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“Mad, bad and dangerous” How accurate is this as a description of the gothic villains in
the texts you have studied?

PLAN
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Introduction – define what is meant by gothic villain, and the terms MBD
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Agree/disagree with the question then setup the debate
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Wuthering Heights – Heathcliff is seen to be MBD and so is Catherine
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Heathcliff is mad later
in the novel
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Catherine uses madness to manipulate
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He is not
the actual villain as the reader eventually sympathises with him
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However reader can see he is a tormented soul
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It
is not always the case that the Gothic villain possesses all of these characteristics at once; they do
inhabit a few of them
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This can be related to
Victor in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein who is initially seen as the hero, but the reader later learns that
he is in fact a villain
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However, some authors tend to portray these Gothic villains as victims since they are
eventually punished for their actions, leading to the interpretation that Gothic villains are considered
to be villain-heroes
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Victor’s “ardent desire” to the “acquisition of knowledge” borderlines
on obsessive and his ambitions to “penetrate the secrets of nature” is what constitutes towards him
being seen as mad
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In regards to the contemporaneous audience of
Mary Shelley’s novel, to go against God was seen as madness, due to the strict religious boundaries
during the 19 th Century
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Victor is willing to “renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to
corruption” at any cost, posing as a threat to anyone who obstructs his path or “destiny”
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In chapter 5, the “nearly burnt out candle” is symbolic of the destruction he causes and
forebodes his impending doom
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Whilst this may seem the case, as
the Creature’s revenge causes him to murder the “sweet child” William, the fault is seen to lie with
Victor’s own selfish hubris
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This is illustrated in the “birth” of the Creature, “yellow skin
scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath” which is a contrast to Victor stating that
he “selected his features as beautiful”
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After
the death of both her husband and children, Shelley wrote Frankenstein, whilst experiencing
immense despair, which influenced the characteristics of Victor, such as: his complete isolation from
society
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Contrary to this, the Gothic villain in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (Heathcliff) is portrayed as a
Byronic Hero, even though his actions are deemed as “evil”
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Earnshaw calling him, “dark almost as if it came from the devil”
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This is also what leads to his mistreatment to the hands of
Hindley, and rejection from the Linton family, especially Edgar because of their higher social class
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Heathcliff’s lust for revenge is his flaw, like Victor, but the main difference
between the two is that Heathcliff never stops to feel sorry for himself and does not act like a victim,
instead, he never loses focus on his desire
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Heathcliff’s “bad” and “dangerous” behaviour can be
observed during the early months of his marriage between Isabella
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Brontë shows that even though Heathcliff possesses an education and
property, it still does not change him, he is still as “wild” as when he was a child
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The physical description of him enhances his
dark, immoral attitude as he is moulded into the nature surrounding him, which is fierce and harsh
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Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus is significantly different to the previous two texts, in the way
he portrays the antagonist Mephistopheles
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Whilst there is a misunderstanding that Faustus summons
Mephistopheles, the audience later learns that this is not the case, “For, when we hear one rack the
name of God, Abjure the Scriptures and his Saviour Christ, We fly in hope to get his glorious soul;”
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It would be false to label him as “mad” as

he has better cunning as that of Faustus, and his idea about hell displays his high intelligence as
Marlowe presents the idea of hell being the absence of the spiritual, shown by Mephistopheles,
“Why this is hell, nor am I out of it?” It would also be sensible to come to the conclusion that
Mephistopheles is not coherently “bad” or “dangerous” since he never performs either by his own
will, as he is the “servant” of Faustus, he has to obey his every command
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Faustus refers to Mephistopheles as “sweet” and Mephistopheles sometimes addresses Faustus
through “my”, which can also be seen as Faustus being his possession
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Therefore, Mephistopheles is not “dangerous” to everyone he
encounters but only to those that are able to become corruptible
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Overall, considering the three Gothic villains from each text, it would be understandable to come to
the conclusion that Gothic villains are “mad, bad and dangerous” since they all exhibit qualities
associated with these
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