Huang, Weitao

English

Valparaiso University

Valparaiso UniversityValpoScholarGraduate Academic Symposium Graduate SchoolSpring 3-26-2018The Subversion of the Bluebeard Tale with aModern Female Gothic Twist: On the MarriageTheme in Gillian Flynn’s Gone GirlWeitao Huangweitao.huang@valpo.eduFollow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/gasThis Oral Presentation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion inGraduate Academic Symposium by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member atscholar@valpo.edu.Recommended CitationHuang, Weitao, "The Subversion of the Bluebeard Tale with a Modern Female Gothic Twist: On the Marriage Theme in Gillian Flynn’sGone Girl" (2018). Graduate Academic Symposium. 53.https://scholar.valpo.edu/gas/53The Subversion of the Bluebeard Tale with a Modern Female Gothic Twist: On the Marriage Theme in Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl  Abstract Marriage, as one of the most common themes in literature, is usually a place of endless gender conflicts, and marital infidelity is the key that unlocks the forbidden bloody chamber. The Bluebeard tale, a 17th-century French folktale written by Charles Perrault, exerts a great impact on the Male Gothic literary treatments of women’s marital disobedience and infidelity. Perrault portrays a gruesome and bloodstained marriage, in which a sadist husband carries out his obsessive actions of punishing his sexually curious wives for breaking a promise. Conversely, Gillian Flynn, a contemporary American female author, achieves the subversion of the Bluebeard tale with a modern female gothic twist. In Flynn’s 2012 bestselling novel, Gone Girl, a bone-chilling and poisonous marriage slowly reveals itself, as a femme fatale carries out her murderous plan of punishing her unfaithful husband. More specifically, by overthrowing the inherited patriarchal doctrine haunting the Bluebeard tale that “the married woman is civilly dead,” Gone Girl provides a female gothic reading of modern marriage and raises some thought-provoking questions about the female dark side. Flynn ingeniously peels away layer upon layer of the hatred and secrets that a married couple hold, unfolding a dark satire of how marriage, gender relations, and gender roles crack under financial and emotional strain. On the strengths of Female Gothic perspective on marriage, this paper aims to analyze how Gillian Flynn, as a contemporary female author, subverts the Bluebeard tale in Gone Girl and redefines the conventional Gothic marriage theme that punishes women when they challenge their husbands’ patriarchal dominance. In other words, this paper explores how Flynn redefines the marriage theme which historically, culturally, politically, economically, and socially imprisons, represses, and exploits women as the “other” and asserts control over their choice and autonomy; how she renovates the marriage theme within the prevailing Gothic genre in which married women are usually portrayed as the ghostly, hysterical, and defenseless domestic victims, doomed to suffer pervasive violence and gender stereotypes; and how she ultimately empowers and elevates the marginalized Female Gothic genre into the mainstream spotlight.   

The Subversion of the Bluebeard Tale with a Modern Female Gothic Twist: On the Marriage Theme in Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl

ValpoScholar

Valparaiso University
ValpoScholar
Graduate Academic Symposium Graduate School
Spring 3-26-2018
The Subversion of the Bluebeard Tale with a
Modern Female Gothic Twist: On the Marriage
Theme in Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl
Weitao Huang
weitao.huang@valpo.edu
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/gas
This Oral Presentation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in
Graduate Academic Symposium by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member at
scholar@valpo.edu.
Recommended Citation
Huang, Weitao, "The Subversion of the Bluebeard Tale with a Modern Female Gothic Twist: On the Marriage Theme in Gillian Flynn’s
Gone Girl" (2018). Graduate Academic Symposium. 53.
https://scholar.valpo.edu/gas/53
The Subversion of the Bluebeard Tale with a Modern Female Gothic Twist: 
On the Marriage Theme in Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl 
 
Abstract 
Marriage, as one of the most common themes in literature, is usually a place of 
endless gender conflicts, and marital infidelity is the key that unlocks the forbidden 
bloody chamber. The Bluebeard tale, a 17th-century French folktale written by Charles 
Perrault, exerts a great impact on the Male Gothic literary treatments of women’s marital 
disobedience and infidelity. Perrault portrays a gruesome and bloodstained marriage, in 
which a sadist husband carries out his obsessive actions of punishing his sexually curious 
wives for breaking a promise. Conversely, Gillian Flynn, a contemporary American 
female author, achieves the subversion of the Bluebeard tale with a modern female gothic 
twist. In Flynn’s 2012 bestselling novel, Gone Girl, a bone-chilling and poisonous 
marriage slowly reveals itself, as a femme fatale carries out her murderous plan of 
punishing her unfaithful husband. More specifically, by overthrowing the inherited 
patriarchal doctrine haunting the Bluebeard tale that “the married woman is civilly dead,” 
Gone Girl provides a female gothic reading of modern marriage and raises some thought-
provoking questions about the female dark side. Flynn ingeniously peels away layer upon 
layer of the hatred and secrets that a married couple hold, unfolding a dark satire of how 
marriage, gender relations, and gender roles crack under financial and emotional strain. 
On the strengths of Female Gothic perspective on marriage, this paper aims to 
analyze how Gillian Flynn, as a contemporary female author, subverts the Bluebeard tale 
in Gone Girl and redefines the conventional Gothic marriage theme that punishes women 
when they challenge their husbands’ patriarchal dominance. In other words, this paper 
explores how Flynn redefines the marriage theme which historically, culturally, 
politically, economically, and socially imprisons, represses, and exploits women as the 
“other” and asserts control over their choice and autonomy; how she renovates the 
marriage theme within the prevailing Gothic genre in which married women are usually 
portrayed as the ghostly, hysterical, and defenseless domestic victims, doomed to suffer 
pervasive violence and gender stereotypes; and how she ultimately empowers and 
elevates the marginalized Female Gothic genre into the mainstream spotlight.  
 


https://scholar.valpo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1079&amp;context=gas

The Subversion of the Bluebeard Tale with a Modern Female Gothic Twist: On the Marriage Theme in Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl

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