『경계인들』과 『회개』: 고딕드라마 그리고 정치성

When Wordsworth and Coleridge first met each other and even before they started their project of Lyrical Ballads, they discussed their plays, The Borderers and Osorio, whose title changed into Remorse later on. Theses plays have been treated as complementary since they shared their poetics and politics in their early years. This essay, however, tries to distinguish thern in the relation to Gothic drama and politics. Both Wordsworth and Coleridge were against Gothic drama but in reality Remorse contains some Gothic characteristics whereas The Borderers does not. Some critics consider Gothic drama Jacobinical in that the villains represent the aristocrats whom the French Revolution tried to remove, and its radicality is one of the reasons why they were popular in the Romantic era. With this view, Remorse can be seen as radical, and The Borderers as conservative since the latter contains less Gothic figures. My argument is, however, that in his drama Wordsworth, after having experienced the aftermath of the French Revolution, tries to represent how innocent people can be duped into crime in the name of liberty by the malignant people, and accordingly he does not encourage remorse. Coleridge in his drama, however, using Gothic elements to cater to people, promotes remorse, which sends the implicit message that the remorseful ancient regime should be forgiven instead of being punished.