Gaudy Night Literary Elements

Mystery Novel; Crime Fiction

Shrewsbury College, Oxford, a fictional college of hallowed Oxford University, England

The point of view is that of Harriet Vane, the protagonist.

Threatening and disturbing, as well as mysterious and intriguing.

Harriet Vane is the protagonist, and the as-yet-unidentified sender of the poison pen letters is the antagonist.

There is conflict within Harriet herself as she tries to untangle her ambivalent feelings about Wimsy.
There is conflict between Annie Wilson and the Shrewsbury College examiner who revealed her husband's academic fraud, although he does not actually know he is involved in a conflict.

Annie is revealed to be the sender of the letters and her motive for doing so is revealed as well.

Whilst she is staying briefly at Shrewsbury for the Gaudy dinner, Harriet receives a rather nasty poison pen letter, which foreshadows the letter writing spree that is about to occur.

The letters are said to be cruel and nasty but this is an understatement since they are enough to drive a young woman to want to try to take her own life, and they are also libelous in the case of the letter received by Harriet.

The author alludes to the traditions of Oxford University frequently, a notable example being the Gaudy dinner, which is an annual tradition based in an old lamentation about the shortness of life.

The imagery is rather gothic and foreboding, with the atmosphere mirroring the college's architecture as described in the novel.

Harriet is investigating poison pen letters ostensibly from the outside, but she has also received one of the first ones that were sent.

There is a parallel between the academic level and ambition of the women in the college and the likelihood of them receiving a poison pen letter.

The College is the name used for all of the faculty and students within it.

No specific examples.