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

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135 sexuality, for the Count had been dead not even a full day when the incest occurred. The absence of the (male) ruler leads to disaster, and the rule of a woman, even over her own home, quickly has devastating results. It is a clear indictment of female agency and an implication that without the guiding hand of the patriarch, the family—and by logical extension the existing social order—quickly falls apart. The Countess, though genuinely pious and outwardly a paragon of virtue, is an example of the monstrous female who consumes her own offspring. She is deceptively dangerous because her role should be to produce and nurture new life, rather than destroy it. Because of her incestuous consumption of her son’s body the new life she produces stands outside of any socially acceptable variation of aristocratic lineage. And as she begets children of incest, so might her daughters do the same. Her children will be monstrous, as she is. Cohen notes that “the monster is dangerous, a form suspended between two forms, that threatens to smash distinctions” (274), and the blurring of boundaries is a thing feared for centuries. Many of Gower’s tales indicated concern about the distinction between man and beast; Malory’s Questing Beast, also a product of incest, is the product of “two things that were never intended by God to be mixed” (Hanks 196). The idea appears in The Duchess of Malfi, as Ferdinand is horrified by the thought of his sister marrying outside her social class, destroying the boundary between nobility and serving class. This too threatens to create something new and fearful— something monstrous. Nobility and commoner, in a hierarchy based on natural order, were never intended to be mixed, either. Incestuous plot designs such as Manfred’s pursuit of Isabella in The Castle of Otranto are frightening enough even if they are more
136 familiar. It is more usual for the tyrannical male to threaten boundaries, rather than the mother, supposed representative of virtue and of safety in the family. In doing so she both threatens patriarchal structure with sexual misbehavior and subverts the maternal role, too. Castle Narbonne is barren and ominous, symbolizing the absence of the mother because of her sin. The Countess has put the castle at tremendous risk, as it symbolizes both her body and her function. Castle as body and castle as symbol of social order are threatened by sudden, unpredictable storms of uncontrolled emotion. In many Gothic works the castle, seat of the family and symbol of patriarchal authority, is presented as decaying and vulnerable to natural (sometimes supernatural) depredations such as raging storms and deadly lightning. The walls crumble and the gates fail. Botting notes that “Gothic terrors activate a sense of the unknown and project an uncontrollable and overwhelming power which threatens not only the loss of sanity, honour, property, or social standing but the very order which supports and is regulated by the coherence of those terms” (77). In Otranto the castle is shaken when Manfred views the body of the daughter he killed and a clap of thunder shakes the land violently. The walls fall down, though the castle stands, and a supernatural appearance of the ghost of Alfonso, “dilated to an immense magnitude” (112), appears and intones “Behold in Theodore, the true heir of Alfonso!” (ibid.). It is as if a spell is broken, for Manfred regains his sanity, confesses his original usurpation of Otranto, abdicates, and retires to religious orders. In fact, it is the curse that Manfred sought so long to suppress that is lifted: “That the castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family whenever the real owner should be grown too large
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SUMMERS, KAREN CRADY, Ph.D. Reading
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READING INCEST: TYRANNY, SUBVERSION
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APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation has
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. R
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2 of it, despite its familiarity to
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4 about incest was influenced by th
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6 clarification. Pope Gregory II ad
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8 sibling, and mother-son. 2 She no
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10 is viewed by both. Incest in eig
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12 subverts both the social and the
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14 CHAPTER II ‘SWICHE UNKYNDE ABH
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16 a book to each of the seven dead
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18 Richard” (111). The dedication
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20 an idea familiar to Gower’s me
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22 laboring-folk and Piers, in retu
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24 introduction of Amans, the unsuc
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26 learns. Augustine takes up the i
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28 of the king, whose primary duty
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30 bribed two priests to convince P
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32 story of incest implied, averted
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34 Again, her response impassions h
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36 in the most extreme sense. When
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38 in the first book, and relates t
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40 benign, sympathetic interpretati
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42 and Machaire, and at the same ti
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44 To finish the turn in the narrat
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46 oghne prest” (V.1382-3). Geniu
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48 incestuous. When she vows to tel
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50 epilogue that acts as a prayer f
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52 Of wommen were absent as thanne;
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54 speak at length and discover the
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56 Biblical incest, mostly unjudged
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58 of a king and the function of la
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60 country. But the incest—the wo
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62 As chivalry is a controlling the
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64 conflicting demands of love and
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66 material for adaptation or trans
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68 four sons, Gawain, Gaheris, Agra
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70 can not be ameliorated, at least
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72 killed save Mordred, who was fou
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74 surrogate son-knights. Cherewatu
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76 Lo ye all Englysshemen, se ye ha
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78 demonstrated to all present on t
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80 corruption that plagues the Pend
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82 CHAPTER III ‘INCEST IS IN ME
Page 91 and 92: 84 wished to rid himself of Anne Bo
Page 93 and 94: 86 societal forces. The plays focus
Page 95 and 96: 88 in the family and on a national
Page 97 and 98: 90 reputation shifted such that vie
Page 99 and 100: 92 comes not from an instinctive ap
Page 101 and 102: 94 virtue, resists and is made whol
Page 103 and 104: 96 willingness to sacrifice the liv
Page 105 and 106: 98 Rejection of God and divine orde
Page 107 and 108: 100 is as an “ungodly sickness”
Page 109 and 110: 102 exercise her own agency. Though
Page 111 and 112: 104 potential problem of having a f
Page 113 and 114: 106 The plots of these three plays
Page 115 and 116: 108 play, the Duchess will have bee
Page 117 and 118: 110 As we have seen, the Duchess us
Page 119 and 120: 112 BOSOLA. It seems you would crea
Page 121 and 122: 114 But as Ferdinand’s outrages i
Page 123 and 124: 116 knife as phallus. Eros (Cupid)
Page 125 and 126: 118 posed by his slide into unreaso
Page 127 and 128: 120 and, as Kenneth Graham notes, i
Page 129 and 130: 122 Castle of Otranto displays the
Page 131 and 132: 124 Theodore is killed a group of k
Page 133 and 134: 126 memory, and regard your highnes
Page 135 and 136: 128 first Gothic playwright, publis
Page 137 and 138: 130 the castle is there primarily t
Page 139 and 140: 132 strength, and the men enter the
Page 141: 134 God bless me; and pass’d on.
Page 145 and 146: 138 sensation of horror in the audi
Page 147 and 148: 140 foil to the Countess, with her
Page 149 and 150: 142 And when he knelt, weeping, to
Page 151 and 152: 144 Castle of Otranto, the knife is
Page 153 and 154: 146 and political realities during
Page 155 and 156: 149 destruction and disaster. One o
Page 157 and 158: 151 subvert both patriarchy and mon
Page 159 and 160: 153 BIBLIOGRAPHY Aers, David,ed. Me
Page 161 and 162: 155 Classen, Albrecht, ed. Violence
Page 163 and 164: 157 Ford, Jane M. Patriarchy and In
Page 165 and 166: 159 Lenz, Joseph. The Promised End:
Page 167 and 168: 161 Riddy, Felicity. Sir Thomas Mal
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