How Does Harding Create Horror In Florence And Giles?

How does John Harding use gothic techniques to create horror in Florence and Giles?

Horror permeates much of Harding's beguiling novel Florence and Giles (2010). In a retrospective first-person narrative foretold by young didactic protagonist Florence, Harding's richly textured novel attempts to masterfully create horror through various gothic techniques. For example, Harding employs recurring weather motifs to compel his audience 'It was December now and we'd have had a lot of snow' says Florence (Harding, 2010, p.109). The weather also tempts the reader to speculate the novel's plot. With a focus on Florence, this paper will argue that Harding is successful by using gothic techniques to capture horror for his audience. Set in Fin de siècle
New England, a period in which vehemently embraced 'aesthetic idealism, … degeneracy … pessimism... mysticism' (Marshall, 2007, p.31), one could argue that due to the subjective nature of Fin de siècle era, the setting of the novel is a deliberate effect by Harding to create horror for the reader. Harding documents how Florence had become oppressed by her allegedly 'absent uncle' (Harding,2010, p.8). Her half-brother Giles has been sent to boarding school for education. In a world of solitary as well as social confinement and despite Mrs Grouse role of benevolence and caution to her, Florence undergoes a rebellious experience in Blithe house by covertly going into the library to read books . However, when the socially inept Giles returns from school, Mrs Taylor is appointed as the new governess. Florence then sees Mrs Taylor as her antagonist and begins to endure in a series of 'extreme states of disturbed consciousness and imaginative excess, presenting[...] bloody hauntings,... and ghastly metempsychosis'( Murphy 2007, p.169 cited Botting, 1996, p.119-120). Botting's point is relevant because Florence presumes that all of her strange apparitions are connected with Mrs Taylor. Thus, this essay shall explore the gothic techniques in the novel and the ways it creates a frisson of horror for the reader. Florence and Giles (2010) is an example of neo-Victorian gothic literature.
Before beginning to make an analysis of how Harding experiments with specific gothic techniques to precipitate horror, one must first understand some key critical ideas about the two sub-genres. While Trednnick argues that 'Neo-Victorian fiction is a contemporary type of literature that engage through Victorian themes, characters and settings' (Treadnnick 2011,p.181 cited Hadley), the characteristics of both genres however, has been debated by many of Harding's contemporaries in gothic studies . In her 2013 article, Neo Victorianism : An introduction, Smith delineates the historical and social relationship between Neo-Victorian literature and horror fiction and argued that it is mandatory for both to have ' metafictive aims' (Smith, 2013, p.1). Smith's argument is legit because there are many inter-textual references to literature and music in the novel to create horror. For example, this can be seen when Florence visits Theo's house and 'a bust of Beethoven' (Harding, 2010,p.27) is in the background . Not only does the incredibly intense music influence the ominous tone of the passage to create an increasingly horrifying ordeal and suspense for the reader, it also gives Florence an opportunity to reflect on her friendship with Theo 'He's a fascinating boy' (Harding, 2010 , p.28) says Mrs Hoovier but Florence declares to the audience that ' it wasn't a word that i’d have used for him' (Harding,
2010 , p.28). Paradoxically, Hoffman doctrine argues that 'meta-fiction[...] often de-constructs[...] the autonomy of the narrator' (Hoffman, 2005, p.188). There is evident when Florence changes narrative structure and invokes rhetorical questions like 'why did she keep it locked in the first place?' ( Harding, 2010 , p.32) to make the reader feel a sense of sympathy for her defiant actions but this contradicts her intentions as her narration becomes unreliable. However she exerts an authoritative and independent figure for a girl her age , this becomes unsettling for the reader. A reason for her unreliability could be due to the novel's stylistic use of 'prolepsis' (Bae and Young, n.d, p.1)and 'analepis'(Bae and Young, n.d, p.1), it appears that offers the reader a sombre 'flashback' (Bae and Young, n.d, p.1) when Miss Whitaker 'tragicked upon the lake' (Harding,2010, p.8). Thus, her memory might not be authentic causing mystery for the reader.

