Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Jana Mártonová The Gothic in Some Rendell Novels and its Protagonists Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: PhDr. Lidia Kyzlinková, CSc., M.Litt. 2014 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author‟s signature I would like to thank my supervisor, PhDr. Lidia Kyzlinková, CSc., M.Litt., for her valuable advice, patience and constant support. Thank you for all the help you gave me. I would also like to thank my family, Michal, Libor and Emina, for their infinite love and support they have provided me with. Thank you for being such beautiful people. Table of Contents 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................. 5 2. Background to Ruth Rendell ....................................................................................... 7 2.1 Life and Work ................................................................................................................... 7 2.2 On the Genre of Crime Fiction ...................................................................................... 11 2.3 Defining the Gothic ......................................................................................................... 21 3. Gothic elements in selected novels by Ruth Rendell ................................................. 25 3.1 Hero Figures .................................................................................................................... 30 3.2 Anti-heroes ...................................................................................................................... 35 3.3 Damsel in distress ........................................................................................................... 40 3.4 Villain ............................................................................................................................... 45 3.5 Modern horrors .............................................................................................................. 50 3.6 Mental disorder ............................................................................................................... 56 3.7 Dark Side / Hidden Reality ............................................................................................ 62 3.8 The forbidden, crime and death .................................................................................... 66 3.9 Decay ................................................................................................................................ 72 3.10 Plotting ........................................................................................................................... 73 3.11 Emotions and elements of love ..................................................................................... 77 3.12 Punishment and liberation ........................................................................................... 79 3.13 Setting and atmosphere ................................................................................................ 82 4. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 86 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 98 Resumé ........................................................................................................................... 99 Works Cited .................................................................................................................. 100 Appendix ....................................................................................................................... 103 1. Introduction Ruth Rendell (born 1930), a British crime novelist, became popular through her detective stories in which she combines controversial social issues of contemporary society with a deep insight into human psyche, associating some Gothic aspects both with the society and individual characters. This thesis aims to present these elements which appear in Rendell‟s writings selected and defend their Gothic nature by analyzing them against classical interpretation of Gothic elements and in contemporary socio- cultural context. The thesis suggests that the elements explored in Rendell‟s novels carry the same essence of the Gothic as those present in the eighteenth- and nineteenth- centuries Gothic novels, yet their meaning shifts accordingly to the present time and its requirements. The second chapter is divided into three sub-chapters, which together provide a background to the topic analysed. The first sub-chapter is devoted to Ruth Rendell. It offers background information to Rendell‟s life and outlines an overview of her work, including the topics processed and attitudes taken. As Rendell is referred to as one of the Queens of Crime, the second sub-chapter also briefly maps the history and development of the crime novel genre. It discusses various forms the detective figures had taken and mentions tendencies in the genre in relation to particular historical periods. It introduces essential crime writers and their work and places Rendell within the context of crime writing. Finally, the third sub-chapter aims to explain, clarify and define meaning of the word Gothic, in relation to the importance of this term throughout the thesis. The third chapter then focuses on Gothic elements in Rendell‟s novels. It supplies a list of selected elements which are found in both classical Gothic and Rendell crime novels and analyzes their contemporary form and content. Each of the thirteen 5 individual subchapters, providing the analyses of individual Gothic elements in selected novels by Rendell, covers all of the novels discussed, proving their affiliation to the Gothic against specific examples from the primary texts. In the conclusion then I emphasize the most significant findings in the novels analyzed and highlight the points I arrived at during the discussion. The four crime novels were chosen in order to cover various periods of Rendell‟s writings, to include both Wexford and non-Wexford series novels and to look at social issues from different perspectives. The Secret House of Death (1968) is among the first novels Rendell has ever written. The central topic of this piece are secret love affairs and adultery, which appears in three distinct forms – accusation of adultery which people gossip about, experienced adultery as the main cause of a divorce, and secret adultery leading to murder plotting. Going Wrong (1990) presents a thorough study of an individual. The main character, Guy, suffers from obsessive passion for his teenage love, which withdraws him form the mundane life. Going Wrong offers almost exclusively only Guy‟s interpretation of the story, with several inputs by Leonora and her family. Harm Done (1999) is the first of two Wexford series novels discussed in the thesis. It concentrates on the perception of crime and criminals and offers an alternative to the classical concept of nature of crime. It presents a variety of reasons for committing an illegal activity, reaching from a fatal illness, through a desperate desire to become a mother, to being a victim of domestic violence. It further directs attention to mob hysteria resulting from fear. End in tears (2005), the last of the novels examined and also the second of the Wexford series novels included, focuses on surrogate motherhood and its perception within the family. It considers multiple aspects of the matter. The first of the standpoints is of prospective teenage surrogate mothers perceived entirely as business only. Further, the novel presents beliefs and feelings of a 6 pregnant woman and infertile women who see surrogacy as their last chance to have their „own‟ child offer another perspective. 2. Background to Ruth Rendell 2.1 Life and Work Ruth Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, Barbara Vine. Three names, three alter-egos, many talents and writing streams incorporated in one body. Rendell resonates with keywords including for instance English crime writer, social thriller, modern Gothic, politics, feminism, mundane life, or eco-activism. One of the so called Queen of Crime was born on 17 February 1930 to a family of two teachers residing in London, Ebba Kruse, who originally came from Sweden and spend most of her infant years in Denmark, and Artur Grasemann, an Englishman. Characters by Rendell often invoke the notion of exclusion. Brooks develops a connection between this fact and Rendell‟s childhood, claiming that a sense of being on the outside coloured her upbringing, due to her mother‟s Scandinavian origin and lack of acceptance by the British. Ruth Barbara Grasemann, which was her maiden name, received high school education in Loughton, Essex. Based on what Brooks claims, Rendell‟s passion for writing was obvious since her youth. She wrote her first stories at the age of fifteen, and soon after her studies in Loughton she started her career in small London newspapers, the Chigwell Times. Journalism, however, had not allowed her to 7 work with information in the manner she would prefer – Rendell‟s devotion was to create. Rendell stopped working for the Chigwell Times in 1952, before she gave birth to her son, Simon. Also Rendell‟s husband and father to her son came from a writing