Abstract
Gothic short fiction of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in England was immensely popular with readers of all social classes and incomes. This study examines the varying models of paternity in this short fiction, and addresses what those types of paternity (biological, adoptive, and Catholic) suggest about English social, political, and religious structures of the Romantic era. Biological paternity in these tales is a precursor to Victorian ideas of masculine degeneration, a warning to fathers who might be considering neglect of their natural duties of care and love in favor of “social monstrosity.” There are no positive biological fathers in these texts, and all the fathers who behave improperly are punished by death or solitude. Fathers are encouraged to hold to the accepted, traditional English structure of masculinity and paternity that called for care of one’s family through hard work and honesty. Adoptive paternity appears in a different way; because the very idea of adoption threatened the English patriarchal system of the late 1700s, adoption was stigmatized and was outside the law when these stories were written. The effects of this status in gothic short fiction are highly indicative of English national attitudes, solidifying the notion that adoption was a hazardous undertaking in almost all situations (both for the parents and children). Finally, Catholic paternity emphasizes the ideal of “England” in comparison to other European countries, specifically France, toward which the English were notably hostile and suspicious. When Catholics of all kinds appear in gothic short stories, they are objects of fear, scorn, and distrust, even if they perform a handful of good deeds. Thus, the paternal influence of Catholic priests is portrayed as a system of cruelty and greed.
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