Harding evokes sinister haunting events through to the novel's denouement . As Botting asserts 'Horror appears when fear comes a little too close to home' ( Wisker 2005, p.13 cited Botting, 1996, p.124). Fear is evident in this novel. For example, Harding implements ironism when Florence plays 'hide and seek' (Harding, 2010, p.79). This is indeed ironic because hide and seek is a game where the individual must find the other players. Consequently then, Florence is not only able to deceive the reader by hiding her true identity from the reader but also to the staff members , John and Mrs Grouse because they always search for her. Semantically, the word 'blithe' at first seems to have euphoric connotations. In the novel, though, Florence's melancholic description of the isolated mansion as a 'crusty stone mansion' (Harding, 2010, p.8 ) advocates as a place of trauma, violence and distress for the reader. Due to the lurid imagery of the house being 'coldhearted' (Harding,2010, p.8) and that 'It shivers' her , (Harding,2010, p.8) Harding demonstrates the paradigms of home comfortability as the use of oxymoron serves as an insidious surprise for the reader. Nonetheless, it is this gothic technique that merits the text as uncanny. Falkenberg provides an erudite evaluation of Freud's uncanny in horror fiction and argues that 'the uncanny is a preomination of danger...it occurs when it is difficult[...] to identify whether or not danger is present' (Falkenberg,p.42 p.2005). Arguably, Blithe house is an architectural statement encapsulating horror. Her desire for altruistic parental love and Giles attention is erratic and morbidly obsessive. But Weiss (1994) argues that from the nineteenth-century and beyond, parents recognised that children need affection from them to maintain social stability. In this respect, the absence of parental role is a manifestation of Florence’s displacement and rational emotion but she seems bewitched by it when she forces Giles to pretend to become ill in order to report belligerent Miss Taylor to the policeman. This act of coercion creates horror and anxiety for the reader. She is jealous of Mrs Taylor's stable relationship with her brother. Nonetheless, she is set free from order and entrapment and this relieves the reader for a short period. Unlike the library, Harding personifies the tower to 'function'(Harding, 2010, p.15) as a location of voracious literary experimentation , vocabulary acquisition , serenity and solace for precocious Florence to convey her naiveness. However, the negative gothic sublime in the following lines is an implicit metaphor for Florence's psychological torments. ' One day in the tower, I lifted my eyes from my book... and through the window saw a rook pecking' (Harding, 2010, p.21) . Arguably, the rook is an anthropomorphised version of Florence because later Harding uses a simile to depict Florence's animalistic trait ' I would have to watch her like a hawk' (Harding, p.51, 2010). As it is believed that animals 'have six senses' (Ragan, 1986, p.214) , Florence feels threatened by the bird. Simultaneously, the dramatic effect is hypnotising as it creates horror for the reader. Moreover, The rooker then becomes violent towards nature. The grotesque scenery in this passage startles the reader. Baudrillard theory on simulacrum (Baudrillard and Glaser, 2010) is relevant in Florence and Giles because the rooker imitates Florence's persistent attack of Mrs Taylor. Thus, Harding's characterisation of Florence as a victim of sorcery is strengthened but it raises the issues of re-examining 'the paroxysms of madness' (De Young, 2010, p.33) and her juvenile delinquent behaviour.

Harding cunningly enacts the repetition of words such as 'die' to mock Victorian mortality humanity and Christian mythology .We see this when Giles becomes frustrated over Florence's demands 'Oh sweet Jesus let me die! Please let me die' (Harding,2010,p.60). Although Harding implicitly subverts the traditional gothic genre in this way, he still preserves it because death was a dominant theme in Victorian gothic novels (Dever, 1998). More alarmingly, the passage conveys a 'sacrilegious atmosphere'(Goodrich,2010,p.140) for the reader. Death is an inevitable part of human life but as the reader later learns , Florence solely relies on it to solve her personal woes. Yet again, Harding successfully conveys horror to the reader as the reader is left in the unknown. Other ways in which Harding implements gothic technique include short sentences . In the novel's most poignant part, Florence's betrayal of her only friend is astonishing when she declines to help him with his medication 'I did not move' (Harding,2010, p.100). Florence is culpable for involuntary manslaughter. As Susan Chaplin puts it 'The Gothic[...] is a maddening, transgressive 'literature' that opens up the possibility of of … darker conceptualisation of what 'literature' is to the law' (Sarat 2008, p.115 cited Chaplin). Harding also uses sarcasm to convey the dualities of good and evil, ' Poor Theo would not skate anymore' (Harding, 2010, p.101).Therefore, Harding uses this devise to intensify the plot in a horrific and disturbing manner as this creates horror for the reader. Florence's dream although increasingly eerie can be interpreted 'as projections of the authors psche'(Stoltzfus, p.3, 1994).Perhaps, Harding had an unhappy childhood and so wanted to re-live it. Therefore, although Florence and Giles is based on fiction it gives the reader 'aspects of verisimilitude' (Franzen, Robbins and Sawicki, p.49, 1989) . 'Horror is often regarded as a form of expressing a disagreement with the political and social situation and anxieties of [ ... ] tyranny '(Prohászková, p.141, 2012). This statement highlights Florence notorious lifestyle, there is clearly unresolved family problems and she clearly wants to retrace and solve it as she admits ' Asking[...] again about my mother and father would bring no information'( Harding , 2010, p.29).

In conclusion, Harding successfully engages with Gothic techniques to achieve an excellent standard of horror for the reader. By adopting different techniques, Harding explores and experiments unconventional and traditional gothic techniques to make the novel appealing to his contemporary audience. Ultimately, however, It is through his dynamic usage of inter-monologue, the influence of English and American Victorian gothic writers and his interpretation of the Victorian age which enables him to foster gothic techniques in his writing (Dinter,2012).

Primary Source Material
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