Repressed Strikes Back

Novels ranging from 1818 to 1890 will be scrutinised and provide for an overview over 19th century Gothic fiction. Each novel is unique, but what all of them have in common is that each protagonist creates another being to complement his own self. The focus of analysis will be put on the relationship between self and creature, especially the power the respective creatures exert over their producers, i.e. the nameless creature of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), the opaque Heathcliff and Catherine of Emily Bront's Wuthering Heights (1847), the painting of Dorian in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) and Mr Hyde in Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886). All of them stand for the duality of their creator's personality , for self-preservation; their actions grasp the whole concept of the repressed, and as they mature in the course of their respective stories, they seem to grow increasingly into the role of the bęte-noir. Subsequently, the refined count as the apex of monster evolution of Bram Stoker's homonymous novel Dracula (1897) will be dealt with from the Jungian and Baudrillardian angle as well.