‘Henceforth You Shall Be Known as Darth Vader’: The Battle between Good and Evil in Gothic Science Fiction

Abstract

At the heart of all Gothic is the battle between good and evil. In the earliest work of Walpole the battle is evident in the lust and aggression present in Manfred as he pursues the innocent Isabella; in Lewis’ The Monk it is Ambrosio’s lust and weakness that becomes the evil force within the text, and in Radcliffe’s The Italian it is the lust and scheming nature of Schedoni that provides the catalyst for the tragic events that occur within the text. However whilst it is a prevalent theme it would not be true to state that lust is the only source of evil within the Gothic, indeed as the genre has continued to grow and become more diverse so too has the variety and nature of the evil that can be found within the texts.