Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, is a novel for children that is deeply rooted into Gothic tradition. The work was published in 2002 by Bloomsbury and Harper Collins and received several awards, such as the 2002 Bram Stoker Award for Best Work for Young Readers (“Past Stoker Nominees & Winners, 2009”).
Coraline is not only a very short - 185 pages - easy to read children's horror story, it has also been cleverly written to provide the right mix of horror, adventure and fantasy. It is a compelling, page turning story that will frighten some readers, surprise others and fascinate everyone.
Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror (primarily in the 20th century), is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name refers to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of early Gothic novels.
Emerging in Europe in the 18th century, Gothic literature grew out of the Romantic literary movement. It's a genre that places strong emphasis on intense emotion, pairing terror with pleasure, death with romance. The Gothic is characterized by its darkly picturesque scenery and its eerie stories of the macabre.
The Harry Potter novels are marketed as a children's fantasy series, however, due to the amount of Gothic content within them, they should be considered as part of the Gothic genre or its sub-genres.
Transporting listeners through an uncanny parallel universe, Neil Gaiman's Coraline takes an unsettling dive into the differing perspectives of adults and children, while ultimately reminding us that there is no place quite like home.
This eerie feature symbolizes the other mother's desire for control, and specifically her desire to limit Coraline's freedom. The buttons symbolize the fact that the other mother sees Coraline as a doll or a plaything—she wants to keep Coraline in her world and do with her what she wishes.
“Coraline” explores themes of deception, illusion, and the dangers of succumbing to appearances, reminding audiences to question what lies beneath the surface and to trust their instincts when something seems too good to be true.
Coraline is a lesbian because one writer noticed how Miss Spink and Miss Forcible got more attractive in the Other World while Mr. Bobinski and Wybie didn't. Merida is asexual, as a social analogue to her canon situation in a modern era where sixteen-year-olds wouldn't be pressured to get married.
As these are critical parts of the plot, it is best to formulate Coraline's behavior along a psychotic-dissociative spectrum. At this stage in our formulation, it is best to arbitrarily choose Schizophrenia as a provisional diagnosis.
It is said that the eyes are the window to ones soul. So by the Other Mother taking the childrens eyes and sewing buttons there instead is a way for her to keep their souls with her and therefore trapped in the other world. this is why they are suddenly released when the "eyes" are taken out of the Other World.
Overall, Coraline is a book that offers a different and modernised perspective on childhood. The author uses gothic elements and fantastical spaces and tropes to subvert the traditional genre, show personal growth, and explore deception and control.
Some features include the secret passageway between the worlds, and the supernatural being pretending to be the 'Other Mother'. Other elements of the gothic story include, old events that point towards the future, mysterious disappearances, suspense, supernatural things that happen, visions and dreams.
Gothic literature is a genre of writing that is characterised by the inclusion of dark, supernatural elements, both in terms of occurrences and the setting of the piece. It utilises a multitude of literary techniques, such as setting, characters, and themes, to create an atmosphere of fear and foreboding.
He would come in to "tuck the child in" but both parties knew it was the time when the abuse would occur so the child disappeared within him or her self in order to deal with the abuse. That is kind of the metaphor at the heart of Coraline.
The signature blue hair in the movie gives Coraline her sense of identity and uniqueness of the cinematic level which is not required in the book. Her dyed hair is also included in the movie to show her rebellion, as we previously see it as brown through photographs.
Coraline is, however, a “challenged” book: challenged because of its scarier themes and because some consider it inappropriate for the age group it's intended for (the age of its title heroine, Coraline, which is never clearly stated in the book but seems to be between 10 and 13, if we can judge by the movie at all).
The button eyes of the "Other" world are a prominent and creepy motif. Seemingly friendly characters appear with sewn buttons in place of their eyes, robbing them of humanity and instilling a chilling and uncanny appearance. There are many scenes and images in "Coraline" that are likely to scare young children.
But also unlike her real mother, the other mother has buttons for eyes and wants to love Coraline to death. As an adult, I love Coraline. I picked it up on a whim, and the story has haunted me for weeks with the clicking, scratching noise of the other mother's hand, and I'm well past the 8+ recommended reading age.
This statement suits Twilight perfectly, since the novel is not entirely a gothic novel, but instead as mentioned above, a combination of different genres with the gothic as one of them.
Like other literature genres, the Female Gothic has distinguishable requisites, such as a troubled heroine, an oppressive male antagonist, a mysterious mansion, and, according to author Greg Johnson (1989), "familiar Gothic themes of confinement and rebellion, forbidden desire, and 'irrational' fear,'" (p. 3).
