Portrayal Of Women In Gothic Literature

Gothic literature has been manipulating the depiction of women and the way females are presented as oppressed by men, as helpless or submissive throughout literature; some gothic texts have strong emphasis on women's submissiveness and passivity with examples such as Elizabeth in Frankenstein or Ophelia in Hamlet, however there are other gothic literary texts such as The Bloody Chamber where Carter breaks the stereotypical image under which women are presented, depicting a new image of a more powerful woman that is an 'active agent in her own rights' as David Punter suggests. Typically in older gothic texts women are presented in conventional and stereotypical manners to suit the classic woman stereotype with idealized images, very often women