The Many Forms Of Horror And Terror

THE MANY FORMS OF FEAR, HORROR AND TERROR Commentary and Analysis of Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho and Lewis' The Monk

"Terror and horror are so far opposite...the first expands the soul, and awakens the faculties to a high degree of life; the other contracts, freezes and nearly annihilates them ...; where lies the great difference between terror and horror, but in the uncertainty and obscurityy, that accompany the first, respecting the dreaded evil?" (McKillop in Varma, 103)

Despite literature commonly referred to as being part of the "Gothic" being united in terms of thematic and stylistic features, the intended responses of the audience differ greatly; the divide perhaps most obviously falling between the techniques and aims of the 'Female Gothic' and those of the 'Masculine Gothic'. Coined by Ellen Moers, the 'Female Gothic' is often described as a genre by women for women. Its focus often tends towards the emotional complexity of reactions; an exploration of excessive feeling, and the powers of imitation and suggestion in the construction of fear and terror. Ann Radcliffe has at length been synonymous with the 'Female Gothic' and in turn the 'Female Gothic' is, more often than not, synonymous with the concept of terror. Radcliffe has been depicted as being "devoted to exploring and adjudicating the proportions of emotional response" (Pinch, 111) and is consistently "lavish in her attentions to feelings that can barely be named" (Pinch, 116). Her minuteness of emotional descri ptions is particularly evident in her most popular novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho. Radcliffe's female protagonist, Emily, is the ultimate emotional amphitheatre; she constantly falls victim to, often unnecessary, fits of passion and acts of fainting. It is important to note however that "far from being an advocate of sensibility" (Smith, 577), Radcliffe endeavours to highlight its weaknesses and failings from the very beginning when St. Aubert warns Emily that "Those, who really possess sensibility, ought early to be taught, that it is a dangerous quality" (Radcliffe, Udolpho, 78). Throughout it is Emily's sensibility that allows her to be overcome by terror. The distinction between terror and horror is a commonly discussed literary topic and yet the conflicting definitions appear to speak for themselves. In essence, terror is the emotion felt in anticipation of something horrific; the trepidation, the dread, before the actual realisation - "terror is an affair of the mind" (Miles,41). Horror is the realisation itself; the terrible event, the grotesque spectacle. According to Devendra Varma "the difference between Terror and Horror is the difference between awful apprehension and sickening realization: between the smell of death and stumbling against a corpse" (Varma). In other words, terror denotes a feeling of apprehension and anxiety while horror signifies shock and revulsion, with terror as a result often preceding horror. Suspense then becomes an integral tool in the literature of terror in particular; if terror is derived from the apprehension of a horrific realisation then prolonged narrative and the concealment of the object to be feared is essential to the reader's experience. In Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho, the 'supernatural' or the object of fear is in all circumstances explained away. Although this is often criticised for being a "fatal narrative flaw" (Miles, 49) as it appears to cheat the reader out of any personal curiosity, perhaps more positively it does succeed in transferring the focus from supernatural horror to the terrifying imaginings of the characters. Emily's imagination is the foundation for almost all of Radcliffe's 'terrible' happenings in the novel. Her spirits had been much affected by the surrounding scene...this terror increased, and, too faint to support herself, she sat down on the side of the bed. (Radcliffe, Udolpho,504) In this short passage alone, it is evident that suspense and imagination are the fundamental aspects by which this scene becomes terrifying; suspense is used "in a way that consciously aligns the reader`s experience with the heroine`s inescapable, equivocal anxiety" (Rusett, 159). The generous use of commas throughout the passage create a fragmented syntax which correlates to the state of Emily's "affected" spirits, in addition to slowing the reading aloud of the narrative, building suspense and anticipation (Radcliffe, Udolpho, 504). Whether the incident be "real or imaginary" is essentially irrelevant, the focus is upon Emily's reaction to what she believes to have seen (Radcliffe, Udolpho, 504). This reaction being ultimately of stereotypical female hysteria; her manner changes rapidly from an attempt at composure to faintness to both females "screaming with terror" (Radcliffe, Udolpho, 504) and fleeing the chamber. The choice of language reinforces the supernatural allusion of the text - "phantom", "unwholesome"- and the repetition of "terror" stresses the intended reaction, as though mere repetition of the word will compel the reader to experience it. The real terror of Radcliffe's Udolpho is completely separate from the supernatural elements which she alludes to and is instead the terrible capabilities of man, though it does not go so far as to depict such extremities as demonstrated in The Monk. The terror and suspense intended to be experienced by the reader, is a result of Radcliffe veiling the potential object of fear from direct view; of allowing Emily's imagination to create terrible wonders, which more often than not are simply explained away - "'Time' she added, 'may explain this mysterious affair; meanwhile let us watch the event in silence.'" (Radcliffe, Udolpho, 506). Radcliffe's novel plays upon Freud's concept of the uncanny, things which were intended for concealment are, eventually, revealed. The unknown; the veiling of the true nature of events is what constitutes Udolpho as a terror novel. If Radcliffe was seen as synonymous with the 'Female Gothic', then Matthew Lewis rapidly came to epitomise the 'Masculine Gothic'. Teeming with extensive scenes of violence, rape, blasphemy and supernatural horrors of witchcraft and rituals, Lewis' The Monk also exploits the act of veiling and disguise but unlike Radcliffe, it is not in terms of narrative descri ption but instead a feat attempted by the characters, most obviously the Monk himself. Suspense is built not by the suggestion of what could happen but by the anticipated inevitability of what will happen. Lewis' detailed descri ptions of the intensely carnal, blasphemous representations of religion and almost pornographic depictions of sexual transgression strongly establish Lewis as the embodiment of the 'Masculine Gothic'. She drew a circle round him, another round herself...He particularly observed three human fingers, and an Agnus Dei which She broke in pieces. (Lewis, 275-6)

