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Gothic Horrir in Tne Moonstone

The Gothic elements


The Moonstone can be claimed to be an integral part of the Gothic tradition that is instigated by Horace Walpole (1717-1797). What foregrounds this assumption is the element of horror. Horror, as Fred Botting puts it, "freezes human faculties, rendering the mind passive and immobilizing the body. The cause is generally a direct encounter with physical mortality, the touching of cold corpse, the sight of a decaying body". (75). Horror then presents the dead end that rationality can't go beyond. It strips the mind from its balance till it becomes stupefied. Under this context, Wilkie Collins is immersed in the Gothic horror to the top.
A manifestation of the element of horror in The Moonstone is stipulated through reference to blood. In the Prologue, John Herncastle is depicted with a torch in one hand and a dagger dripping with blood in the other (5). This incident is reminiscent of Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764), when "three drops of blood fell from the nose of Alfonso's statue" (85). The blood coming out of the statue occurrs when "Frederic accepts Matilda's hand" (85) and in return Manfred marries Isabella (84). This implies that something wrong is going on, so, Frederic withdraws from that agreement, but Manfred remains consistent and refuses to yield to the Divine message, that of his blood will "never mix" with that of Alfonso (85). Manfred is blinded by his lust for power the way he challenges the divine will. The analogy with The Moonstone will shows that John Herncastle has gone beyond the limits allotted to him by his mission. The torch symbolizes light and enlightenment; while the blood dripping from the dagger suggests that there is something wrong with that civilizing mission. There is a manifestation of the idea of human greed which is torn with excess till it becomes madness. The horror will arise from that dark space in the human psyche into which lurks the real horrid face of civilizing missions (=colonialism).




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