The Supernatural Explained in Ann Radcliffe's "The Mysteries of Udolpho"

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1,3, University of Münster, 19 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: This brought to her [Emilys, jf] recollection the veiled picture, which had attracted her curiosity on the preceeding night, and she resolved to examine it. [...] She then hastily entered the chamber, and went towards the picture, which appeared to be enclosed in a frame of uncommon size, that hung in a dark part of the room. She paused again, and then, with a timid hand, lifted the veil; but instantly let it fall - perceiving that what it had concealed was no picture, and, before she could leave the chamber, she dropped senseless on the floor. Whatever Emily, the main character in Ann Radcliffe’s novelThe Mysteries of Udolpho,might have perceived behind that black veil will not be revealed for several hundred pages. The reader is left baffled as to what caused Emily all this pain and has to resort to guesswork, only to find out that she had simply seen a wax figure, shaped like a human being who was tortured to death. Ann Radcliffe has become famous for this method, that is for “a sequence of evasions and withdrawls, condluding with long-subsequent explanations.”2Radcliffe developed the technique of the so-called ‘supernatural explained’ and became famous for this device; a device that was well received in her times and made her one of the most famous novelists of her age. Several editions of her books and a 500 pound salary paid by her publisher George Robinson, an immense sum for the time, might be proof.3Nevertheless Radcliffe’s novels and her technique of the supernatural explained have been and still are heavily criticised, not only by modern literary critics. This term paper deals with Radcliffe’s method in her bookThe Mysteries of Udolpho.After a definition has been given the reception of Ann Radcliffe’s work throughout the decades will be discussed, before Terry Castle’s new approach “The Spectralization of the Other inThe Mysteries of Udolpho”will be introduced. Finally a conclusion will be drawn.