This short extract encapsulates Lewis' technique almost perfectly. The nature of the scene alone is Gothic in its own right, witchcraft is often a terror inducing concept, but the language and imagery in this passage operates on an entirely different level. The choice of language is almost pointedly horrific; words and phrases such as "phial", "pale sulphurous flame", "trembling", "extreme chilliness", "incantations" and the haunting "three human fingers" all function in order to create a chilling atmosphere. The cold, "sulphurous flame" which swathes the chamber is reminiscent of traditional ideas of hell as well as the fiery tombs and icy caverns of Dante's Inferno, making the "instant" consumption even more prevalent on a metaphorical level in relation to Ambrosio. Unlike Radcliffe, no details are left unexamined; the horrific nature of each action, each object is vividly related to the reader. This scene continues by describing the "loud and piercing shriek" of Matilda, the grotesque fit and self harm, the rising of "a volume of dark clouds...a clap of thunder" and the "cold shivering" of Ambrosio's anticipation. The language and imagery seem to be verging almost upon typically Gothic until the controversial depiction of the devil.

At the same time the cloud dispersed, and He beheld a Figure more beautiful than Fancy`s pencil ever drew... inspiring the Spectators with secret awe. (Lewis, 276-7)

The depiction of the devil is certainly a controversial one, with the descri ption of the devil's beauty evoking outrage in many of its contemporaries. The descri ption also functions cleverly on the level of the sublime; while Radcliffe clearly states her transcendent surrounding to be sublime, Lewis expertly suggests it through the descri ption of one who is both awfully beautiful and tremendously dangerous. It also links back to the concern of the early male Gothic writers which was the "politics of identity" (Miles, 45). The language seems to suggest something feminine- "beautiful", "silken locks", "form shone with dazzling glory", "surrounded by clouds of rose-coloured light", "perfumes" - blurring the boundaries between normative gender roles. While Radcliffe casts a backwards glance towards the novel of sensibility and is particularly proficient in terms of romanticism, poetic realism and the supernatural explained, Lewis' gaze is directed towards "Sadean sensationalism" (Miles, 41), atheism and scenes of the shocking, carnal and horrific. One aimed to gently panic and alarm, the other to repulse and traumatize; Radcliffe encapsulates the sinister suggestiveness of terror, Lewis the endless canverns of fascinating, sickening horror. They contrast each other upon so many aspects that it is often difficult to see that one drew inspiration from the other. Radcliffe's gentle approach to terror, her complex and often drawn out plot structure, the underlining issue of the contemporary struggle for political and sexual rights and her unrelenting fascination with sublime surroundings - her "heroines are happiest, not when they marry, but when they are left alone in a sylvan setting" (Miles 46) - appear to influence almost nothing in Lewis' writing. Lewis' text, strongly influenced by German horror tales (Stock, 301), consists of satisfyingly developed characterisation, a frank exploration of horror, controversial depictions of religious and sexual repression, and ,in contrast to Radcliffe's absorption in "the struggle for sexual and political rights"(Miles, 45), Lewis aims instead to completely "disrupt the legitimacy of normative gender patterns" (Miles, 45) through particularly the character of Matilda who's gender is an unanswerable question. The two novelists, both brilliant in their respective fields, represent two opposing threads of the broader genre of the "Gothic" and as an obvious result approach the genre in drastically different ways.

Bibliography

Fitzgerald, Lauren. "Female Gothic and the Institutionalization of Gothic Studies" Gothic Studies. Volume 6. No.1 (May 2004): 8-18 Miles, Robert. A Companion to the Gothic. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000. Moers, Ellen. Literary Women: The Great Writers. New York: Doubleday, 1976. Norton, Rictor. Gothic Readings: The First Wave, 1764-1840. Unknown: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd., 2000. Pinch, adela. Strange Fits of Passion: Epistemologies of Emotion, Hume to Austen. California: Stanford University Press, 1996. p111-136. Radcliffe, Ann. "On the Supernatural in Poetry," The New Monthly Magazine. Volume 16. No.1 (1826): 145-152. Exert available at: http://www.litgothic.com/Texts/radcliffe_sup.pdf Radcliffe, Ann. The Mysteries of Udolpho. London: Penguin Group, 1794. Russett, Margaret. "Narrative as Enchantment in "The Mysteries of Udolpho"" ELH. Vol. 65. No. 1 (Spring, 1998): p159-186 Smith, Nelson C. "Sense, Sensibility and Ann Radcliffe" Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. Vol. 13. No. 4 (Autumn, 1973): p577-590. Stock, R. D. The Holy and the Daemonic from Sir Thomas Browne to William Blake. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1982. Varma, Devendra. The Gothic Flame. New York: Russell and Russell, 1966.