Ainsleigh Montgomery Ainsleigh Montgomery

The Effect of Medical Discourse on Early and Late 19th-Century Gothic Novels

In this dissertation, I analyse the connection between nineteenth-century fears surrounding medical sciences and the success of the Gothic novels Frankenstein, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and The Picture of Dorian Gray. By analysing these works in the context of nineteenth-century science, I describe how the authors utilised societal fears in order to produce realistic and horrifying scenarios that had a foundation in plausible scientific theories.

Read More