LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Gothic Novel: Heroines
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Harry Potter is very similar to the reluctant heroes and heroines found in Gothic novels. Harry never chooses to be a hero; he hates the fame and attention his accomplishments have brought him. Yet, his circumstances force him into action. Harry does not go out looking for mysteries to solve or villains to defeat. Instead, those things seem to come to him. As with Jane Austen’s Catherine Morland, who is unceremoniously kicked out of General Tilney’s house and forced to go on a long journey home alone or Ann Radcliffe’s Emily St. Aubert, who has to fight against the uncle who has imprisoned her, Harry has no choice but to become the hero who adapts to his circumstances.
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Louisa Sidney Stanhope, novelist, produced 14 historical and Gothic romances mainly for the Minerva Press. Her first venture was Montbrasil Abbey: or, Maternal Trials (1806) which embraces domestic realism and only borders on the Gothic. In Madelina (1814), the amalgamation of these two forms makes for uncomfortable bedfellows. The Nun of Santa Maria Di Tindaro (1818) dwells more exclusively in the familiar Gothic territory of a ruthless patriarch, attempted seduction, murder and a nun bereaved of her lover. Unusually, the convent is not regarded here as a place of cruelty and confinement but rather as a welcome haven. For the heroine of Treachery (1815), who seeks out a convent to escape an undesirable marriage, it turns out to be a site of revelation.
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Gothic novels usually have some sort of mystery that must be solved by the hero or heroine. The villain may have a secret about their past that must be uncovered before they can be defeated. Even secrets about the hero or heroine’s past or family may help them defeat the villain, protect themselves from harm, or even give them previously unknown information about their parentage.
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Heroines