Publication details
The Castle Spectre as a Gothic play and Gothic Chapbook
| Title in English | The Castle Spectre as a Gothic Play and Gothic Chapbook |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2020 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Hradec Králové Journal of Anglophone Studies |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://pdf.uhk.cz/hkjas/pi/pdf/vol7nr2_2020.pdf#page=12 |
| Keywords | chapbook; domestic drama; gothic play; Sarah Wilkinson; M.G. Lewis |
| Description | This paper discusses one of the most popular Gothic plays, M. G. Lewis’s The Castle Spectre, and its chapbook adaptation by Sarah Scudgell Wilkinson titled The Castle Spectre, An Ancient Baronial Romance (1820). Lewis’s play was hugely popular at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and is seen by critics as a “masterpiece” of the genre. Wilkinson in her redaction tried to capitalize on the success of the drama, preserving the narrative line of the main plot but reducing the role of comic characters, music and lighting, which are prominent in Lewis’s play. To court the lower-class readers, Wilkinson refers to the uncorrupted life of peasants compared to the debased manners of upper classes. The ending of the chapbook story is reassuringly domestic; while Lewis’s play ends by the death of the villain and praise for the victory of justice and virtue, Wilkinson concludes with the happy marriage of the main characters and disappearance of the protective ghost. This positive ending with a didactic purpose promotes the domestic bliss of characters and restoration of order destroyed by family feud. |