identify and analyze an example of one major Gothic metaphor in one of the texts we have read this semester (The Castle of Otranto by Walpole,The Vampyre: A Taleby Polidori, orCarmilla by Le Fanu). the essay should describe the metaphor and make an arguable claim about its social meaning. What does the metaphor represent in society (either at the time it was written or for readers now)?

Your essay should cover the following items:

• Identify and briefly describe the chosen text
• Identify and carefully describe the Gothic metaphor that appears in this text
• Include an arguable thesis that makes a claim about the social issue this metaphor represents
• Include textual evidence and analysis that supports your claim along with logical argumentation
• Properly quote, paraphrase, and cite all materials you refer to in the essay, including in-text citations and a works cited page
• Haggerty writes, "I attempt to show the ways in which all normativeheteronormative, if you willconfigurations of human interaction are insistently challenged and in some cases significantly undermined in these fictions" (Haggerty 3).
  • What do you think he means by "normative ... configurations of human interaction?" What are some instances in which these configurations are challenged in Otranto?
• Later, Haggerty claims that Walpole "combines the sexual anxiety of a victimized female, the incestuous desire of a libidinous male, the use of the actual physical features of the castle to represent political and sexual entrapment, and an atmosphere deftly rendered to produce terror and gloom" (Haggerty 22).
  • Locate a specific passage in The Castle of Otranto that embodies one or more of the characteristics he lists in this quote. Include a summary of the passage and a detailed explanation of how the passage creates the effect.
• How do you think physical features of a castle represent political and sexual entrapment?
• What are some contemporary examples of fiction or media that create the effects listed here as "hallmarks of gothic fiction?"