Homosexuality and Gothic Fiction in the Victorian Era

Since you requested more video essays, here's another one! In this video, I discuss two of my favourite novels: The Picture of Dorian Gray and Carmilla. I also talk about how Victorian society repressed sexuality, how 19th-century regulations and beliefs affected homosexuals, and how authors used Gothic fiction to criticize society. Please keep in mind that Victorians tended to fetishize or despise everyone they considered 'exotic,' so this video might contain upsetting subjects. There will be a second part of this video that will focus on contemporary representations of homosexuality in the Gothic and how authors are trying to subvert some of the problematic tropes.

Books mentioned in this video:

-Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
-Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla
-Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray

Sources:

-Antonio Sanna, Silent Homosexuality in Oscar Wilde's Teleny and The Picture of Dorian Gray and Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,

-Christopher Hibbert, The English: A Social History 1066-1945, Paladin, 1987.

[isabella]

This was such a cool deep dive into my favorite genre!

[moontoosoon]

I love literature and history and am queer so I'm always trying to learn more about the queer sides to these topics. great video!

[AETorrePuerto]

I don't think that goes for all the mentioned cases. Most times we don't know it's an intended allegory or just a similitude.

Modern critics coming from a gender studies angle, lean heavily on reframing everything as contemporary issues as LGBT rights or fight against a perceived patriarchy... But most times it's just not there.

A monster could be an allegory of homosexuality... Or disability, promiscuity, mental problems, deformity, incest, sexual disease and a number of things that renders one an outcast. They are about our fears of being shunned.

Carmilla I think is an intended allegory... But about as flattering as Fu Manchu could be to Asian people. Carmilla is a beast; a predator. She is thinking in terms of feeding herself, which is not nice. She doesn't have redeeming traits, all the positive aspects are either ways to lure and use her food source or thinks the later projects on her. So, the allegory would be comparing a lesbian to a psychopathic, parasitic predator. Not nice at all, and it comes from a very conservative Sheridan Le Fanu. Not liberal at all. Laura on the other hand, could be seen as a literal bicurious to some degree. At least in that Carmilla tapped into something that create a certain attraction. But Laura is unaware of what it is an highly unlikely to have the conceptual tools to even think about lesbian sex. It is a cautionarily tale.

BTW, Laura does die at some point, but nothing indicates it's soon after the ending. For all we know, she could have died of old age.

There's not particular anti-patriarchy narrative in any novel I've read so far. You have a ton of matriarch villains (Madame Cheron, Catherine, Miss Jessel) and empowering patriarchs (van Helsing, ST. Aubert) writen by female authors. In Frankenstein there is a ton of grooming portrayed as a positive thing. I don't mean to satanize it when it happens for organic reasons, but in that case it felt almost assigned and unquestioned. Dracula is a bit progressive, in that Mina is the actual hero, and the second the well meaning gentlemen cut her from the team for her security is when she gets bitten. Same thing with Jewel of the Seven Stars.

Keep in mind that in the XIX century, aristocracy and inherited wealth meant power for women while early democracy was a setback. Medieval Europe had better civil rights for women than classic Rome or Greece, but not as good as Ancient Egypt.

[jeigh]

Great video. I hope your channel really takes off

[nottoby]

i loved this video, surprised u havent already blown up. can't wait to see more :)♡♡

[LexSandy]

Amazing video good job!!! Saw this on my fyp and had to click!!❤❤❤love your videos Eva keep going!!

[carlosbranca]

Congrats, great video, very didactic! Your channel will grow pretty soon! Take care.

[moffrofflplock]

Historical note: The believe of disabled people being linked to sin emerges in the late medieval ages (that is to say around 1400-1520), the witch hunts as a means of further ideologylization (hope this is correct) dates to early modern ages. The middle ages in their majority are, aside from very special cases, such as visigothic spain, sexually relatively open, considering two facts: there is no centralized gouvernement. In fact priests write extensively on fucking, however they have no means on enforcing their believes. In fact many "Bußbücher" or "Sendbriefe" deal with questions trying to cover a wide, and sometimes even entertaining tableu of acts (my favourite one: A question to Hrabanus Maurus: "Is it okay to fuck a goat? Repeatedly?"), but the constant anger about normal people just not giving the literal fuck permeates through art and historiography throughout the middle ages. Second: We have many scriptures writing on trans* people, queer people and the survival of old religions, abortion and even some hints at sterilization through prayer or specific herbs. Likewise many folktales cover sex on a comically high level, implying that people were so used to fuck, they had to enlarge everything to get a reaction.