The purpose of this study is to present an archetypal analysis of the major British Gothic novels; to provide an analysis of the significance of demonic and apocalyptic imagery, the archetypal patterns of imagery which inform the pack of Tarot, and the work done in analyses of archetypal patterns of imagery by Freud and Jung for the Gothic novel; and to provide an explication of Dracula as myth and the consummate Gothic novel.A defense of the major British Gothic novels (The Castle of Otranto, Melmoth the Wanderer, The Mysteries of Udolpho, The Monk, The Romance of the Forest, The Italian, Frankenstein, Vathek, Dracula) has been included in the text of the study, and an argument for the pervading influence of Gothicism in fiction is advanced herein.Gothicism in fiction represents a manifestation of the diabolical reversal of archetype and myth. Gothic fiction is given to a use of obsessive symbols and patterns of imagery, as well as to a "dream syndrome" mythic and archetypal in design. The dominant symbol of Gothic fiction is that of the ruined place, the great Gothic castle. The major plot line of Gothic fiction, and particularly that of Dracula, is that of the Quest motif, which owes much to the medieval romances and Grail legends. For Gothic fiction, the Grail Quest is diabolically reversed.A hitherto unwritten argument and explanation for the ritual of The Fool's Quest through the Honors Series of the Tarot is included, because the ritual of the Honors Series of the Tarot (hinted at by A. E. Waite and Eden Gray, but never fully demonstrated) is of prime significance for an appreciation of Gothic fiction.An analysis of the Gothic hero's or heroine's quest (a diabolical reversal of the Quest motif studied by Jessie Weston's From Ritual to Romance) is included; Bram Stoker's Jonathan Harker's role is shown to be that of the Quest hero whose Quest suffers the diabolical reversal of myth common to the Gothic novel. The frequent dreams included in Gothic novels are commented upon, chiefly from a paradigm for analysis suggested by Freud (The Interpretation of Dreams), Jung (The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious), and the Tarot. The dreams of Gothic fiction are shown to be dreams of flying, falling, dental stimuli, or parturition.Works ranging from the Tarot through the works of Freud and Jung to Montague Summers' The Vampire: His Kith and Kin and Frederick Thomas Elworthy's The Evil Eye are included in the text that attempts to demonstrate the significance of Gothic fiction as a serious art form, and to establish its place in the tradition of myth and archetype. Bram Stoker's Dracula stands at the acme of that tradition, as the greatest Gothic work. As a compendium of ancient arcana, Dracula knows few rivals in fiction, and as a work of art which demonstrates the properties of world myth and archetype, and the diabolical reversal thereof, the book has no equal.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/181419 |
| Date | January 1970 |
| Creators | Thornburg, Thomas R. |
| Contributors | Rippy, Frances Mayhew |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | 1, 173 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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