A key feature of the Gothic genre in The Chamber of Blood, 'Frankenstein and Doctor Faustus' is Transgression. Transgression, simply put, is the violation of a particular social, moral or natural law. It is about breaking boundaries, or breaking the rules of society, which is reflected in all three literary works. Frankenstein's arrogant pursuit of creation and thirst for knowledge lead him to subvert the laws of religion and nature and create artificial life. Faustus is also an arrogant character who, like Frankenstein, has a thirst for knowledge that forces him to transgress religious boundaries in an act of blasphemy that would have shocked Elizabethan audiences. While Frankenstein's transgression is emotional and passionate, Faustus's is a cognitive choice, decided by reason and deliberated over and over again (arguably making Frankenstein a more sympathetic character). The transgression in “The Bloody Chamber” however is presented differently. While Frankenstein and Faustus are punished for their transgressions (and the reader is given a lesson in morality), the female protagonists of "The Bloody Chamber" collection often subvert social norms and "transgress" in a way that liberates and should be celebrated . Patriarchy and male dominance are punished and Carter herself 'transgresses' the fairytale genre by subverting and challenging the stereotypes presented. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayBoth the Renaissance setting of Faustus and the nineteenth-century setting of "Frankenstein" are societies that are in times of change. The Renaissance was divided between the return to the humanistic values ​​of balance, order and study of classical works and the ardent debate on religion that characterized this period. England was divided over Catholic and Protestant loyalties and this provides a perfect backdrop for a protagonist with a divided soul who transgresses. Frankenstein is also a protagonist who sits between divided social disciplines. The lines between science, philosophy and religion were becoming more ambiguous in the 19th century, and society's moral ambiguity allows its flawed character enough room to make its fatal mistakes. The context of both these texts provides a social rift in which the protagonists display transgressive behavior that allows us to question traditional social norms. "The Blood Chamber" is instead a twentieth century novel, written in a period of feminist revolt in the Western world. As a writer, she transcends (and one might say transgresses) patriarchal social norms (as do her female protagonists). Carter herself claims to be the "product of an advanced, industrialized, post-imperialist country in decline" and this gives her "the sense of unlimited freedom" (Wandor, 1983)1 highlighting the freedoms enjoyed by individuals in the 20th century . Comparing this context with that of other texts suggests a new reading of Frankenstein and Faustus, in which modern audiences could perhaps praise them for their transgressive spirit, rather than condemn them as their own readers did. Victor's thirst for the power that science offers is sparked by a storm in which a "stream of fire" leaves a "beautiful oak tree" in ruins. This “dazzling light” symbolizes an epiphany for Frankenstein who watches with “curiosity and delight.” Electricity is seen as a force that can both illuminate and "utterly destroy", and the dual forces of this paradoxical power are reflected in human nature and other dualities in the novel. The "stream of fire" alludes to Prometheus (to whom one doesreference in the subtitle of the novel "The Modern Prometheus") who accidentally set fire to humanity and was punished by Zeus. This classic allusion foreshadows Frankenstein's transgression against nature. He is further pushed by his universityThe lecturer's rhetoric claims that the new philosophers will "penetrate the recesses of nature" and "show how it works in its hiding places." A feminist reading would see the lexical choice of “penetration” as symbolic of an act of “rape” of nature. Nature is often personified as a feminine aspect, and Frankenstein seeks not only to exploit the natural world, but to subvert the role of women by usurping their role as creators of life. Developments in science in the 18th and 19th centuries were beginning to question the nature of life and how science and humans could take on the role of reviving life. This posed conflicts for what had once been a religious society, and Victor's arrogant pursuit could be seen by readers as blasphemous. Victor is overwhelmed by the need to pursue this goal and the compulsion to do so, and transgressing against nature and God seems overwhelming. He talks about his "soul grappling with a palpable enemy" and "feelings that carried me forward like a hurricane." In a psychoanalytic