Within Gothic writing the role of women is traditionally seen as that of the victim, be it of masculine cruelty or supernatural forces. It can be argued that this is the view that is shown within Christopher Marlowe’s play ‘Doctor Faustus’ due to women being portrayed as objects of masculine desire, and therefore become subservient to them. Although, this traditional presentation of women is not fixed, and can be seen to be changing over time. The portrayal of women within Angela Carter’s collection of short stories ‘The Bloody Chamber’ is clearly that of empowerment, where female characters overcome supernatural creatures and beast. Similarly, Emily Bronte’s novel ‘Wuthering Heights’ can be seen elevating the role of women, to the extent that they appear to become gothic villains rather than victims. Although, it may be argued that this differing presentation may result from the fact that the latter texts were written by female authors.

In Christopher Marlowe’s play, ‘Doctor Faustus’ there is a limited presentation of women due to the small number of female characters, yet the ones which are portrayed are shown as being objects of male desire rather than individuals in themselves. The most significant presentation of women is that of the apparition of Helen of Troy, whose beauty is clearly shown due to her face being that which ‘launched a thousand ships’. Contextually, Helen of Troy was seen to be a strong character, but in the play, Marlowe degrades her to be seen as an object of lust and desire. Both of these can be seen as sins in themselves, yet when Faustus begging Helen to ‘make me immortal with a kiss’ can be seen as Faustus rejecting any final possibility of redemption by succumbing his to desire for physical pleasure. Ironically, it may be seen that this kiss does make Faustus immortal, since it condemns him to eternal damnation in hell. Although, this apparition is not Helen of Troy herself but demon manifested in her countenance. Therefore, it may be argued that this portrays a female character being possessed and control by supernatural forces, thus fulfilling the conventions of gothic literature due to Helen appearing the victim to the desires of both Faustus and the devil. Furthermore, within Elizabethan theatre it was extremely uncommon for women to perform on stage, therefore, during the original performance it was most likely to have been a man who played the role of Helen. This may be seen is even more ironic since a male actor is playing the role of a women who is possessed by a masculine demon in disguise. This can be seen as further presenting women was being victims within ‘Doctor Faustus’ since they appear to have no individual freedom or even to possess themselves.

However, within Angela Carter’s ‘The Bloody Chamber’ women are empowered to the extent that they become heroines rather than victims within the gothic narrative. This portrayal of women can be clearly seen within the tale of ‘The Company of Wolves’. In the tale the supernatural werewolf is seen to be as being a ‘carnivore incarnate’ and is symbolic of masculine predatory sexuality. The female protagonist of the tale, an inversion of the character of Little Red Riding Hood, laughs full in the face of this apparent gothic monster, since she knows she is ‘nobody’s meat’. Carter can be seen as empowering the girl, therefore inverting gothic conventions and presenting the female as being in control and the beast almost being the victim. Indeed, only after this can the anthropomorphic embodiment of male sexuality become ‘tender’ and ‘all be silent’, thus almost mirroring the fairy tale ending on which the tale is based. This may be as Carter suggesting that sexual tensions can only be resolved once women take control of their own sexuality. Therefore, clearly Carter portrays women as being dominate in the tale of ‘The Company of Wolves’, rather than being traditional gothic victims.

Similarly, in Carter’s other inversion of the Perrault tale of Little Red Riding Hood, ‘The Werewolf’, she suggests that women need to overcome, not only patriarchal figures, but also older generations of women who have been distorted and transformed by masculine influence. Its structure is similar to that of ‘The Company of Wolves’, since the girl must overpower a supernatural creature to be able to ‘prosper’ at the end. Although, they differ in that in this tale it is the protagonist’s own grandmother that she must defeat, who has been metamorphosed into a werewolf by masculine influence. Only after this symbol of the patriarchal expectations of women is killed, can the girl again reach a traditional fairy tale happy ending. This can be seen as reflecting Carter’s intention for the collection, which was to remake gothic and fairy tale conventions with a feminist perspective to highlight their underlying misogynistic nature. This may be seen as explaining why women are not portrayed as being gothic victims within the collection but rather as strong, empowered figures.

Furthermore, within Emily Bronte’s ‘Wuthering Heights’, women are shown to be almost dominate figures rather than victims. The character who most embodies this portrayal is Catherine Earnshaw, who is described as being ‘a wild, wicked slip’, appearing ungovernable and uncontrollable, thus not fulfilling the role of victim within the narrative. Indeed, Bronte appears to further empower her through the use of her own illness as a weapon, to the affect that she’ll ‘break both their hearts by breaking my own’, both here referring to Edgar and Heathcliff. This gives her an apparent power over the clearly masculine characters who appear to embody both Victorian culture and the power of nature. Therefore, it may be seen that she is able to manipulate both binary opposite, thus appearing as if the masculine figures are the victims of her control. Although, it may be seen that she is the victim of her own ambition due to it being her attempt to unify both culture and nature this is her evitable downfall. Therefore, it may appear as though she fulfils the conventions of a Gothic villain rather than victim due to her Faustian ambition leading to her own death. Although, it may be seen that the framing of the narrative itself results in a form of disempowerment of women. This is due to the majority of the narrative being told by Nelly’s internal female voice, yet this is seemingly legitimised by Lockwood’s external masculine one. By framing the narrative in this manner it presents women as being secondary to men, and therefore the victims to their control. However, this may be seen as Bronte criticising the nature of publishing and literature during the Victorian era since women were unable to publish in their own right and had to use male pseudonym instead, something that Bronte herself had to do with the penname Ellis Bell for ‘Wuthering Heights’.

Clearly, it may be seen that within gothic writing there cases of women being presented as being victims, however, this is not true of all texts. Within in some gothic writing women are presented as being equally or in fact strong than men thus reducing their position as victims within the genre. However, it may be seen that, as is the case with ‘The Bloody Chamber’ and ‘Wuthering Heights’, women are presented in this way due to the texts being written by female authors thus influence the way in which they may have intended to portray women. Indeed, ‘The Bloody Chamber’ is a relatively modern gothic text and therefore, the differing presentation of women may stem from a changing of the positon of women within modern society.