Why does Radcliffe prefer the designation “romance” for the subtitle of “The Mysteries of Udolpho” ?
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Answer: B. It frees Radcliffe from a strict adherence to common life, allowing her to place Emily in challenging situations.
Explanation
Describing her novel as a romance freed Ann Radcliffe from the strict demands of realistic probability. This specific genre classification allowed her to subject her heroine to dramatic and dangerous gothic circumstances. She intentionally prioritized emotional suspense and atmospheric terror over mundane representations of ordinary daily life. Ann Radcliffe was a pioneering English author who established the conventions of the Gothic novel during the 1790s. Her masterpiece, The Mysteries of Udolpho, relies heavily on remote castles, threatening villains, and unexplained terrifying phenomena. Eighteenth-century literary theory often drew sharp distinctions between the probable novel and the wondrous romance.
Emphasizing a happy marriage conclusion ignores the primary gothic focus on prolonged terror and perilous adventures. Viewing her work merely as a continuation of sentimental fiction overlooks the dark, sublime terror characteristic of gothic writing. Her work famously incorporated seemingly supernatural plot tricks before providing rational explanations later in the narrative.
- Subject
- English
- Category
- English Literature
- Topic
- —
- Difficulty
- medium
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