reading, the subconscious force that pushes Victor forward is the uncontrollable "id", the pleasure principle and the primordial aspect of the human psyche. A hurricane is a natural, uncontrollable, violent force that causes destruction and so this metaphor serves to foreshadow subsequent destruction. Ironically, a hurricane can be described as an "act of God" and so it could be said that the very thing that convinces Frankenstein is what he seeks to usurp. Frankenstein's arrogance is highlighted by his delusions of grandeur and his blasphemous quest for omnipotence. He speaks of pouring "a torrent of light into this dark world" with his creation, an image that reminds us of God's creation of the earth and how "a new species would bless me as its creator." His grandiose speculations are clearly so full of hyperbole that readers of the time would condemn his blasphemy. Similarly to Frankenstein, Doctor Faustus's transgressive nature allows us to question traditional social norms as he commits the final sin, a rejection of God. Pursuing power as well as pleasure. The chorus, evocative of a Greek tragedy, prefigures Fausto's fate; "his wax wings rose above his reach", this allusion to Icarus, who went against his father's advice by flying too close to the sun, melting his wax wings. In this case for Faustus it foreshadows his arrogance, pride and greed that lead to his ruin. Wilhelm Wagner (1969)2 claims that "the devil and our life on earth can give us no greater satisfaction than that of God", however, Faustus believes that "living in all voluptuousness" is worth more than the rewards he will get in heaven if he follows a moral path. The opening soliloquy of "Marlow's Dr. Faustus" reveals many different characteristics of the protagonist. In addition to establishing Faustus' character, the soliloquy is a reflection of the Renaissance world, presenting Faustus as a man of his time as the character is influenced by the changes in society encountered in the Renaissance era. However, Faust rejects the learning of his time, first rejecting the "Analytics" and logic of the great philosopher Aristotle by questioning his purpose: "is it well to contest the main purpose of logic? Read no more, you have reached the purpose . A larger topic suits Faustus" wit” The last phrase fricative and with the distorted tongue is difficult to say and a Renaissance audience with very earstuned in would notice and hear the warning in his arrogant statement. He moves on to study medicine, rejecting the "gold" it can offer and boasting that he has already "achieved that end." Instead of worldly culture, he chooses "necromantic books" which he paradoxically believes are "heavenly". Frankenstein also rejects conventional religion and science by being obsessed with the works of Cornelius Agrippa, a sorcerer and necromancer. His father's disapproval of his works being all 'sad rubbish' further shows us that both society and his close relatives disapprove of his studies but that this is not enough to stop him. In Frankenstein-like grandiose claims, Faustus believes they will lead to "power, honor, and omnipotence" and in the same way that Frankenstein wants a new species to "bless" him as its creator, Faustus wants "all things that are beyond" the silent poles to be at (his) command”. The difference between Frankenstein and Faustus is that while Frankenstein is motivated by an unconscious, uncontrollable force that is pushed over the edge by the grief of his mother's death, Faustus' pursuit of divine power and pleasure is much more deliberate and conscious and Marlowe's use of soliloquy here helps us see the deliberate and conscious decisions he is making. This makes his transgression even more sinful. Religious and Renaissance audiences would see this transgression as sacrilegious and blasphemous, but modern audiences might help Faustus and see him as a revolutionary anti-hero and a true Renaissance man. Transgression is viewed differently in the 20th century text, "The Chamber of Blood." In the title story, the Marquis breaks moral and social boundaries by conflating erotic love with death. Her Bloody Chamber, a "room designed for dissection", hides the corpses of her previous lovers. By killing people, he breaks a significant boundary; by combining the sexual element with death, he expands his behavior and his transgressive nature to address different taboos. Carter says: "My intention was not to make 'versions' or, as the American edition of the book horribly put it, 'adult' fairy tales, but to extract the latent content from traditional stories and use it as the beginning of new stories ." (Helen Simpson 1979) 3. Carter's reworking of fairy tales to reveal their "latent content" which is inherently violent and sexual. The male protagonists act as pornographers: the Marquis in "The