Gothicism as a Mode of Political Critique in Bond’s Plays

Abstract

The correlation of art, morality, and politics is an important debate in literature. Interestingly, this correlation between Edward Bond‟s plays and his political philosophy has not been explored from the perspective of the Gothic previously. The article‟s main argument is that the motifs, tropes, and trappings that are scattered throughout the body of Bond‟s dramatic works evoke a strong image of a dark Gothic world characterized by excessive violence and other forms of monstrosity and irrationality. Gothicity in Bond‟s plays, then, emerges as a strong impulse, as a driving force through which Bond dismantles the falsifying social and political myths of violence, oppression, injustice, and individual freedom. The article also traces the progression of Gothic impulse in his plays in terms of how it shapes Bond‟s political and philosophical worldview as an artist and as a humanist. Bond‟s final message is that people must know and understand the dynamics of an oppressive society by challenging and interrogating the misleading versions of reality, and finally take substantial meaningful action to rectify social and political imbalances. It is this correlation of morality and politics built through Gothicism that informs Bond‟s radical political and philosophical vision and which he translates into dramatic medium.