SUMMERS, KAREN CRADY, Ph.D. Reading Incest - The University ...

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instability, brought on by his fear of losing control of his family and thus his power. All
of these male perpetrators have lost their reason and gone mad because of their reactions
to their daughters’ sexuality. David B. Morris’s essay on “Gothic Sublimity” argues that
the murder of Matilda is an act of “Gothic repetition” supporting the significance of the
sins of the father as perpetuating through generations: “Matilda and Isabella—despite
their opposite temperaments—are doubles or mirror images, and Manfred’s pursuit of
Isabella is not simply an expression of unrequited desire but the reenactment of an
ancient pattern” (305) of inappropriate, unkynde love.
Unkynde love is taken to an extreme in The Mysterious Mother. Gower’s
Genius may well understand the Countess’s desire for her son, the image of her dead
husband. It is a case of a natural attraction, one unregulated by societal rules and
customs. But such incestuous desire enacted will halt all family building and by analogy,
nation-building. Structures such as political organizations and family castles will cease
to function. Here, the castle represents the fortress of the mind—a stronghold in which
secrets can be kept and guarded—and thus symbolizes the state of mind of the Duchess.
As the play opens, the castle is in the background, and it is clear that something
is amiss:
Florian (on his approach to the castle):
What awful silence! How these antique towers
And vacant courts dull the suspended soul
Til expectation wears the cast of fear
. . .
I met a peasant, and inquir’d my way:
The carle, not rude of speech, but like the tenant
Of some night-haunted ruin, bore an aspect
Of horror, worn to habitude. He bade