Carpenter's Gothic | Literary Precedents

Carpenter's Gothic Literary Precedents

The Book of Revelations is the most frequently cited biblical text, and there are long quotations from Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. Like Bronte's novel, Carpenter's Gothic both draws from and parodies the conventions of gothic fiction. Set around Halloween, the novel employs several gothic elements: the isolated mansion, the mysterious locked room, an endangered maiden, the mysterious stranger, and even a picture's moving eyes (here those on a magazine cover). Gaddis makes ample use of Shakespeare, particularly the sonnet, "That time of year thou mayst in me behold" in the context of the Liz/McCandless romance.