Discuss the view that in Gothic writing women are treated stereotypically.

In Lewis’ “The Monk” there are an abundance of females showing both female “shameless harlotry” and “trembling innocence”. “The Monk” itself houses examples of stereotypes in principal. Antonia is a gothic heroine consumed with trembling innocence, weak, “never unveils in public”, pure and chaste and without hope in the world, mirrored well by Ellena in “The Italian”. It is narrow minded to class these femme fetales as “virgins in distress” but this is what critics such as J Hogle have referred to them as. As so frequently portrayed in literature women are portrayed as the root of all evil shown through Ambrosio’s comparison of Matilda, an adversary of Satan himself and Eve, the biblical character who threw all men’s chances away by condemning us to constant sin. We see cruel women in both these novels, the prioress in “The Monk” torn apart for her sins and the Marchesa in “The Italian”, jealous of her own son, Vivaldi and in league with the villain of the piece, Schedoni. Elvira and the

Some topics in this essay:
Antonia Ellena, Volume Chapter, Matilda Matilda, , Radcliffe Schedoni, Jane Austen’s, Matilda” Sin, Don Raymond, Lewis’ Leonella, Matthew Lewis, “the monk”, “the italian”, “trembling innocence”, “shameless harlotry”, don raymond, shameless harlotry, female characters, gothic female characters, innocence” “shameless, “i ambrosio, marchesa “the, “shameless harlotry” “trembling, marchesa “the italian”, “i ambrosio slightest”, harlotry” “trembling innocence”,