The chief impression a Gothic text leaves us with is the loneliness of the protagonist’ Is this a view borne out by the three texts you have studied?
It can be argued that the chief impression a Gothic text leaves us with is the loneliness of the protagonist, loneliness can be revealed in physical, social and mental form or a combination of a few. However, other contributing factors may also bring about loneliness such as madness or isolation but to which leaves the chief impression is debatable.
In Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ the character Macbeth can be interpreted as the main protagonist being portrayed as a tyrant driven by his fatal flaws of greed, ambition and excessive emotion to lead to his dramatic downfall of death; typical of the tragedy that Shakespeare wrote it as. It is through over ambition and guilt that leads to a progression of loneliness throughout the play until the climatic point of his downfall being his death. He rides into battle companionless being labelled a ‘dead butcher’ by associates who were once friends which have now left to join Malcolm and the English army. The only soldiers left to ride into battle with him now does so through duty not honour or love which, exemplifies his social loneliness by the end of the play; showing the effect of his excessive ambition and greed for power. This explicitly shows that this Gothic text leaves us with the chief impression of the loneliness of the protagonist.
To support the latter further, Shakespeare’s character Macbeth even admits himself that ‘which should accompany old age as honour and love, obedience troops of friends I must not look to have’ illustrating that to accomplish his goal of King he must do it alone intrinsically showing his loneliness without support of ‘troops and friends’ due to undergoing atrocious acts such as regicide. For most of the Jacobean audience the pre meditated the act of regicide would be shocking as the King was seen as God’s representative on earth by most people at the time. He encounters conflicting emotions of guilt and ambition pushing him to loneliness and madness, as he even kills off his own friends such as Banquo. This then resulting in his loneliness which however not achieved without other elements such as firstly being power mad, unintentionally leading to loneliness therefore loneliness can be argued to be part of the chief impression we are left with but not solely that.
Instead, the chief impression we may be left with could be the effects of madness, as it worsens. From the Banquet scene Macbeth becomes gradually lonelier as a consequence of his madness; he ends up being shunned by his fellow knights leading to the loneliness of the protagonist.
On the other hand, if we interpret the character Lady Macbeth as the main protagonist, we can analyse from the play that in sleep which is meant to be a time associated with rest, she is tormented by her own feelings conveyed from sinful deeds. It is only then she expresses her true guilt felt emotions ‘out out damned spot’ through loneliness of nobody to share her feelings with and isolated by her own thoughts it is the loneliness which pushes her to suicide, evidently reinstating loneliness of the protagonist to be the chief impression of the text.
In Angela Carter’s collection of short stories ‘The Bloody Chamber’ story itself can be used to show the narrator as lonely and isolated within the ‘castle of murder’ as she is trapped ‘into marriage into exile’ of the unknown ‘ambiguous place’ which is now her home. She is also married to a man much older who she barely knows representing aristocracy, leaving all her fond memories of her old life behind. After the short honeymoon her new husband is called off on business leaving her lonely and curious within the castle. In light of the question the chief impression of the protagonist is not purely loneliness as it is only a part which follows the unknown mysteries of her eerie new home, there are other more prominent impressions left upon the reader such as the excessive gothic acts of violence and brutality surrounding the Marquis ‘instruments of mutilation’ found in the Bloody Chamber. However, following typical fairytale form the girl survives being saved not by a man but her Mother living happily ever after with the Blind piano tuner. In the end it is the Marquis who is the loneliest character of the story being punished for his serial murders in his lonely death when her Mother kills him with a ‘single irreproachable bullet.’ However, alternatively the chief impression a gothic text like this leaves us with being of the gothic genre is the violence and otherness than loneliness of the protagonist.
In the ‘Courtship of Mr Lyon’ it can be argued the character Mr Lyon is lonely as he is trapped by his own bestial body, he has ‘no living person’ to live with him but chooses to live in total isolation instead away from the ‘laws of the world’. Later on when Beauty leaves him his loneliness affects his health as he has ‘become sick’, identifying the chief impression we are left with as the loneliness of the protagonist. The house itself reflects the beast’s emotions as ‘December still possessed his garden’ with the connotation of death and no life mirroring his loneliness and dependence on beauty. However, there is a turning point in the story when Beauty returns to the beast to save him in guilt, the loneliness isn’t the chief impression we are left with as his loneliness is erased by her renewed love ‘If you’ll have me I’ll never leave you’. This has been interpreted by many as Carter mocking the man’s recovery from a near death experience. But the chief impression we are left with is optimistic for the future with the unification of me and women as equal half’s working together.
The most obvious portrayal of the loneliness of the protagonist I think is in ‘Wuthering Heights’ where Heathcliff’s loneliness regresses back to his childhood where he was neglected as told ‘Heathcliff you have nobody to love you’ since Cathy has left to live at Thrush Cross Grange, Mr Earnshaw had died leaving Hindley in charge over Heathcliff treating him as a mere ‘servant’. Further on in the novel with Catherine’s death Heathcliff becomes a very sad lonely character bitter of his loss left feeling ‘intolerable torture’ as he is so desperate to be with her he asks her ghost to ‘haunt’ him. His deep grounded revenge on any character associated with Catherine doesn’t even succeed his loneliness only worsening into madness.
The extreme depth of his loneliness is shown when he is willing to disturb her grave if he cannot see her living then he will see her dead corpse. He does this to be close to her and hopefully repress his loneliness yet it is only torture for him, as he ‘felt her by me- I could almost see her yet I could not’ like he was close to her but it is not enough, it is only her dead body at the end of the day not the true Catherine in living form. This clearly shows that the chief impression a gothic text leaves us with is the loneliness of the protagonist through the lengths he goes to not be lonely anymore. However, Heathcliff is only ever finally free from his grieving loneliness when he is close to death ‘last night I was on the threshold of hell, today I am in sight of my heaven’ which to him Catherine is his heaven and he is at ease, until finally he is united with her in death and is no longer alone.