What is it like to be a mudlark for an hour? What did you find? How do you think the experience would have been different in 1850?
The brief Wikipedia article on mudlarks is worth checking out.
Site Report
Use this category when you are describing what you have seen and done.
Old London
We have looked at ruins of the past. “London Wall,” sometimes called the “Roman Wall,” is almost 2000 years old. All we see now are fragments. St. Dunstan’s in the East, a church first built around 1100, is similarly a relic. The Temple Church, also first built in the 12th century, has weathered much better.
What was the purpose of these structures when they were originally constructed? What did they symbolize in the past? What do they symbolize now? Why does London preserve the relics rather than destroy them and build more modern buildings?
Haworth
What aspect of the location — the village of Haworth, the Brontë parsonage, the moors — helps you better understand Wuthering Heights? Discuss a specific image or object that captures some aspect of Brontë’s world.
Is anyone else struck by the proximity of the grave stones to the house?
Strawberry Hill
We can be relatively sure that Catherine, the heroine of Northanger Abbey, would not have approved of the name of Hugh Walpole’s estate. Strawberry Hill? Are you kidding me? Could not the owner have devised a more amazingly horrible name for a Gothic castle?
But what do you think that Catherine would have thought of the structure itself? What details might she have liked? Which might have disappointed her? Discuss at least one or two specific aspects of the structure, its contents, its landscape, etc.
I love this strange image in stained glass. Check out this gigantic old fellow standing in a bleak landscape, holding a steaming cauldron with both hands, wearing a vast furry cloak and misshapen hat. His glasses suggest knowledge, perhaps the unhealthy knowledge of a wizard. To me, this mystical figure fits perfectly into a Gothic context.
Horace Walpole started the craze for Gothic literature with the publication of The Castle of Otranto in 1764. Read the first chapter to get a taste of the style:
The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Tale
CHAPTER I.
Manfred, Prince of Otranto, had one son and one daughter: the latter, a most beautiful virgin, aged eighteen, was called Matilda. Conrad, the son, was three years younger, a homely youth, sickly, and of no promising disposition; yet he was the darling of his father, who never showed any symptoms of affection to Matilda. Manfred had contracted a marriage for his son with the Marquis of Vicenza’s daughter, Isabella; and she had already been delivered by her guardians into the hands of Manfred, that he might celebrate the wedding as soon as Conrad’s infirm state of health would permit.
Manfred’s impatience for this ceremonial was remarked by his family and neighbours. The former, indeed, apprehending the severity of their Prince’s disposition, did not dare to utter their surmises on this precipitation. Hippolita, his wife, an amiable lady, did sometimes venture to represent the danger of marrying their only son so early, considering his great youth, and greater infirmities; but she never received any other answer than reflections on her own sterility, who had given him but one heir. His tenants and subjects were less cautious in their discourses. They attributed this hasty wedding to the Prince’s dread of seeing accomplished an ancient prophecy, which was said to have pronounced that the castle and lordship of Otranto “should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it.” It was difficult to make any sense of this prophecy; and still less easy to conceive what it had to do with the marriage in question. Yet these mysteries, or contradictions, did not make the populace adhere the less to their opinion.
Young Conrad’s birthday was fixed for his espousals. The company was assembled in the chapel of the Castle, and everything ready for beginning the divine office, when Conrad himself was missing. Manfred, impatient of the least delay, and who had not observed his son retire, despatched one of his attendants to summon the young Prince. The servant, who had not stayed long enough to have crossed the court to Conrad’s apartment, came running back breathless, in a frantic manner, his eyes staring, and foaming at the mouth. He said nothing, but pointed to the court.
The company were struck with terror and amazement. The Princess Hippolita, without knowing what was the matter, but anxious for her son, swooned away. Manfred, less apprehensive than enraged at the procrastination of the nuptials, and at the folly of his domestic, asked imperiously what was the matter? The fellow made no answer, but continued pointing towards the courtyard; and at last, after repeated questions put to him, cried out, “Oh! the helmet! the helmet!”
In the meantime, some of the company had run into the court, from whence was heard a confused noise of shrieks, horror, and surprise. Manfred, who began to be alarmed at not seeing his son, went himself to get information of what occasioned this strange confusion. Matilda remained endeavouring to assist her mother, and Isabella stayed for the same purpose, and to avoid showing any impatience for the bridegroom, for whom, in truth, she had conceived little affection.
The first thing that struck Manfred’s eyes was a group of his servants endeavouring to raise something that appeared to him a mountain of sable plumes. He gazed without believing his sight. “What are ye doing?” cried Manfred, wrathfully; “where is my son?” A volley of voices replied, “Oh! my Lord! the Prince! the Prince! the helmet! the helmet!”
