Victorian Gothic as Resistance in “The Canterville Ghost”, “To Let”, and “Canon Alberic’s Scrap-book” Anonymous College

Gothic fiction as it existed in the Victorian literary scene up to the 1900s was a part of and a reaction to the overwhelming speed at which modernity was taking hold of England leading up to the Industrial revolution. The gothic genre was a way of contesting and dealing with some of these modernizing elements and establish a mode of thought that would both subvert and sublimate existing traditions in an effort to challenge the status quo. The Victorian gothic was popular for reasons aside from pleasure because it challenged the reader to contemplate issues outside of what was in vogue which was focused on science and technological advancements. Oscar Wilde’s “The Canterville Ghost”, Bithia Mary Croker’s “To Let” and Montague Rhodes James’ “Canon Alberic’s Scrap-book” are three works of Victorian fiction that negotiate with the gothic genre and mobilize the supernatural as a medium of critiquing social customs and the political and religious climate of Britain in the 1800s.

As the term gothic situates the reader within the modes of fiction storytelling largely based around fear of the unknown, the gothic tradition emits an untraditional response for the reader in the narrative they consume. James Keech in “The Survival of the...