Abstract

From Romantic paintings of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, to Gothic paperbacks of the mid-twentieth century, to horror and sci-fi imagery of the contemporary era, portrayals of women in danger have haunted Western visual culture. Romantic-era painters, such as Henry Fuseli, Francisco Goya, and Theodore Géricault, often staged women in various states of vulnerability, threatened by supernatural forces, male violence, and isolated, hostile surroundings. Along with other Romantic artists, they forged a visual vocabulary of women in danger that mass-market Gothic romance novels would inherit and form into their most recognizable trope – women running from houses. During their heyday, Gothic romance paperbacks could be found on countless drugstore shelves, and most of their covers were illustrated with some version of a woman in a flowing gown fleeing a remote mansion, bathed in moonlight, searching over her shoulder for an unseen pursuer. Unlike classic romance stories, Gothic romance revolved around suspicion, betrayal, and physical harm, and the covers reflected that tone. Some argue Gothic romance reinforced patriarchal scripts and normalized abuse because heroines were often physically and emotionally manipulated into submission. Others argue the novels acted as subversive warnings from women authors to women readers about the dangers of marriage and domesticity. This paper leans toward the subversive and argues that Gothic romance paperbacks helped condition audiences to expect women-centered stories of danger and survival. As such, the “women running from houses” trope of Gothic romance laid important groundwork for the subsequent appearance of new generations of heroines who would run to danger instead of running from it.

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