Victorian Ghost Stories Nearly Always Encompass Family

Victorian Ghost Stories nearly always encompass family life in some way or another. One reason for this may be to emphasize how abnormal a ghostly figure or hauntings really are within the story and get readers thinking, what would happen if that was happening to them? Making the stories feel more realistic to a Victorian readership. Family life within the era was held as one of the most important aspects of their day to day lives, therefore it is only natural for the theme of family to be present throughout many of the periods ghost stories and other genres. The Victorians also created the modern Christmas, where families come together on Christmas Eve to read or re-tell popular Ghost stories of the time, many magazines which were†¦show more content†¦Newton also states that The familiar unveils its association with the unfamiliar. M.R. James argues that the rooting of a story in the common world of habits and timetables would aid the process of sympathetic identification between the reader and the haunted one. This rapport was one more of the genre’s correlations, and the key to its power to frighten. The Old Nurse’s Story does very well to stick to the genre’s structure, and is written to a high standard, that makes the readers feel fear, suspense and hope, which are all key to grasping the reader’s attention immersing them into the story and gaining the most out of it. Gaskell does this by building the plot up to an ultimate climax, where the characters fully interact with the supernatural beings, this build up is created by using the character’s new heightened relationship and a new unfamiliar setting, leaving the reader unnerved and waiting for something to happen. Charles Dickens’s also stated that The Old Nurse’s Story was ‘a very fine ghost story indeed. Nobly told, and wonderfully managed.’ Dickens was a highly popular Victorian author during his own time and within the modern literary world, his opinion on Gaskell’s first ghost story shows just how much of a success it was. The themes of the short story allow for all of the right elements to come through, the strongest of these themes is the relationship Hester and Miss Rosamond share, although she is leftShow MoreRelatedThe Opposing Forces of Wuthering Heights2438 Words   |  10 PagesThe opposing forces of Wuthering Heights. Emily Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Wuthering Heights can be seen as one of the most influential works of fiction produced during the Victorian age. In Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s novel, the reader will encounter many oppositions across several elements of the story. These oppositions play a vital role in the development of both the characters and the plot and have been discussed by many critics. According to Melvin R. Watson, as he describes in his article â€Å"Tempest in the Soul: The Theme andRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagesby Susan Porter Benson, Stephen Brier, and Roy Rosenzweig Also in this series: Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes, eds., Oral History and Public Memories Tiffany Ruby Patterson, Zora Neale Hurston and a History of Southern Life Lisa M. Fine, The Story of Reo Joe: Work, Kin, and Community in Autotown, U.S.A. Van Gosse and Richard Moser, eds., The World the Sixties Made: Politics and Culture in Recent America Joanne Meyerowitz, ed., History and September 11th John McMillian and Paul Buhle, eds