Bloody Chamber" undresses the protagonist while he remains dressed and examines her 'limb by limb', the lexical choice here highlights his intentions to defile and then kill her shows how patriarchy objectifies and silences women, expecting them to be 'docile bodies'. The ultimate passivity is death and that's all the Marquis will do The Marquis is a connoisseur of sadism and his room is a sanctuary of his work. The torture objects, "Wheel, Rack and Iron Maiden", are placed next to a "catafalque", "funeral urns" and "bowls". of incense' and these ornaments of death show his obsession with the theater of sadism and death. The narrator (and perhaps the reader) is shocked when he realizes how the "dead lips smiled" demonstrating how the victim was complicit in and took pleasure in the sadism that led to his death. Carter seems to imply that women are just as capable as men of sexual depravity and sadomasochistic tendencies. The narrator also revels in the depravity of her husband's deviant fantasies. It is her virginity and "the innocence she desired" that excites him above all and the thought of desecrating an innocent. Disturbingly, the narrator is also excited by the fact that he has objectified her: "and, as at the opera, when I sawfor the first time my flesh in his eyes, I found myself moving." At their first sexual encounter he experiences a "strange impersonal excitement" and a mixture of "love" and "repugnance". This paradox and these unwanted feelings of arousal towards someone who disgusts you could be Carter's appreciation of the role of the Freudian "Id" in driving behavior. Below consciousness, she is attracted to deviance in her practices and these represent the painful experiences of femininity is similar to Frankenstein who is also constrained by an “Id” beneath his conscious control Ozum (n.d.)4 suggests that “Carter’s tales fabricate new cultural and literary realities in which women’s sexuality and agency supersede. the patriarchal traits of innocence and morality in traditional fairy tales,” Carter subverts traditional gender stereotypes by giving female characters the freedom to master their sexuality and reveal the narrator's perverse pleasure in her objectification. Gothic texts often seek to shock, and certainly the other two texts contain ideas that shocked readers and audiences of the time and Carter's Bloody Chamber does the same. Even modern readers, in a media age in which they are prone to small shocks, may be shocked not only by the Marquis' socially transgressive behavior, but also by Freud's revelations that desire and disgust are closely linked in the female psyche. Carter is revealing women's empowerment through sexuality. Although the institution of marriage serves to weaken the protagonist (Carter herself said 'what is marriage if not prostitution for one man instead of for many')5 and highlights the commodification and objectification of the wife through the protagonist : 'my buyer has discarded his deal'. The narrator (who is empowered by the ability to tell her own story, a subversion of fairy tale tradition) is aware of her objectification and how her husband had 'conspired to seduce her'. This may be what gives her power as she knows that it is her "innocence that fascinates him" but also that he, as a connoisseur of sexual deviance, has perceived in her "a rare talent for corruption". Carter illustrates the paradoxical nature of desire in the oxymoronic phrase “And I desired it.” And it disgusted me' by showing how revulsion and desire are not mutually exclusive concepts that the reader might have thought they were. Gothic literature is powerful and exciting because readers and audiences can vicariously experience the thrill of transgression and project the desires of the Freudian id onto harmless characters when they are unable to express them due to social boundaries. Carter, like Shelley and Marlowe, shocks readers by exposing the darkest part of human nature and desire. The fact that the protagonist understands her own objectification gives her the power to embrace it and use her sexuality to transgress and gain power. Carter's use of the mirror motif shows the Bloody Chamber's protagonist's emerging sense of subjectivity. Her heroine's ability to stand outside herself allows Carter to strip away the conventional moral fabric, while simultaneously signaling the fictional construction of her characters: the muscles that resemble a "thin string" allude to the marionette motif that runs through many of the narratives in 'The Bloody Chamber.' Carter uses the objectification of women as a disruptive literary device to challenge social perceptions. Puppets and mirrors are common tools of magic, and Carter uses both as motifs of deconstruction; in the mirrored bedroom of the horrible marquis the new bride becomes one..