Manifestations of the house in the Victorian ghost story

Abstract

The appearance of the ghostly is generally described as a manifestation, and to perceive the ghostly is predicated on the act of seeing. To be manifest is to be apparent, clear, evident and obvious and a manifestation is an act of revelation, even one of proof. The genre of the ghostly however is rarely truly seen in critical works, and the aim of this thesis is to engage with and explore the implications raised by the act of seeing within the tradition of the British ghost story. The appearance of the ghostly not only requires the acknowledgement of the existence of ‘the other’ by witnesses, but also actively prompts the viewer to see all that surrounds them in a wholly new way. With the focus firmly on the issue of seeing, this thesis seeks to examine to what extent the ghost story offers a different, and challenging, view of the rational world, and whether the ghost story is more than just an entertaining popular diversion and can actually, as Kenneth Womack suggests, operate as “a mechanism for social critique."