Gothic literature is filled with dark, decrepit, and lonesome manors and halls that give the impression of a haunted house. It’s a defining characteristic of the genre; places that are unsettling and sinister. The use of dim-lit passages and courtyards, tight, restraining spaces of attics and crawlspaces are favorites among famous Gothic authors such as Mary Shelley and Edgar Allen Poe. Gothic Romance, despite the name, is no different—as Amanda Pagan points out, it’s a subgenre that is also “Characterized by a dark, foreboding atmosphere and outlandish, sometimes grotesque, characters and events […].” The gloomy atmosphere serves to pair with and reinforce said grotesque characters and events, as a vampire waking from a coffin after a millennium and ascending carpeted stairs to sit upon a reclining chair in a sunny suburban home doesn’t disconcert the reader to the same degree as a lightning-lit castle upon a rainy precipice. These settings in Gothic literature are important in adding to the horror elements of the works, but beyond that, they are not as central to the characters and plot as the characters themselves. Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre and Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic are two exceptions to this common occurrence, the houses in them serving as extensions of the novels patriarchal figures to control female characters. In both novels, the destruction of these houses through fire symbolizes the loss of their control and a shift in the power dynamic among characters.
The fear and isolation of these Gothic houses are more than a setting meant to play into common themes of Gothic literature, they’re reflective of the manipulation and control tactics of the patriarchal “head of house.” The seclusion of these homes along with environmental barriers that pose a difficulty in leaving are symbolic of an uneven power dynamic that forces characters to remain despite their own willingness to leave. In Jane Eyre, during Jane’s first introduction to Thornfield Hall she notes that it is surrounded by “quiet and lonely hills […] seeming to embrace Thornfield with a seclusion I had not expected to find […]” (Bronte, 103). The seclusion of Thornfield Hall and the isolating nature of it raise Jane’s vulnerability. The servants, while kind, do not ease her feelings of loneliness. In chapter 12, Jane narrates, “I did not like re-entering Thornfield. To pass its threshold was to return to stagnation; to cross the silent hall, to ascend the darksome staircase, to seek my own lonely little room […]” (Bronte, 122). The uncomfortable and isolating setting ends up making her rely on companionship from the patriarch, Edward Rochester. Already, there exists power imbalances between them; He is her employer, of higher class with greater wealth and status, and with no prospects or family to fall back upon, she is obligated to remain in his favor. The isolation of the house works to facilitate these imbalances even further, as seen when Jane resolves to flee from Thornfield down “a road I had never travelled, but often noticed” (Bronte, 346). The unknown surroundings attempt to grasp and pull her back to Thornfield, and her journey is only made more difficult by her lack of wealth which is quickly expended for a short coach ride. This almost-gravitational pull of Thornfield parallels Rochester’s grasp on Jane from earlier in the chapter when he begins to realize he no longer has control over her and that she wished to depart. Common in Gothic literature, the unsettling setting gives the feeling of being watched, which is why Jane often preferred the orchard where “[…] one could wander unseen” (Bronte, 266). Thornfield Hall is characterized as an extension of Rochester’s eyes and hands, Jane’s fleeing under the cover of darkness is to avoid Rochester’s literal gaze as well as symbolic of avoiding the watch of Thornfield Hall. The difficulty of leaving represents the struggle of escaping the grasp of both Rochester and Thornfield.
Similarly, Mexican Gothic’s High Place is also a house of control that shares the same tactics of isolation as a means to create more vulnerability to manipulate characters through. High Place is first introduced to the main character Noemi as “[seeming] to leap out of the mist and greet them with eager arms”(Moreno-Garcia, 20). The personification of the house through this description is important, as the “arms” symbolize that it is not only an extension of the patriarch, but the limbs which are used to grasp and restrain, much like Thornfield Hall. High Place also gives the reoccurring impression of having eyes of its own, like in the line, “she did not wish to parade before its windows, which felt, to her, like lidless, eager eyes” (Moreno-Garcia, 149). Again, there are environmental barriers which prevent Noemi from escaping from High Place. The constant fog around the house creates a treacherous and unknown landscape like the hills and roads around Thornfield, and the rain also controls her ability to leave. Virgil, one of the novel’s patriarchs, tells her, “[…] we can’t drive you back with all this rain. I told you, the roads are treacherous” (p. 197). The environment of High Place works alongside his own motives, manipulating her to remain at the house.
