Window(s) to the World(s): Windows, Libraries, and Transgression in Gothic Literature

Abstract

This essay argues that the windows and libraries of the buildings in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, and Bram Stoker's Dracula function as borders between the physical and spiritual, different races and classes, life and death. To demonstrate this, I will outline how the abovementioned architectural features (along with other aspects of the estates such as their function and layout) function as liminal spaces where the internal and inter-personal conflicts of the characters mediate the abovementioned antitheses. More specifically, due to the liminality they pose, the crossing of the windows in Wuthering Heights and Rebecca and the libraries (or lack thereof) in Wuthering Heights and Dracula becomes an act of transgression. It is important to clarify that, for ease of reading, in this essay the elder Catherine will be referred to as Catherine, while her daughter - as Cathy.