baba-prague said:
One thing I should say at this point is that typically in classical Gothic, the women are very much the victims.
Oh, gosh yes! LOL! Which is why so many gothic tales have the feel of a sexual fantasy. The woman as a victim gets to keep her virtue (she never wanted to be bitten by the vampire!), but also gets to have illicit, er, affair. It would not be proper for her to actually want it
But it gets ridiculous in some of these really classic stories. My favorite was
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Mrs. Radcliffe (the "Twilight" writer of her day). OMG! Not only dreadfully written, but the heroine faints ten times in the first 100 pages! The excitement of her life was just too much for her
Of course, the best part of the story comes after she's left, stolen away by her evil uncle to Italy (that dastardly country!). Her good British boyfriend, pining for her, sits in her garden...and gets shot and wounded by the gardener! I'm sure Mrs. Radcliffe's teenaged, 19th century ladies dropped the book at that point in horror. I dropped the book laughing