Shocked with these lamentable sounds, and dreading he knew not what, he advanced hastily,—but what a sight for a father’s eyes!—he beheld his child dashed to pieces, and almost buried under an enormous helmet, an hundred times more large than any casque ever made for human being, and shaded with a proportionable quantity of black feathers.
The horror of the spectacle, the ignorance of all around how this misfortune had happened, and above all, the tremendous phenomenon before him, took away the Prince’s speech. Yet his silence lasted longer than even grief could occasion. He fixed his eyes on what he wished in vain to believe a vision; and seemed less attentive to his loss, than buried in meditation on the stupendous object that had occasioned it. He touched, he examined the fatal casque; nor could even the bleeding mangled remains of the young Prince divert the eyes of Manfred from the portent before him.
All who had known his partial fondness for young Conrad, were as much surprised at their Prince’s insensibility, as thunderstruck themselves at the miracle of the helmet. They conveyed the disfigured corpse into the hall, without receiving the least direction from Manfred. As little was he attentive to the ladies who remained in the chapel. On the contrary, without mentioning the unhappy princesses, his wife and daughter, the first sounds that dropped from Manfred’s lips were, “Take care of the Lady Isabella.”
Pictures of Strawberry Hill:
Phantom of the Opera
Check out the interesting similarity between the image at left with the classic still from the 1931 film version of Dracula. What is it about the body language in these images?
In the title song, which accompanies the first appearance of the Phantom on stage, he emphasizes his increasing control over Christine: “Sing once again with me our strange duet / My power over you grows stronger yet / And though you turn from me to glance behind / The Phantom of the Opera is there / Inside your mind.” Creepy, right? Also maybe empowering? What’s going on in lines like these?
Discuss how aspects of the musical (text of songs, images, music, lightings, etc.) develops one specific Gothic trope or theme. As always, individual works might challenge or change a particular tradition. Support your claims with detailed description and quotation.
This site seems to include lyrics for all of the songs. Scroll down until you see a list of titles of songs.
Tate Britain
In her brilliant feminist essay, A Room of One’s Own (1928), Virginia Woolf tries to understand why so few women were able to produce creative writing. In her study of English history, she notes that real women were treated as children and/or slaves. In literature written by men, ironically, women were crucial. “Indeed,” she observes, “if woman had no existence save in the fiction written by men, one would imagine her a person of the utmost importance; very various; heroic and mean; splendid and sordid; infinitely beautiful and hideous in the extreme; as great as a man, some think even greater.”
The same point might be applied to the representation of female figures in the visual arts. In the 19th century, there were very few professional women painters, sculptures, etc. And yet paintings of the time frequently treat female figures as of “utmost importance.”
Through a detailed description of one 19th-century picture at the Tate, discuss how it represents a female figure. Does she fall into one of Woolf’s categories? Is the woman depicted as “heroic” or “sordid” or “beautiful”? Does she seem “as great as a man,” or perhaps more so? Of course, you don’t have to use one of Woolf’s categories. Most of the images are created by male artists, but it would be interesting to think about those created by women artists. The crucial point is to support your perspective with careful description.
Bath
Bath is a curious tourist attraction because its historical significance is as a tourist attraction. Relatively wealthy people in the modern world travel to Bath to find out what it is was like for relatively wealthy people in the 18th or 19th (or 4th!) century to travel to Bath.
I’d like you to be an “analytical tourist,” one who enjoys the beauty and historical interest of Bath but also observes the ways that modern day Bath “packages” itself for consumption and pleasure. Henry Tilney offers a good example of how to appreciate Bath, remaining highly conscious of the conventions that structure enjoyment of the place.
How do the various tourist attractions ask us to imagine the past? What aspects of the past does it highlight and what does it hide from view? Does it ask us, for example, to be aware of sexual and social inequalities? Does it encourage us to think critically about the way that humans tend to project their own fantasies onto the past?
Freud Museum
Freud’s House is full of objects that he has collected. What kind of images does he seem to prefer? Which one catches your eye in relation to “The Uncanny”?
More images of his Study . . .
Sex and the City Walking Tour
What is the most interesting aspect of London, its history, and its people that you have learned on the tour?
Highgate Cemetery
In Dracula, Stoker does not mention the particular graveyard where Lucy is entombed. Highgate seems a likely candidate because of its proximity to Hampstead Heath.
But I am interested to hear what you think about 19th-century middle-class life — and death — in relation to this site. Find and analyze a text or image that speaks to us about the priorities and values of the time at which Dracula was written.