I’ve discussed before on this blog how the Gothic literary genre takes its name from the Gothic style of architecture. Appropriately, the medieval structures that typify this architectural style are often used as the backdrop to Gothic stories. The obvious example, and the very first structure I discussed in this series on Gothic settings, is the castle. But another place we see Gothic architecture from the Middle Ages is in religious buildings, such as monasteries and abbeys.
The word “monastery” is used to describe the communal living space of any group of monastics, but is particularly associated with Christian monks. An “abbey” is a specific type of monastery (one governed by an abbot or an abbess), but the words are often used interchangeably. Apart from their association with Gothic architecture and the medieval period, monasteries and abbeys are well suited to Gothic stories for a number of reasons. First, setting the story within religious institutions creates the perfect opportunity to explore the religious tensions of the era. In post-Reformation Europe, Catholic individuals and institutions were an obvious choice to cast as villains. But as I discussed in my post on the Gothic trope of corrupted clergy, there was a broader distrust of all those holding religious power, and villainous depictions were not limited to only Catholic characters. But just as often as monasteries house Gothic villains, they also house Gothic victims. These institutions encourage isolation and removal from general society, which leaves the victim vulnerable. If the victim is being kept in the monastery against their will, this isolation becomes imprisonment. Let’s take a look at the way this setting functions in several Gothic texts:
The Monk by Matthew Lewis
Matthew Lewis’s 1796 novel The Monk was one of the most prominent of the early Gothic novels at the end of the eighteenth century. Indeed, many considered it to be downright infamous for the shocking depictions of violence perpetrated by the novel’s titular monastic. The story centers on Ambrosio, a well-respected abbot of a monastery in Madrid. Though he doesn’t live a life secluded from the outside world—Ambrosio preaches a weekly sermon at the local church and serves as a private confessor to prominent families—he is most vulnerable while he is at home in the monastery, where he least expects to encounter temptation. Temptation comes in the form of a sorceress named Matilda who infiltrates the monastery disguised as a male novice. In this form she gets close to Ambrosio, seduces him, and ultimately turns his thoughts away from virtue, toward lust and dark magic. Though the monastery was the site of Ambrosio’s undoing, it is also the basis of his power. Ambrosio goes beyond the walls of the monastery to commit his crimes of rape and murder, but it is his repuation as the respected leader of a religious institution that gives him such easy access to his victims. Apart from Ambrosio’s monastery, there is also a neighboring convent where the female monastics are secluded. One young woman, Agnes, finds herself imprisoned in the convent—at first merely forced against her will to live the life of a nun and then more literally imprisoned in a dungeon after she is discovered to be pregnant out of wedlock. This institution has its own evil leader, a prioress known as Mother St. Agatha, who delights in nearly starving the pregnant Agnes to death.
The Abbess by William Henry Ireland
This 1799 novel was a direct response to Matthew Lewis’s The Monk, creating a titular female villain to rival Lewis’s Ambrosio. Mother Vittoria Bracciano heads an abbey full of nuns in Florence. Like Ambrosio, she is no paragon of virtue despite this elevated position. As the daughter of one of the noblest families in Italy, she achieved her rank in the abbey through wealth and influence, and uses it to suit her own ends. Also like Ambrosio, she is ruled by her lust. Vittoria recruits a local monk, Padre Umbaldo, to bring young men into the abbey for her sexual escapades. One such young man is Marcello, who is in love with a virtuous young nun named Maddalena. Once the abbess has set her sights on Marcello, she uses deception, coercion, and ultimately drugs his wine in order to get him under her sexual power. She also uses her position of authority to torment her romantic rival Maddalena and ultimately has her sent away to be imprisoned in a family castle. There’s something extra salacious in this novel about using an institution built around extolling women’s piety and chastity being run by one woman’s insatiable lust.
Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin
Another male victim of abusive monasteries appears in Charles Maturin’s slightly later Gothic novel, Melmoth the Wanderer (1820). The novel contains many stories within a story as the narrator traces the history of a mysterious figure named Melmoth. One such story is the Tale of the Spaniard, which centers on the nobleman Alonzo Monçada. Like the reluctant nun Agnes in The Monk, Monçada is forced by his family to live a monastic life against his will. Monçada’s parents send him to a monastery at a young age where he is mistreated by the monks. When Monçada tries to renounce his vows, he is starved, isolated even from his monastic brethren, and repeatedly chastised and interrogated. It is during this vulnerable time in Monçada’s life that Melmoth infiltrates the monastery and tries to tempt him to turn away from the Church. When Monçada can endure life in the monastery no longer he attempts to escape, only to be captured and imprisoned by the Inquisition. In his prison cell, he is once again approached by Melmoth who offers to free him if Monçada will take over his devil’s bargain.…
Overall, a monastery or abbey is generally not where you want to find yourself if you’re a character in a Gothic novel. Within the imposing walls of these fortresses of faith, you may be imprisoned and isolated from your family and friends, and yet you won’t be protected from the forces of evil, which always seem to worm their way inside. What other examples of monasteries and abbeys in Gothic literature can you think of? Are there any other settings you’d like to see me explore? Let me know in the comments!