For No Rhyme or Reason

We all know a Gothic novel when we read one - labyrinthine castles, ancient prophecies, supernatural shenanigans, women screaming (and fainting) - the basic tenets are pretty much universal.  It is ultimately what a writer accomplishes through these parameters that determines his or her success.  The genre has since become an open artistic medium, and what Walpole may have used to signify the inescapability of familial bloodlines, Ann Radcliffe similarly uses to criticize the sensibility of women in early Romantic literature.

In A Sicilian Romance, Radcliffe introduces a cast of female characters quite familiar to readers of the time.  Julia is your typical flighty heroine; hot-tempered, generous, prone to both imagination and genius, susceptible to excessive crying, quick to infuriate and quick to appease, she seems to embody an extensive range of emotions all while skillfully avoiding the need to employ reason or common sense.  Her older sister Emilia appears calmer and clearer of mind (a la Sense and Sensibility).  This dichotomy essentially is the Gothic novel, highlighting the integration of medieval romance with a new modern realism.  Not only that, but the duality also explores the consequences of extremism.  It is the role of Madame de Menon, their mentor and maternal figure, "to counteract those traits in the disposition of her young pupils, which appeared inimical to their future happiness," (4) suggesting a need for balance in the young girls' lives.  Since the vast majority of female characters she criticizes are overly sensible, Radcliffe focuses on the procurement of reason.  However, it is equally detrimental to be too sensible or too rational, as it prevents happiness through either an extreme need for emotional stimulation or through a repression of necessary emotion.  

Oh my poor delicate nerves!

While Radcliffe follows many of the same literary steps as Walpole in creating her world of terror and suspense, she does so with much different intentions.  She essentially uses the Gothic novel to undermine the representations that it, and much of the other literature of the time, takes for granted.  By placing modern female protagonists into the Gothic atmosphere and explaining away the paranoia of the supernatural through reason, she shows the ridiculous sensibility of these characters.  Think of Julia's volatility during her early courtship with the Count de Vereza.  The sudden highs and lows of her emotions as she falls for him and is then separated from him are grandiose and world-crushing (to her).  And again when she and Emilia invoke supernatural phenomena for the lights and sounds in the Southern tower.  Madame de Menon endeavors to calm them, after Emilia faints, by imprinting onto them some knowledge of reason.  Foreshadowing the events to come, Madame tells the girls that "we cannot understand many things which are indisputably true...[since] nothing is impossible to God, and that such beings may exist...we ought to consider by what evidence their existence is supported...it is now your part to exercise your reason" (36).  The Madame challenges the girls to think critically for themselves while still leaving open the possibility of the unexplainable, if only because it is conceivable through God.  She is the stable byproduct of reason and sensibility, making her both a proper maternal figure and an early example of respectable female characterization for Radcliffe.

I find the Gothic novel to be an ideal platform for the discussion of female sensibility because it so often suspends reason for the terror and fear of the supernatural.  By returning reason to the genre, Radcliffe shocks readers into realizing the gullibility of both themselves and the characters when given a correct push to the imagination.

For a more in-depth analysis of the role of sensibility in Radcliffe's novels, read this sweet article.

And, as proof that Romantic themes and images still influence our society today, no matter how bizarre, watch this short video.

Discussion Questions:

To what extent do you think the portrayal of female sensibility at the time affected the way in which Radcliffe wrote the novel? 

How do the standards of male and female sensibility differ and how does Radcliffe handle these differences in her characterizations of Ferdinand, Emilia, and Julia?

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