The focus of this paper is going to be the examination of coherency between the main protagonist of Ann Radcliffe 's The Mysteries of Udolpho, Emily St. Aubert, and the landscape she encounters throughout the novel, especially the landscape she sees while traveling with her father. She accompanies him on a journey from their native Gascony, through the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean coast of Roussillon, over many mountainous landscapes.
As with many other Gothic novels, Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho is also revolved around the usual Gothic heroine, which is usually referred to as a damsel in distress, since she is often the victim of the story. According to Hogle, when it comes to Gothic fiction “women are the figures most fearfully trapped between contradictory pressures and impulses” and “the oppression and ‘othering’ of the female seen from her point of view has been a principal Gothic subject” (9-10). Thus, in Mysteries of Udolpho, Emily St. Aubert is that heroine, that damsel in distress, being oppressed through the story by the antagonist Montoni. In one point of the story, he even refers to her as the heroine: “‘You may find, perhaps, Signor’ said Emily, with mild dignity, ‘that the strength of my mind is equal to the justice of my cause; and that I can endure with fortitude, when it is in resistance of oppression.’ ‘You speak like a heroine,’ said Montoni, contemptuously; ‘we shall see whether you can suffer like one.’” (360). With a deep appreciation