Speak now, or forever hold your piece?

Last week I pondered the significance of the ubiquitous haunted house. Of course, contemporary audiences are familiar with this being a part of many stories and films. However, there are other, lesser obvious, elements of the Gothic novel that continue in today’s media.

One in particular is of interest to me, because it didn’t strike me as overtly Gothic: the interrupted wedding. Surely many of you are familiar with the interrupted wedding: two people are getting married, and right in the middle of the ceremony someone—usually on behalf of the bride—unexpectedly stops it. Critic Ruth Bienstock Anolik calls the interrupted wedding a “recurring motif” (27) in Gothic literature. Indeed, the interrupted wedding is something that occurs often not only in literature, but in television and film. Who would have ever thought of Benjamin Braddock (think The Graduate) as a Gothic hero?

Source:

Anolik, Ruth Bienstock. “The Missing Mother: The Meanings of Maternal Absence in the Gothic Mode.” Modern Language Studies 33.1-2 (2003): 24-43. MLA. OCLC. Seton Hall University. 21 Apr. 2008.

~ by courtneekirax on April 28, 2008.