The Role Of The Villain In Gothic Literature

Considering the geographical setting and portrayal of landscape, English authors would frequently set their works in the catholic southern Europe where civilization alternates with marvellous nature. Often, the Alps are involved in the story. With the geographical location, another attribute is connected. That is the names, which often sound exotic and correspond to the setting in France, Italy or Germany. Additionally, Punter emphasizes that “men were never called Richard because names of Italian or German extraction were the rule.”
Furthermore, violence upon female is a recurring theme. In the end, however, the villain does not succeed and he is condemned to suffer for his transgressions. Often he is placed in a monastery or dies. It is possible to mark these characters as stereotypical. Becker creates a model of three layers which reflect the contrast between the villain and the heroine: “On a syntactic level, the heroine. . . presents an object of value for the villain’s desire . . . on the semantical level, the heroine personifies the values that contrast the villain’s moral corruption. . . on the pragmatic level, the heroine is a perfect incorporation of the ideal feminine.” Moreover, a figure of a tyrannical father appears, as well as servants who usually represent a comic interlude. When discussing the figure of a tyrannical male, it is necessary to depict that
. . Gothic texts appear as scaled-down simulations of literary tradition that was itself being reconceptualised in terms of seriality, sequels, and resurrections.” Clery connects boom of Gothic literature and the number of works issued over a short period with another consequence, which is an evolution of a strange relationship between reader and the book that he describes as “addictive, irrational, masochistic, in sum, a posture of