Noemi and Jane are not the only victims of the houses being used in conjunction with patriarchal control. The houses are sustained through the benefit of colonialism. Hale Küçük on post-colonialism in Jane Eyre and other Victorian works writes, “Rochester is a wealthy gentleman thanks to his father and brother who arrange his marriage to Bertha for material gain. It is the dowry the Creole woman brings to him which makes him what he is […] An analogy can be made between marriage and colonialism since both have an economic aspect” (Küçük, 1247). Bertha herself is also controlled by the house, kept locked away in a room in the attic under constant vigilance. In Mexican Gothic, Catalina’s character suffers from a similar form of control, she is also contained to a locked room and watched by various servants. Agnes, the wife of the patriarch, is also imprisoned in the house as a part of the supernatural “gloom” that is used to control its inhabitants. High Place is also sustained from colonial wealth from silver mining operations. The history of these houses and their post-colonial associations of paternalistic authority and exploitation strengthens their controlling characterization.
In both novels, the houses are destroyed by fires that were intentionally set by someone under control of the patriarch, and the destruction of the houses coincide with their loss of power and control over others. In Jane Eyre, fire is an important theme. Cynthia Carlton-Ford delves into the symbolic significance of smaller fires throughout the novel and writes, “To Jane, hearth fires are a symbol of intimacy” (Carlton-Ford, 379). Her consistent attention to hearth fires throughout the novel is because she associates them with feeling “[…] valued, comfortable, included—to be home” (Carlton-Ford, 380). Those values are direct opposites of what Thornfield Hall gave her, and instead moved her to seek companionship from Rochester. After accepting his proposal however, Rochester begins to reflect the confining and possessive nature of the house, as Carlton-Ford describes, “[…] the Rochester who accepted Jane as an equal, who revelled in their partnership, is replaced by a man who wants to confine her to a place by his side and to make her the recipient of tokens of his wealth and possession” (Carlton-Ford, 382). Thornfield Hall is symbolic of his intentions and works to manipulate Jane for his benefit. The fire that consumes Thornfield Hall is symbolic of the loss of his ability to manipulate and control others. Bertha, who started the fire, has broken free of the restraint of Thornfield Hall and Rochester, she has escaped control of him and the house. Rochester also loses his right hand and his eyesight, two of the defining characterizations of Thornfield Hall, to symbolize this loss of control and to shift the power dynamic of his relationship with Jane which allows her to feel equal and valued again. As Eric Soloman writes, “Again [Jane] escapes, but this time back to Rochester at Ferndean, a chastened, symbolically emasculated Rochester, to whom she pretends to submit (in the guise of a servant) but whom she actually has conquered” (Soloman, 216). High Place in Mexican Gothic suffers a similar fate, although the house serves as a literal extension of the patriarch of the novel through a supernatural phenomenon. Although it is Noemi who throws the lantern that starts the fire that consumes the house, it is Agnes, the wife of the patriarch Howard Doyle that cultivates the flame. Like Bertha, this immolation frees her from her imprisonment. The spread of the fire, as the patriarchs of the house are connected supernaturally to it, causes them to lose their controlling abilities over Noemi and Catalina. The change in power dynamic allows for them to “conquer” Virgil and Howard, by killing both and escaping.
Jane Eyre and Mexican Gothic may belong to separate subgenres of Gothic fiction, but thematically and plot wise they are very alike. Both Thornfield Hall and High Place employ classic characterization of gloomy manors found in Gothic literature as well as colonial background in a way that aligns and utilizes them alongside the manipulative and controlling motives of the novel’s respective patriarchs, whose power is then symbolically and literally subverted by fires that destroy these houses and shift power away from them.
Works Cited
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Cornhill: Smith, 1848. Print.
Carlton‐Ford, Cynthia. “Intimacy without Immolation: Fire in Jane Eyre.” Women’s Studies, vol. 15, no. 4, 1988, pp. 375–86, https://doi.org/10.1080/00497878.1988.9978740.
Küçük, Hale. “The Political Unconscious in Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Great Expectations.” Gaziantep University Journal of Social Sciences, vol. 18, no. 4, 2019, pp. 1242–54, https://doi.org/10.21547/jss.545533.
Moreno-Garcia, Silvia. Mexican Gothic. New York: Del Rey, 2021. Print.
Pagan, Amanda. “A Brief History of Gothic Romance.” New York Public Library, https://www.nypl.org/blog/2018/10/03/brief-history-gothic-romance.
Solomon, Eric. “Jane Eyre: Fire and Water.” College English, vol. 25, no. 3, 1963, p. 215, https://doi.org/10.2307/373690.
Sprockets and Springes 