You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Anyone at all familiar with the Gothic novel or film will recognize the validity of the assertion that the essential fact of Gothic fantasy is “the sense [that] something unknown and unknowable lies beyond the terrors of the world” (p. 15). “Dracula lying in his coffin dreaming dreams we cannot imagine” (p. 14) illustrates both the unknowability suggested by Gothic fantasy and William Patrick Day's adeptness in describing it. In fact, the outstanding feature of this study is Day's extraordinary ability to describe the salient features of the genre. Assimilating the work of previous critics, Day proposes a new and intriguing configuration that he uses to interpret the most familiar Gothic novels and films from their beginnings in Walpole's Castle of Otranto to their more recent manifestations in such popular films as Psycho and Vertigo.
Making persuasive use of the paradigm established by Northrop Frye, Day places the Gothic fantasy in parodic relation to both the romance and the realistic novel. As the apotheosis of the quest hero of romance, the archetypal Gothic protagonist is characterized by his desire for infinite power and infinite pleasure. In contrast to his romantic counterpart, who, after undergoing a series of trials and ritual sufferings, discovers his identity and returns to the world, the Gothic protagonist becomes the victim of his own desires; he is incapable of taking effective action, and ultimately becomes “one with the landscape of fear and terror” (p. 13). Similarly, in contrast with the realistic novel, which assumes the stability of identity, the historical relation of cause and effect, and the essentially social nature of human life, the Gothic protagonist is essentially alone: “The Gothic world is a place where there exists one self; everything else in that world is ‘other,’ and enemy to the desires and integrity of the self (p. 19). In this Gothic world of utter subjectivity, “the self divides and fragments until it disappears altogether” (p