A Feminist Gothic Reading of Comyns' The Vet's Daughter Through Gilbert and Gubar's Angel/Monster Dichotomy

The Vet’s Daughter by Barbara Comyns is a gothic novel that explores female oppression using the elements of Voice, Body, and the ‘Uncanny’. Using Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s Angel/Monster Dichotomy from The Madwoman in the Attic as a framework, this paper analyses the text through a feminist gothic lens. Alice’s character, which neither conforms to the “angel” archetype nor surrenders to the “monster/madwoman” figure, but embodies both, becomes a symbol of rebellion against patriarchal authority. Alice’s death, which reworks the madwoman archetype into a critique of patriarchal violence, the novel, through subversion, complicates the angel/monster binary by presenting madness through horror elements as both threat and liberation.