Child Sublimation

Abstract

The presence of religious imagery and references to Catholicism, Protestantism and paganism are widespread in gothic fiction. Most religious themes and motifs are generally interpreted as popular expressions of anti-Catholicism, especially when it mentions the tortures practised by the Inquisition. The mixture of popular superstitions, extraordinary and unexplainable manifestations of hauntings and apparitions, and evil, cruel clergy is usually analysed as an expression of the unsympathetic or downright hostile attitude towards the Catholic faith — a typical nonconformist attitude entertained through the centuries with the advent of Protestantism and the establishment of Anglicanism, later strongly exacerbated by the French Revolution. We can successfully analyse religious confrontations in gothic or determine their historical causes and theological influences, as well as the positive or negative intentions of the authors using them, but such analyses do not tell us why religion and religious imagery have been so widely used in gothic. In fact, religion is an unavoidable theme because it is linked to the child figure. Since the child stands at the root of all inheritance and usurpation issues, it is central to both the private and public spheres and, from there, to the socio-political fabric of the gothic novel. Religion and spirituality complement the child-centred themes, like domesticity, family relationships and education, and are used to enrich the portrayal of the gothic child.