Wharton and the Gothic

A Gothic tale is a story that typically tosses a female protagonist into the psycho-emotional clutches, and sometimes physical power, of a dominant male figure in a remote and forbidding location such as a castle or manor. The woman is an ingénue stumbling through the intrigues of her own psychological development as well as trying to traverse the man's, often reflected by the use of male and female as archetypical polarities within the story. Apart from exploring the differences between the genders, the central conflicts are often based off of sexuality, the unknown, life and death, intense emotions and inner conflict. The story's arc finds its peak as the woman discovers something that has been previously been withheld: a secret, also represented by a secret room, linked to death in some way. From here, she must deal with the consequences of her discovery and either come to a harmonious or even happy end with the man, flee, or be destroyed.[1]

These stories often have deep psychological meanings and lend themselves well to psychoanalytical analysis as they lay bare the processes within and recesses of the mind.[2] Fedoroko writes: "Gothic art is noted for its agitated, restless, intense straining against limitations, whether sexual, religious, psychological, social or physical. In expanding the observer's/reader's sense of reality, the Gothic intensifies consciousness of the world both within the mind and beyond the real."[3] Notable works of the English speaking realm include Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.

Briefly summarized in terms of Edith Wharton's works: "As a means for exploring areas of experience beyond the realistically expected and accepted, Wharton's Gothic allows her to press the limits of rationality, to utter the unutterable about sexuality, rage, death, fear, and the nature of women and men."[4]

"The Duchess at Prayer" is a Gothic tale in many ways. It is a masterful example of Wharton’s talent with the ‘unsaid’: “events flow in a succession of allusions and insinuations and from the first page, the reader starts collecting questions that eventually won’t receive an answer”[5], creating a distinct and uniquely prevalent feeling of foreboding.

The Duchess is the female protagonist the reader follows through the story. The nested narrative has her only recently married to an imposing and distant man and only recently moved to a secluded villa in the countryside. In the beginning, she exhibits key traits of explorative behavior and desire to break out of her confines while still seeming almost naive about her endeavors. Only as the story progresses does she develop more fully as a person (though only ever implicitly as the story comes to the reader at least third-hand) and delves into behaviors befitting her desires.

The Gothic theme of exploring the conflict potential between genders[6] is present in "The Duchess at Prayer" between the Duke and chaplain and Duchess as juxtaposed positions. The Duke, representing the masculine, is a serious and largely absent figure; the chaplain, also presenting an aspect of the masculine, is a bookish and quiet figure. Both men are quite traditional and rigid in their beliefs. The Duchess, the representation of the feminine in this tale, is a supremely beautiful, fanciful and fun-loving character. She requires freedom and affection for her happiness. Others, most notably the men in the story, remark time and again upon her physical beauty and chastise her for the very human behaviors she displays. Her personality and unconventionality sit at odds with the rigid and oppressive requirements and wishes implemented upon her by the Duke and chaplain. The typical Gothic theme of an oppressed woman additionally takes on the shape of a dissatisfied wife.[7] Her bid for freedom is seeking love and fulfillment outside of her marriage (the subject of an unsuccessful marriage is a common one in many of Wharton’s works, believed to be in part due to her own personal experiences[8]). She shares a similar fate inside of her home to other Gothic heroines: “everyone of them lives in a beautiful house that is inevitably turned into a small and claustrophobic cage by a male character who imposes his control over the weak and helpless woman acting like a dictator.”[9] The Duchess, emotional[10] and vivacious but ultimately not in control of her situation, and the Duke and chaplain, cold, distant, calculating and ultimately in control of the Duchess's life, create a tension from which the events of the story unfold. And even though her place of residence is very large and offers ample space to roam, it does not offer either true respite or freedom from the looming threat of male dominance.

Instead of having her find a room linked to death outright, as would be typical of a Gothic story around the narrative climax, Wharton has the Duchess Violante create this space herself in a clever play on the trope. The reader almost takes on the role of the heroine, discovering the secret location of Duchess Violante's passions and later, (spiritual) death, through the sub-textual implications. The reader opens the door to death themselves through Wharton's clever wording. In summary: instead of discovering a room previously obscured by the dominant male presence and bearing the consequences the revelation it brings, the Duchess instead bears the consequences of her own room (and everything suggested to have gone on there) being discovered and the reader is the one unlocking this information through their imagination.

The ‘unsaid’ and the unspeakable find their expression in Bernini’s work of art[11], ironically binding the Duchess’s beauty and vitality in immovable stone, a symbol of her life moving into death; what expression the Duchess does allow herself in real life, her statue finally captures: “hate, revolt and agony”[12] And so, between the lines, "The Duchess at Prayer" takes on a gruesome note, decidedly reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe's work (see 3.9.4).

“Wharton marks her emphasis on the spontaneous feminine vitality destroyed by male egoism”[13] as Duchess Violante is figuratively turned to stone, all of her supremely human qualities eradicated and replaced by an effigy to her physical beauty only. The physical beauty the Duke wishes to consume and enshrine in favor of handling the actual burdens and difficulties of dealing with an unwilling wife. More than bending her will to match his, he exercises the worst kind of control: the robs her of any agency by killing her two-fold. Once by rendering her metaphorically in stone and once literally by (it is safe to assume) poisoning her.

Wharton thus twists "The Duchess" into a enhanced Gothic tale that only amplifies the deeply psychological and spiritual agitation caused by indulging in the careful reading of it. The narrative plain itself carries the leaden gravitas of heavy implications as well: unlike the heroines of some other Gothic stories, the Duchess does not get a happy end. The Duchess and her undulating, searching nature are replaced by a static, cold work of art an artificial artifact imposed by the dominant male figure.[14] Her quest for spiritual relief, sexual liberation and, ultimately, freedom, is violently terminated. No hope or chance at redemption is offered to her, or, by extension, the reader.

[1] see Raškauskienė 2009

[2] see Pinkola Estés 2008, p. 35ff; see Jung 1949

[3] Fedoroko 1994, p. 3

[4] Fedorko 1994, p. 3

[5] di Laurea 2004/05, p. 24

[6] di Laurea 2004/05, p. 19

[7] di Laurea 2004/05, p. 23

[8] di Laurea 2004/05, p. 23

[9] di Laurea 2004/05, p. 18

[10] di Laurea 2004/05, p. 28

[11] di Laurea 2004/05, p. 26

[12] di Laurea 2004/05, p. 27

[13] di Laurea 2004/05, p. 24

[14] di Laurea 2004/05, p. 37