Degree Type
Thesis
Date of Award
1998
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
English
First Advisor
Kathleen K. Hickok
Second Advisor
Kathleen K. Hickock
Third Advisor
P. M. Keith
Abstract
Rarely did authors of the nineteenth century choose to make their vampires female. Joseph Sheridan LeFanu's "Carmilla," first published in 1872, is credited as being the first " ... to break with the tradition of the literary vampire as a Byronic figure by creating a woman vampire". Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, however, presents an interesting argument against this claim that LeFanu created the first female vampire in English literature. In Wuthering Heights, first published in 1847, 25 years before "Carmilla," Bronte created her own female vampire in the character of Catherine Earnshaw Linton. This creation of the female vampire provided Bronte with the means to comment on and criticize the roles women were forced to play in the nineteenth century.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.31274/rtd-180813-5152
Publisher
Digital Repository @ Iowa State University, http://lib.dr.iastate.edu
Copyright Owner
Julie Ann Thilmany
Copyright Date
1998
Language
en
Date Available
September 3, 2013
File Format
application/pdf
File Size
47 pages
Recommended Citation
Thilmany, Julie A., "Draining life forces: vampirism in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights" (1998). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 170.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/170
