying he “can have wenches enough in Parma for a
half-a-crown apiece”. Half-a-crown was double the going-rate for prostitutes at the time, showing
his inexperience and folly; however, Bergetto here also underlines the conventional view of women
as objects holding monetary value. He equates wives with prostitutes, as they can be bought, like
slaves.
In Act 2, although Florio tells Donado “my care is how to match her to her liking,” he does not
dismiss the financial rewards of marriage, especially as he does not come from a wealthy
background. These financial rewards prove so lucrative that he considers Bergetto, the “idiot”, as a
candidate, due only to his abundant wealth, and Richardetto wishes to marry Philotis to Bergetto for
similar reasons. This is reminiscent of the monetary motive behind the Wife of Bath’s first three
marriages to “riche” men. Later on, Florio urges the Friar to convince Annabella to marry Soranzo, to
secure his wealth and nobility. The opportunistically mercenary way in which the patriarchal
Richardetto and Florio offer Philotis and Annabella to the highest bidder is similar to how slave
owners sell their slaves. Thus it is plausible to consider the marriage market as a slave market.
In Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, the wizard, Prospero, uses Ariel to create a tempest and wreck
the ship on which Ferdinand was sailing for reasons Machiavellian. He tactically unites Miranda and
Ferdinand, whilst the latter fetches him wood. As Prospero watches from above, Miranda offers to
marry the prince, inverting the courtly love tradition. Prospero chooses to unite the two for political
rather than mercenary purposes, as he seeks to align Milan and Naples. However, the match will
secure him advantages. Shakespeare invites us to reflect on the parallels with King Alonso, who has
just returned from the wedding of his daughter, Claribel, to the King of Tunis. As Sebastian notes,
Claribel was torn ‘between loathness and obedience’ and begged not to be married but her father
insisted. In effect, he sold her, like a slave, to secure his own political advantages.
In this play, as in Tis Pity She’s a Whore and The Wife of Bath’s Tale, virginity determines the worth
of women. Prospero recognises that his daughter’s chaste status makes her his greatest vehicle for
obtaining revenge and subsequent reconciliation. Even the comparatively innocent Prince Ferdinand
rather brazenly begins to draw up conditions to his marriage to Miranda, the foremost being that
she may marry him ‘if a maid’. Miranda’s virginity is Prospero’s currency to reinstate himself. This
concept is furthered when her virginity is described as "treasure" to be guarded, as evidenced when
Prospero tortures Caliban after his non-consensual attempt to populate the "isle with Calibans".
Interestingly, Prospero does not prevent the rape from consideration of her safety but as he is
concerned about the loss of a potential lineage.
One may argue that, despite Prospero’s meddling, Miranda loves Ferdinand, so much so that she
unorthodoxly offers him marriage. However, her exile to an island for twelve years with only one
man, her father, may have left Miranda a slave to her sexual cravings, just as Hippolita, in Tis Pity
She’s a Whore, is driven to have an adulterous affair with Soranzo. That the derogative epithet
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‘lusty’ follows Hippolita after her affair, while Soranzo escapes censure, shows the double standards.
Her infidelity broke the contract of marriage, rendering Hippolita ‘damaged goods’. Likewise,
Miranda would have been ‘damaged goods’ had Caliban had his way. Prospero perceives marriage
as politically advantageous, whilst Miranda understands it as emotionally and physically pleasurable,
but both characters are aware that an advantageous marriage depends on her maintaining her
virginity.
Like Hippolita, Chaucer’s Alisoun of Bath can be read as a slave to her sexual desires. Her
exoneration of her multiple marriages, through her exegesis, reveals this excessive lust of hers. For
instance, when referring to “daun Solomon,” she wishes she were “refresshed half so oft as he.” Like
Hippolita, her lust leads her into an affair with a younger man and, like Hippolita, she suffers at his
hands. Whether the audience is invited to approve of their punishment is open to interpretation.
The Wife of Bath compares the marriage between man and woman to the relationship of master and
slave. Her argument, put forward in her Prologue, relies heavily on the concept of “maistrie”. Aware
that the very basis of marriage is quid pro quo (men provide their material possessions, women
provide their bodies) Alisoun shifts the dynamics, explicitly stating that a happy marriage is one in
which the husband is both her “detour and thrall”. The noun “thrall” derives from the Old Norse
term for military slaves, suggesting Alisoun has begun to reduce her husband to an object of
convenience. Her marriages of convenience support the point that critic Nicole Smith raises:
“money, sex, and marriage are all interlinked and none can exist without the other for Alisoun”.
Chaucer’s portrait of Alisoun references her successful weaving business and it may be assumed that
she approaches marriage with the same mind that made her rich. If Alisoun is to be a slave, she will
be a satisfied one. Otherwise, she shall be master.
However, one might see her Tale as the parable to her “long preamble.” Here, the moral is not that
women desire “sovereintee” above all else, as the knight eventually discovers, but that it is desirable
for husbands, as well as wives, that women should have their way. The knight understands this
when, having accepted that the old hag should have “maistrie” over him, she consequently
transforms into a beautiful and faithful wife, leading both to live “in parfit joye”. The hag only needs
to be given some “maistrie” before she submits wholly. This is typical of the manipulation seen in
the master-slave dynamic. Similarly, Miranda proposes to Ferdinand but, once the match is made,
she is silenced. Across the three texts, therefore, the marriage market does resemble a slave market
in many ways.
Selim Selim
April 2015
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'The marriage market is a slave market'.
To what extent does this statement apply to The Prologue and Tale of The Wife of Bath, The
Tempest and Tis Pity She's a Whore?
