Evil Characters in 3 Gothic Novels

This study will compare the role and significance of the evil male character in three Gothic novels, Matthew Lewis' The Monk, Ann Radcliffe's The Italian and Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto. The study will argue that these characters in the three novels are described in different ways, but the similarities among them predominate. In every case, the evil character is shown to be undesirable, and the message sent by the authors is that evil will be eventually punished. The evil male characters all serve the purpose of supporting the moral argument that good in some way will finally triumph.

At the same time, however, there is something contradictory at the heart of this moral use of the evil male character. All of these characters are intensely fascinating, at least as fascinating as the "good" characters, so that the reader finds himself or herself in the quandary of feeling more interested in the evil these characters create and represent than in the goodness which the novels mean to uphold.

The Gothic novel as represented in these three works portrays the struggle between good and evil, and in all cases good triumphs. In Radcliffe's novel, the evil monk Schedoni captures the reader's imagination and draws that reader into the psychology of evil. The message may be moral and may be bent in favor of goodness, but there are many examples of the authors' in all three books being sympathetic to the plights of their evil creations.

For example, Radcliffe first shows us S

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acts of destruction. Whereas we first see Schedoni in the throes of his tortured conscience as a result of the evil deeds which we will later discover, in Ambrosio's first appearance we find a man at the top of the world, at the top of his powers, and at a place which seems to be far above and beyond the temptation to evil and self-destruction. Also unlike Schedoni, Ambrosio does not seem to be evil by nature, but is slowly drawn into the darkness step-by-step. The horrible destruction which his actions bring to him and others is astounding to him, for he has made the tragic mistake of believing that he is beyond such temptation, such evil, and such destruction. The message in this respect is clear: none of us are immune to evil and its rotten fruits. Another major difference between Schedoni and Ambrosio is found in their motivations and the role those motivations play in their fall. Schedoni is openly and consciously aware that he is willing to do what he must do to bring to himself the power and wealth he seeks. His evil is of a more grand design than that of Ambrosio. Ambrosio, on the other hand, is tempted by sexuality, and he sees this matter as of relatively little significance in the scheme of the struggle between go

Category: Literature - E