How did Barbara exemplify traditional Gothic themes

How did Barbara exemplify traditional Gothic themes?


Gothic and its core mean far more than I first expected. Resistance, emotion, love affairs, "rebel" woman archetypes and the expected creepy darkness; we get all of this in Barbara and more. We see a forbidden love between Barbara and Edmond, with the lusty lord upland towers following closely, exemplifying the resistance and raw emotion of gothic ideas. As we see Edmond get into his accident, we see more emotion, vanity in particular. Barbara can't even face her husband due to his burns, and he leaves her abandoned and guilty. When Edmond dies a few years later, we see the maiden in distress being rescued by the heroic man, Upland towers. Edmond resembles the empirical, controlled force in the story; he is the rich man with the stable life. When Barbara is caught going to see a statue of her old lover, Upland towers follows her and sees her hugging the statue. He then hires a sculptor to dismember its face, forcing Barbara into an epileptic seizure and becoming a loving wife afterwards. This shows that resistance and emotion are punished, and you should marry for duty instead of love. Everything we see in this story embodies the gothic mentality, and it's an awe-inspiring look into the world of goth.