Of narpay faculty the department of the english language and literature course paper

In The Old Nurse’s Story (1852), Gaskell makes use of the element of ghosts and apparitions along with dark family secrets that are so common to old gothic novels. The plot is narrated by an old nurse who tells a story that took place many years before. She is in charge of Miss Rosamond, a child who, after her parent’s death, is protected by her uncle Mr. Henry. The great and desolate Manor House, with its dark and gloomy hall, its darkened windows due to the growth of ivy, the antique organ which is placed in the living room and its three wings of which the east one always remains closed, produces fear on the newcomers. The inhabitants of the house are composed by Mr. Henry, the elder Miss Furnivall and several servants. During the stormy nights in winter, the nurse hears the terrifying sound of the great organ and relates it to the strong wind. However, one of the servants affirms that the phantom of Mr. Furnivall plays the organ every night as he usually did when he was alive. One snowy night, Miss Rosamond says that a little girl took her to the woods where there was a young woman crying but her nurse does not believe her since there are only two footprints in the snow. However, several days after, the nurse sees with her own eyes the terrifying image of a pale little girl who is trying to enter the house. I turned towards the long narrow windows, and there, sure enough, I saw a little girl, less than my Miss Rosamond crying, and beating against the window panes, as if she wanted to be let in. She seemed to sob and wail, till Miss Rosamond could bear it no longer, and was flying to the door to open it, when, all of a sudden, and close upon us, the great organ pealed out so loud and thundering, it fairly made me tremble I had heard no sound of little battering hands upon the window-glass, although the phantom child had seemed to put forth all its force. Thanks to the little phantom, the dark secret of the old Miss Furnivall is discovered.
According to Jennifer Bann, the spectral hands of the little ghost carry a symbolic meaning. The sound of “little battering hands upon the window-glass” helps discover the cruelty of the family and their dark secret. She and her sister were in love with the same man. He fell in love with Miss Furnivall’s sister and they escaped together. However, he left her some time after having a child. Her cold hearted father and her jealous sister did not give her shelter and therefore, she and her little child died in the snow. The final of the story remembers to Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, when the figure of Alfonso appears in the sky after a clap of thunder. Gaskell uses the same device to describe the apparition of the deathly characters of Mr. Furnivall and her sorrowful daughter. All at once, the east door gave way with a thundering crash, as if torn open in a violent passion, and there came into that broad and mysterious light, the figure of a tall old man, with grey hair and gleaming eyes. He drove before him, with many a relentless gesture of abhorrence, a stern and beautiful woman, with a little child clinging to her dress. Mr. Furnivall cold behaviour in relation to his daughter makes him the villain of the tale. This short story goes closer to the tradition of Female Gothic in which women stand under the authoritarian and superior power of men. In this case, a young girl and her son die because of the lack of protection from her unconcerned father.