A Novel Look at the Female Gothic

Abstract

The Female Gothic, as coined by Ellen Moer in her celebrated novel Literary Women, presents women's domestic roles through the supernatural to express the horrors of their docility. Narratives pertaining to this literary canon are frequently considered reflective of a woman's journey toward liberation. By analyzing current film and television narratives alongside a classic short story, this paper reveals a neglected aspect of the Female Gothic mode. The conversation centered on the characteristics of the Female Gothic, while fitting in its observations, disregards the medium that realizes such familiar themes as female entrapment and a suppressive male antagonist. Through fastidious analyses of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," along with Netflix's miniseries The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020) and Universal Picture's The Invisible Man (2020), this essay demonstrates how the act of looking effectuates women's doubts over domestic confinements.

            Key words: Female Gothic, act of looking