Marriages are contracted for financial gain and social acceptance in all three texts. We can see
evidence of destructive marriages built upon false pretences in both Ford’s ‘Tis Pity and Chaucer’s
Wife of Bath, although there were written centuries apart. Ford’s Hippolita, in being unfaithful to
Richardetto, creates another tragic revenge plot, adding to the dramatic and structural complexity of
the play. Her infidelity mirrors Alysoun’s infidelity in her first three marriages and both women bring
about disorder in their texts, as in their societies, just as Sycorax haunts the island of The Tempest as
a personification of untrammelled female sexuality. Ironically, although she is dead before the play
begins, she is more of a presence on the stage than the living Miranda.
Alysoun’s prologue surpasses her tale in its length and, to a modern reader, its interest, while
Hippolita confronts Soranzo and upstages and curses the bride, Annabella, in her dramatic death
throes. Both emphasise the lack of stability these women have outside marriage. Sycorax, on the
other hand, was exiled to the island for unspecified crimes but her life was spared because she was
pregnant. In this, her society was more forgiving than that of Tis Pity, where Annabella is berated by
her husband for her ‘corrupted, bastard-bearing womb’ and murdered by her brother, along with
the ‘hapless fruit’ of her womb.
Alyson is widowed when she tells her tale and Hippolita thinks she is a widow when she returns to
Parma for revenge. Trust has metaphorically blinded their husbands, leaving them bewildered and
naïve. Richardetto’s diagnosis of Annabella’s early stages of pregnancy as “fullness of blood”
exaggerates his lack of sexual experience and inability to see through the wiles of an attractive
woman, much as the first three of The Wife’s husbands are outmanoeuvred by her. This suggests
that Hippolita, like Alison, enslaved her husband.
After her death, Richardetto sees clearly the spell he had been under when married to Hippolita. The
Wife’s husbands are never awakened to her ways but die of old age. Her lack of guilt for having
enslaved them confirms the misogynistic view of women in medieval literature, where they were
seen as creatures of deceit and trickery. But it can be argued that, having enslaved her first three
husbands and having made her fourth husband’s life a purgatory, she is punished in her marriage to
Jankin, as Hipplolita is punished by Vasques and Sycorax is punished by exile.
Prospero remembers his wife as a ‘piece of virtue’, praising her for her chastity, as it assured him
that he was the father of Miranda. His daughter, in turn, assures Ferdinand of her ‘modesty, / The
jewel in my dower’ and promises to be his ‘maid’ if she cannot be his wife. Alison, on the other
hand, boasts of her ‘queynte’ or ‘belle chose’, which could have made her rich, had she chosen to
sell it.
The Wife is preoccuped with sex and finance rather than children and a healthy relationship. Laura
Finke picks up on Alisoun’s financial fruitfulness in marriage. She may lack children but the extent of
her manipulative disposition has bred financial capital more effectively than any business could.
Mary Corithers describes her as a ‘capitalist entrepreneur’ as her marriages enslave men for her
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financial benefit. As in her trade as a spinster, the wife has the metaphorical ability to turn straw into
gold.
The Wife makes her fourth husband “…angre and for verray jelousye” as a result of her sexual
liberty. She declares “By God on erthe I was his purgatorie” and this gives her emotional power over
him. Similarly, Annabella’s façade of sexual innocence makes “madmen” out of a scholar and a
nobleman. The two women gain power by enhancing what society has reduced them to - emotions.
By using emotional manipulation, they are able to enslave men and put them in spiritual states of
punishment. The men are weak, as they have no emotional stability. They do not anticipate the
emotional obstacles within marriage and so fall prey to their wives, who master them.
Both women have the power to enslave men through psychological means but Annabella’s body,
unlike Alison’s, betrays her. Made pregnant by her brother, she agrees to marry Soranzo but is
exposed as a “famous strumpet whore” to the audience, who originally would have been a theatre
full of Carolinian viewers. Soranzo threatens her with barbaric language, “I’ll hew thy flesh to
shreds” when he discovers that she is pregnant. The sibilant phonetics of his language manifest in
the form of disgusted spitting and predatory speech, making him appear more dangerous than ever
before. His irregular and hyperbolic language conveys his shock at his loss of power. He, like
Giovanni, suffers genuine emotional pain in his relationship with Annabella but he also goes on to
plan to kill her and her brother actually butchers her, both treating her as a master would a slave.
The Old Hag and The Knight in the Wife’s Tale represent the dynamic of slave and master. Alysoun
reverses not only the social but traditional presentations, by giving women the upper-hand in
marriage, just as King Arthur grants Queen Guinevere her wish. Chaucer exemplifies the danger of
female power and the animalistic hunger of women for that which society deprives them of authority. In the same way, Hippolita attempts to abuse the power of sexuality over Vasques in act
two scene two. This suggests that, when women gain power, they abuse it.
Slavery exists with and without marriage for women, so they make the most of their “floor” until it is
“goone” but, even then, they will “selle the bran” best as they “kan”. Alternatively, it could be read
that marriages save rather than enslave. Annabella’s ‘fame’ is temporarily protected by marriage to
Soranzo, the “wise…rich…kind…nobleman”, and she cleanses him of the stain to his reputation,
made by his affair with the ‘lusty widow Hippolita’. Similarly, in The Wife’s Prologue and Tale, she is
emotionally revived by her marriage to Jankyn and, after their final fight, they ‘hadden never
debaat’, just as the Knight is cleansed of his sin and rewarded by marriage to the ‘wif’ who chooses
to be faithful and beautiful. Miranda, too, chooses her husband and is saved from being enslaved by
Caliban and Stephano by her marriage to Ferdinand in The Tempest.
Kayra Uguz
April 2015
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