“A Play of Fear and Laughter”

This chapter shows how, by constantly moving between the ends of the Gothic spectrum and interweaving disturbingly dark scenes with skilful parodies where the mode is reduced to a "play of surface effects", A. S. Byatt's neo-Victorian classic provides an apt illustration of Gothic as an inherently hybrid mode. Commenting on the uses of Gothic in Byatt's short fiction, Celia Wallhead observes that the author often employs its tropes and devices as vehicles for promoting "her ideas on discrimination, exclusion and repression of women". Much the same can be argued about the uses of Gothic in the Victorian plotline of Possession: A Romance. Catherine Spooner describes Gothic as both "entertaining" and "offering genuine and incisive comment on the world". Interspersing scenes from the opposing ends of the Gothic spectrum, Possession engages in a complex "play of fear and laughter," allowing Byatt to achieve her ideological aims and to convey important truths about the past and the present.