The Mystical Basis of the Realistic Plot of E. Gaskell’s Story The Doom of the Griffiths

Abstract

The article deals with the short story The Doom of the Griffiths by E. Gaskell (1858). The author explores the mixing of mystical and realistic elements in her work while artistically depicting the history of the extinction of the noble family: an ancient family curse, a secret marriage, a crime, the ruins of an ancient estate, which anticipates the strengthening of the elements of Gothic poetics in Gaskell's works in the 1860s. Attention is paid to the author's interest in the customs and traditions of the people of Wales, the history of their struggle for independence from the English rule, which is manifested in the appeal to the artistic image of the legendary national hero of the Welsh – Owen Glendower. Also, the article analyzes Gaskell`s new interpretation of her traditional theme of motherhood when depicting the fate of a young man who lost his mother in his early childhood, which is an innovation in the writer's work.