Even though I don’t think of myself as well versed in the Gothic tradition, I definitely recognized common Gothic motifs throughout Radcliffe’s The Romance of the Forest: the beautiful young heroine, the dark, looming forest, the exotic locale, the mysterious Abbey, the kidnapping, the incestuous relationships. I also see strong Romantic qualities in the novel, especially in relation to Radcliffe’s treatment of awe-inspiring nature and its relationship with art. What I found interesting is the relationship between exteriors and interiors, the rational and supernatural, and order and chaos.
From the opening scenes of The Romance of the Forest, I was struck by the idea of exteriors and interiors. La Motte seeks refuge and safety for his family in a “small and ancient house” (3). However, the interior of the house does not provide the protection that La Motte hopes for, but rather holds more danger than he could have possibly imagined. While the interior of the house may shelter one from a storm, it is far removed from a safe haven. It is so dark that La Motte can barely make out the sparse room or the threatening figures and there are iron bars on the window to trap one within the house.
The interior of the Abbey is another interesting exterior/interior space. Radcliffe is a little heavy handed with the description of the Abbey as she describes La Motte’s reaction: “La Motte sighed. The comparison between himself and the gradation of decay, which these columns exhibited, was but too obvious and affecting. ‘A few years,’ said he, ‘and I shall become like the mortals on whose reliques I now gaze, and, like them too, I may be the subject of meditation to a succeeding generation, which shall totter but a little while over the object they contemplate, ere they also sink into the dust’” (16). We get it, Radcliffe.
During Vinny’s presentation on Armstrong’s How Novels Think, I asked if she mentions the French Revolution. I am also taking Professor Scrivener’s course “Reading the 1790’s” and we have been looking at the French Revolution’s influence on British writers and thinkers to the point where I cannot disassociate France’s political upheaval from any British literature of the time.
The Romance of the Forest, perhaps like other texts of Gothic fiction, presents a twisted and chaotic plot line filled with violent scenes. I have to believe that the violence and basic failure of the French Revolution is acted out in fiction of the 1790’s, including The Romance of the Forest, especially in the disruption of family relations. Social stability and personal safety are all threatened through the course of the novel only to be extinguished at the end by reaffirming through the final reveals proper social order and traditional morality. Through the text, the British citizen would be able to act out the anxieties and disruptions of the French Revolution, while still affirming the political status quo by the reestablishing of family and marriage. Through the understanding of Adeline’s family tree, her social status, and her marriage, any anxieties that were expressed and experienced are put to rest.
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Your discussion of the French Revolution is definitely another aspect of impact to consider. I had only been thinking of French influence because of the romances during the seventeenth century. Also, I occasionally did some backwards thinking from French theorists from the twentieth century, but it never really amounted to anything. I am not knowledgeable in French history but it sounds like you are on to something.
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