Secrets and Lies of a Spanish Monk. A Voice in the Discussion of the Anti-Catholic Ideology of the English Gothic

The essay discusses the ideological aspect of Gothicism, foregrounding the connection between the Gothic convention and the strengthening of the sense of English identity and national pride. The authors of the English Gothic novel are keen on juxtaposing their own culture with those elements which can be deemed outlandish, foreign, shaped according to the Italian or Spanish manner. The fascination with evil and ugliness is not subject to any significant reflection; on the contrary, the accounts of somebody else’s cruelty and foreign malice play an important part in constituting the anti-Catholic agenda of the Gothic novel. This strategy was used, for instance by Matthew Gregory Lewis, the author of a very popular Gothic Romance: The Monk. The plot of this text, based on William Shakespeare’s play Measure for Measure, is full of anti-Catholic prejudice