University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Spring 1977 FEARFUL QUESTIONS, FEARFUL ANSWERS: THE INTELLECTUAL FUNCTIONS OF GOTHIC FICTION PAUL LEWIS Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation LEWIS, PAUL, "FEARFUL QUESTIONS, FEARFUL ANSWERS: THE INTELLECTUAL FUNCTIONS OF GOTHIC FICTION" (1977). Doctoral Dissertations. 1160. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/1160 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. 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University Microfilms International 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 USA St. John’s Road, Tyler's Green High Wycombe, Bucks, England HP10 8HR Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 77-23,646 LEWIS, Paul, 1949- FEARFUL QUESTIONS, FEARFUL ANSWERS: THE INTELLECTUAL FUNCTIONS OF GOTHIC FICTION. University of New Hampshire, Ph.D., 1977 Literature, American Xerox University ftfiicrofiims, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 @ 1977 PAUL LEWIS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. FEARFUL QUESTIONS, FEARFUL ANSWERS: THE INTELLECTUAL FUNCTIONS OF GOTHIC FICTION by PAUL LEWIS M. A., University of Manitoba, 1971 Submitted to the University of New Hampshire In Partial Fulfillment of The Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May, 1977 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This thesis has been examined and approved. Tfiesis^irector, Gary H. -fesadberg, Asso. Prof. of English (J^^r s/. Philip L.//Nicoloff, Pr&feJ of English I Earl F. Briden, Asst. Prof. of English Charles E. Clark, Prof. of History J, <>- ______ Eugen^r S. Mills, President and Prof. of Psychology A. MU Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the people and institutions that have sup­ ported my academic work. Wendy Lewis, Mary Lewis, Irving Seligman, and Edythe Seligman have provided me with emo­ tional and financial support. Mr. Hoffman and Dr. Gordon of The Bronx High School of Science and Prof. Robert K. Morris of The City College of New York encouraged me at early stages of my academic life. I would like to thank The University of New Hampshire for five years of financial assistance, including three summer fellowships and a dis­ sertation year fellowship. I owe an immense debt to the members of The University of New Hampshire Department of English for their advice, instruction, and guidance over the last five years. I should mention, in particular, Professors Briden, Carnicelli, DePorte, Fisher, Nicoloff, and Murray who have been generous with their time and knowl­ edge. Finally, I would like to thank Gary H. Lindberg for the critical and editorial acuity that he brought to the work of directing this study. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................ vi I. INTRODUCTION .................................... 1 Theme and Plot in Gothic Fiction ............ 8 Narrative Forms of Gothic Fiction ........... 14 Narrative Voice in Gothic Fiction ........... 20 II. THE ENGLISH GOTHIC NOVEL: WALPOLE, REEVE, RADCLIFFE, AND LEWIS ........................... 25 Didactic Sources of the Gothic Movement ..... 25 The Castle of Otranto ........................ 33 The Old English Baron ........................ 42 Radcliffe and Lewis: Explanations of the Supernatural ........................... 51 III. THE ENGLISH GOTHIC NOVEL: WILLIAM GODWIN, CHARLES R. MATURIN, AND JAMES H O G G ............ 74 Godwin and Got h i c i s m ......................... 74 Charles R. Maturin's Gothic Calvinism ...... 87 James Hogg’s Justified Sinner: The Devil Within and the Devil W i t h o u t .............. 102 IV. THE PURSUIT OF CERTAINTY: CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN AND THE AMERICAN GOTHIC TRADITION ...... 116 False Deductions and Unsatisfactory Explanations ............................... 116 Brockden Brown and the Gothic: The Critical V i e w .............................. 118 Wieland or the Transformation of the Gothic . 125 Edgar Huntly and the Journey Out of Knowledge .................................. 146 Brown and the American Speculative Gothic T r adition...................... 159 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. V. RIDDLES OF THE SPHINX: EDGAR ALLAN POE AND THE AMERICAN GOTHIC TRADITION............. 164 Irony, Ambiguity, and Speculation in the Gothic Tales ........................... 164 The Fall of Reason in the House of Usher .... 170 A Question Not Yet Settled in "Ligeia" ....... 179 Natural Causes and Phantasms in "The Black Cat" ............................ 189 Poe's Humor and Unity of Effect in the Gothic Tales ............................... 195 Riddles of the Sphinx: Poe's Commitment to Continuing Speculation ................. 203 VI. MOURNFUL MYSTERIES: NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, HERMAN MELVILLE, AND THE AMERICAN GOTHIC TRADITION ....................................... 208 Hawthorne's Use of the Two Gothic Modes in the Short F i c t i o n ....................... 211 The Scarlet Letter and the Use of Mystery Tn Hawthorne's Completed Romances .......... 225 Neither Belief Nor Unbelief: Melville's Use of the Gothic .......................... 243 VII. CONCLUSION ............................. 269 Emerging From Delusion as a Pattern in Gothic Fiction .......................... 269 FOOTNOTES ............................................. 282 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................... 305 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT FEARFUL QUESTIONS, FEARFUL ANSWERS: THE INTELLECTUAL FUNCTIONS OF GOTHIC FICTION by PAUL LEWIS The work of eleven British and American writers is examined in an effort to determine the thematic and formal characteristics of Gothic fiction. In refuting two mis­ taken views of the Gothic (that is, that all Gothic fiction is intellectually shallow, and that Gothic fiction was from the start Romantic and subjective), this study traces a development from the largely didactic fiction of the British writers to the speculative intensity of the American Gothic Tradition. The history of Gothic fiction has been described by Summers and Varma, its psychological appeal by Fiedler, its expression of a paradoxical, subjective, and Romantic vision of life by Nelson, Hume, Mandel, Kiely, and Dawson. This study responds to the call by Benton and others for a vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. discussion not of the philosophic content but of- the intellectual functions of the Gothic. In an effort to avoid value-laden terms like high and low Gothic, Chapter I distinguishes between didactic and speculative Gothicism, a distinction based on the way ideas are used. Starting with the accepted association of mystery with Gothicism, Chapter II shows how some writers (Walpole, Reeve, Radcliffe, and Lewis) use the resolution of mystery to advance theses and inculcate virtue, Chapters IV,