In an essay on the components of the Romantic novel, James P. Carson presents the difference between Gothic and Romantic attitudes as a "disagreement over the values ​​inherent in attempts to representation of people. (Matthew). He succinctly describes the difference as a difference in intention: the romantic novel evokes depth "amidst excess" while the gothic novel seeks excess and uses divisive methods of description to thereby create identity (Matthews ). In the speculative fiction short story Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan LeFanu, the concept of the feminine gothic manifests itself through the concern with how sexual boundaries can endanger and the idea of ​​female incarceration and isolation as a means to allow dark action to occur. Alternatively, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bront? tells the deeper story of a woman's coming of age through bleak circumstances and focuses on the emotions and experiences that prompt her growth into adulthood, all filtered through the lens of gothic romance . Through feminine Gothic conventions, LeFanu and Bronte use a deep sense of isolation as a means to their heroines' often captive states and to create a sense of individual experience within their gender roles and social class. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In another way, the physical environments create a sense of incarceration in both protagonists. During Jane Eyre's childhood in Gateshead, the incident in the Red Room marks a shift in the novel and helps establish Jane Eyre as a Gothic text by creating a tangible sense of fear and captivity. The Red Room has a menacing, vivid presence of its own: “A bed supported by massive mahogany pillars, hung with dark red damask curtains, stood like a tabernacle in the center;…the carpet was red; the table at the foot of the bed was covered with a crimson sheet; …Mr. Reed had been dead for nine years: it was in this room that he breathed his last;...and since that day, a feeling of dreary consecration had kept her from frequent intrusions” (Bront? 11-12). Following the room's disturbing description, Jane believes she sees her uncle's ghost and faints from fear, an event that will stay with her into adulthood. All the physical elements of the Red Room that serve to trap Jane predict the future gothic themes of the plot and show her state of incarceration and her lack of control over her adolescent suffering. Despite the unfair and frightening nature of Jane's experiences as a child, her strong-willed nature allows her to retain an inherent sense of identity that Carmilla's protagonist Laura lacks. Laura's setting in Styria only adds to the feeling of hidden information and separation from the rest of the civilized world. At the beginning of Carmilla, she describes their castle, called a schloss: “Nothing could be more picturesque or solitary. It stands on a slight eminence in a forest… Above all, the castle shows its facade with its many windows; its towers, and its Gothic chapel…, and on the right a steep Gothic bridge carries the road above a stream which winds in deep shadow through the wood. I said it’s a very lonely place” (LeFanu). Laura's economic dependence as well as her loneliness in her remote environment may be what makes her so welcome to Carmilla's arrival, and the implicit monotony and remoteness of her daily life may be what makes her so easily vulnerable to danger. Whether or not she consciously feels2/13>.