Notes below based in part on these sources, in particular that of Cooper:
Cooper, L. Andrew. "Gothic Threats: The Role of Danger in the Critical Evaluation of The Monk and The Mysteries of Udolpho." Gothic Studies 8.2 (2006): 18-51.
Brewer, William D. "Transgendering in Matthew Lewis's The Monk" Gothic Studies 6.2 (2004): 192-207. Watkins, Daniel P. "Social hierarchy in Matthew Lewis's The Monk." Studies in the Novel 18 (1986): 115-124
Salter, David. "'This demon in the garb of a monk': Shakespeare, the Gothic and the discourse of anti-Catholicism." Shakespeare 5.1 (2009): 52-67.
Williams, Ann. The Art of Darkness: A Poetics of the Gothic. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1995.
Cooper (2006)
On whether films, books, etc., can encourage violence, 18
Gothic fiction inspired same fears as now: that it threatened the social order,
18
-- and that it was relegated to "low" culture as a result, 19
His survey of major British journals in 1790s, shows four threats (general:
applied to The Monk):
1. Threats to the young:
-- Gothic teachings inappropriate or dangerous; disregard for authority of parents;
ignoring social obligations; danger of promoting autonomy of the young
-- [directed at young women in particular; dangerous examples of Antonia, Agnes,
Matilda?]
-- Matilda, asserts herself against patriarchy, exposes its values; frees herself
of traditional women's roles, Watkins 120
2. Threats to gender norms:
-- that Gothic novels offer women resistance to ideology of oppression, 21;
men portrayed as objects of desire vs. passive role usually prescribed for women;
that Gothic novels might masculinize women; threatens patriarchy, compulsory
heterosexuality, 22
-- transgendering in The Monk, Brewer 192
-- obscenity; cf. voluptuous characters of Matilda and Bleeding Nun; destablizes
gender roles;
-- Ambrosio complains of Matilda's manly character (232), 25-6
-- Matilda takes on both male and female identities, gender seen as perfomative,
193; seen to promote female autonomy, Brewer 193
-- Sexuality in novel: to show how social codes shape human behaviour at a fundamental
level: notably Ambrosio's desires, offered no sanctioned role for expression;
compared with Raymond, Lorenzo, Agnes, Virginia: all find satisfaction within
traditional social order, Watkins 121
-- That The Monk's most powerful effects spring from "an unconscious
and uncanny dread of the culturally 'female' in all her manifestations. . .
. the novel's plot, décor, structure, and characterization are founded on patriarchal
premises about the nature of the female" Williams 115
3. Threat of superstition:
-- supernatural events blurred with religious truths, calls into question authenticity
of religion; may prepare way for Catholic revival.
-- attack on church, not so much anti-Catholic as anti-religion; Lewis an infidel,
25
-- but: social functions of church corrupted by Ambrosio, Prioress; once removed,
returns to traditional role, Watkins 118
-- Lewis's salacious condemnation of nuns and monks sexual adventures, a long-standing
Protestant tradition, Salter 60
-- Ambrosio's behaviour blamed on his (Catholic) narrow upbringing, Salter 61
4. Threat of revolution:
-- "terrorist" system of novel writing; unites fear and instruction; subverts
dominant ideologies,class, 24
-- attack by mob on Prioress and convent, parallel to actual riots in France
against church; as if justified by corruptness of its object, 26
-- the Gothic novel seen in the 1790s as a form of social agitation, 28
-- violations of social hierarchy in other relationships in novel: Raymond,
travelling in disguise as lower-class citizen; Marguerite; Lorenzo's troubles
from fixing on Antonia (product of mixed marriage), Watkins, 117
-- problems arise from disregarding social position, a conservative position
(cf. Burke), Watkins 117-8 (nostalgia for past, lost world of social stability?)
Coleridge's review
Critical Review 19 (February, 1797), 194-200
the character of Matilda, the chief agent in the seduction of Ambrosio, appears
to us to be the author's master-piece. It is, indeed, exquisitely imagined,
and as exquisitely supported (194)
in addition to constitutional warmth and irresistible opportunity, the monk
is impelled to incontinence by friendship, by compassion, by gratitude; by all
that is amiable, and all that is estimable; yet in a few weeks after his first
frailty, the man who had been described as possessing much general humanity,
a keen and vigorous understanding, with habits of the most exalted piety, degenerates
into an uglier fiend than the gloomy imagination of Dante would have ventured
to picture. (196)
the Monk is a romance, which if a parent saw in the hands of a son or daughter,
he might reasonably turn pale. The temptations of Ambrosio are described with
a libidinous minuteness, which, we sincerely hope, will receive its best and
only adequate censure from the offended conscience of the author himself. The
shameless harlotry of Matilda, and the trembling innocence of Antonia, are seized
with equal avidity, as vehicles of the most voluptuous images; (197)
the most painful impression which the work left on our minds was that of great
acquirements and splendid genius employed to furnish a mormo for children,
a poison for youth, and a provocative for the debauchee. (197)
European Magazine 31 (February, 1797), 111-115
This singular composition, which has neither originality, morals, nor probability
to recommend it, has excited, and will continue to excite, the curiosity of
the public. Such is the irresistible energy of genius. (111)
If it was our Author's intention, which we would not willingly suppose, to
attack religious orders, and, of course, religion itself, by exhibiting the
extreme depravity of its most eminent disciples, he will, in the opinion of
all sound judges, be considered not only as having failed of his intention,
but as having paid an honourable tribute, the more valuable for being undesigned,
to ecclesiastical establishments. (112)
Though we readily acknowledge the genius and talents manifested in various
parts of this unequal production, yet what good purpose is to be answered by
an oblique attack upon venerable establishments, we are at a loss
to conjecture. We know that the presses of the Continent teemed with compositions
of this character while the Revolution was preparing in France; yet what have
the infidels who produced it substituted in the place of the religion
they have banished? (114-5)
Document created October 9th 2009