And Is There a Place For Them?
I titled this post somewhat facetiously since anti-heroes are sometimes an awkward fit in Gothic literature. But they don’t have to be! And that’s what I really wanted to talk about: why we don’t see anti-heroes in the genre and how Gothic writing could incorporate that type of protagonist. But first, let’s ask ourselves: where are the Gothic anti-heroes?
It helps to briefly revisit the definition of an anti-hero: a character with poor character (generally amoral or immoral standards) who has no desire to be the hero.
Amoral/ Immoral Characters
The first of these two isn’t absent from Gothic writing. We could argue that Anne Rice’s vampires sometimes fight against their nature (Louis) and try to live a morally virtuous life. Sometimes they don’t.
Clearly Heathcliff and Catherine in Wuthering Heights have their own standards. They disdain the God that their servant, Joseph, promotes. They want nothing to do with Christianity or even living upstanding lives. For example, Heathcliff only accidentally saves Hindley’s baby, Hareton, when he falls over the banister. After the fact, Nelly comments that “had it been dark…he would have tried to remedy the mistake by smashing Hareton’s skull on the steps.”
It’s hard to argue that Heathcliff is a nice guy. We still love him. But he isn’t a nice guy.
The same could be said for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Since Mr. Hyde is Dr. Jekyll, a case can’t even be made for the doctor himself. Other than that, for a time, he suppresses his dark proclivities…at least by day.
And then there are modern Gothic books like Black Ambrosia. I just wrote about Angelina, its protagonist, and the truth behind her claims to be a vampire. You can find that article here. Angelina is a serial killer. That’s not a plot spoiler. It’s a known fact from the beginning of the book (and the back cover). It’s her motive and her psychological unraveling that are the mysteries to be discovered. But nonetheless, she’s an amoral character.
You could probably think of others, but suffice it to say, there are some Gothic books with wholly immoral or amoral protagonists. I think they’re less common than the alternative (which would probably shock those who have prejudices against the Gothic and know nothing about the genre), but they do exist.
But that’s only one side of the anti-hero equation.
But Heroes??
The other side of the anti-hero coin is that an anti-hero has no desire to be a hero…which of course implies that there’s a heroic undertaking to be made. That’s where the Gothic genre tends to deviate from Science Fiction or Fantasy in which heroes are employed.
I’ll explain.
Think about most Gothic novels. I’ll list some for you.
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
- Dracula by Bram Stoker
- The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice
- The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein
- The Gates of Evangeline by Hester Young
- We’ve Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
- The Haunting of Hill House [also] by Shirley Jackson
- The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
- Child of God by Cormac McCarthy
I could go on, but you may already see where I’m going with this. Gothic stories tend to be somewhat insular. That marries well with the Gothic themes that tend to be deep explorations of spiritual or psychological matters (or other very introspective types of themes). We rarely see Gothic novels in which the protagonist is engaged in an adventure or journey. The types of stories that require the protagonist to be…well, a hero.
In the Gothic story, the protagonist is usually a hero of his or her own introspective journey. Other characters circle around the protagonist but don’t require his heroic leadership or even participation.
The one exception I can think of is Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. That set of novels is definitely a merger of Gothic and Fantasy-Adventure storytelling. However, Roland Deschain isn’t an immoral or amoral protagonist. So he’s a hero, but not an anti-hero.
A Market to Be Made
That’s where I want to leave you. And me. There’s room for crossover. In some ways, we could argue that Mia Corvere in the Nevernight series is an anti-hero. She’s definitely immoral/ amoral. And she’s something of a leader, but only lightly. She’s still more of a lone wolf than an anti-hero.
But I bring her up to illustrate a point. If characters like Mia were to take up the gauntlet and work through Gothic themes while acting in a heroic role, we’d have Gothic anti-heroes. What would that look like?
Well, I can think of a couple of story ideas I’ve been working on that act upon those lines. One of these is a Gothic/ Dark Fantasy series in which the main character is a vigilante. In some ways he’s a nice guy, but he’s also a killer and a ruthlessly self-justifying criminal. But he doesn’t end there. His journey is a long one in which he has to learn to suppress what he would want to do for selfish reasons and instead apply his personality and abilities to things that benefit a much higher and better goal. [A bit cryptic, but I don’t want to give too much away yet.]
All that to say that I can picture a Gothic anti-hero most easily in the context of more of a Fantasy or Science Fiction story. One in which there’s both the internal, spiritual (or psychological) exploration, but also an external, epic call to battle that involves other characters and especially character participation. Thus, I’m essentially calling for more Gothic-Fantasy storytelling!
That’s not something I’m planning for every Gothic story I write, but it would be great to see some anti-hero stories in the Gothic genre. I hope to contribute along those lines and I’d love to see other Gothic writers do so as well!!
Let me know if this is something you’re working towards.
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