It is interesting that many writers who came to prominence during the Enlightenment were women, and their works are very different yet very realistic in how they capture society in the 17th-18th Centuries. Ellen Moer’s introduction of “Female Gothic” work to adjust the understanding and value of particular texts, and it helps re-humanize the characters, etc.
Anne Radcliffe suggests that propriety is beyond the rules of behaviour. There is a clear distinction of rules and inner morality/self-worth. For example, in The Mysteries of Udolpho, she puts her female protagonist in a variety of troubling situations, but she manages to come through with her moral values intact. Radcliffe also shows a rather harsh view of religion. Emily and her father are fascinated by religious symbols, but they display few signs of religious devotion (the Church in the field). They may not be particularly attuned to nature, but it could be a Protestant notion of Catholic symbols and representations as idolatry.
Interesting, Jane Austen did not have a fond view of the Female Gothic style and of her female contemporaries. Regarded as one of the greatest writers, social critics, and humorists, Austen focused on themes of religion, family, morality, and the sense of self. These themes are most evident in her novels Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. She dismissed Udolpho as being ridiculous, and she stated that the Female Gothic was “formulaic”, “poorly-written”, and “pure fodder.” In Pride and Prejudice, the main themes are pride and prejudice, how they affect society, women in society, and the inequalities between females and males.
It opens up the reader to have an emotional response, which is also an intellectual response. Radcliffe has Emily go from one place to another during the course of the narrative. The religion and gender aspects of the novel come together in a notion of propriety and superstition, and it is all resolved by the end of the novel. Parodic and serious Gothic themes are very different. In Udolpho, we have the father element playing in after he dies when Emily is left remembering the things he taught her. While looking at a firefly, he gets irritated with her. The emotional response to things of the 18th Century was that it was through emotions and empathy that people are good. Through feeling their pain, you can’t be bad.
