Mexican Gothic

Francis Doyle is the pale, ineffectual son of Florence, and he has all but resigned himself to being a prisoner of the Doyle house and legacy for the rest of his life. Before Noemí’s arrival, his rebellions are very small ones—going into town with his father during childhood and putting something of his artistic pretensions into his work as a collector and naturalist.

Noemí pushes him to make more of his own decisions and to rebel against the rigid structure at High Place, beginning with her use of him as transportation into town despite his mother’s disapproval. Francis is no Byronic hero or love interest like the ones who typically show up in Gothic novels. In the end, Noemí has to rescue Francis and comfort him as he makes his entrance into the wider world. This reversal of the traditional gender roles in Gothic literature reflects Moreno-Garcia’s commitment to writing a more feminist version of the Gothic novel.

Howard Doyle is an odd creature whose mind is well over 300 years old, although he is trapped in a corrupt, repellant body that is about 80 years old. Howard is a static character who announces his racism, lechery, and sexism when he first enters the narrative by attempting to use eugenicist talk of fitness to compliment Noemí on her beauty.

Howard’s actions include killing the mushroom keepers, exploiting and killing his mine workers through exposure to the fungus, forcing himself on women, and sacrificing his sisters and first-degree kin to become immortal. As a character, Howard embodies the worst excesses of colonialism and imperialism. Noemí sets him and his house on fire at the end of the novel, with the implication that traces of colonialism and imperialism need to be destroyed in Mexico.

Virgil is the predatory scion of the Doyle family. Moreno-Garcia describes him as forceful, handsome, and vigorous, the perfect foil for the oppressed Francis. In most Gothics Virgil would be the love interest since he is the heir to the Doyle fortune and actively pursues Noemí. In this Gothic, however, Virgil’s potent sexuality is really the effect of the gloom and the mushrooms that permeate High Place; his apparent sense of duty and protectiveness of his wife are really driven by self-interest and greed. Virgil does not so much change over the course of the novel as reveal the truth of who he really is: a monster who sexually assaults Noemí and is complicit in his family’s cruelty and violence.

Noemí’s cousin, Catalina is a slightly developed character who believes in fairytales and happily-ever-after endings despite her tragic early life. At the opening of the novel, Catalina is a depressed, disturbed woman who has seemingly lost her mind. Catalina breaks character in a few key moments, including when she provides a copy of a page from Ruth’s diary to Noemí and when she requests and takes the tincture from Marta Duval to better resist the power of the gloom. Released from the power of the gloom, Catalina becomes a vengeful figure who does the dirty work of stabbing the Doyle men when she, Noemí, and Francis make their escape. Her active role in resisting the Doyles and ultimately overcoming their control subverts the traditional gender roles in early Gothics.

A healer in the Mexican folk medicine tradition, Marta is a key figure who accurately identifies the Doyles for what they are. She assists Noemí by providing her with the tincture that allows Noemí and Catalina to resist the gloom, and she gives Noemí a bracelet that serves as temporary protection against the gloom, which Marta describes as the mal de aire. In addition, she is a keeper of her community’s history. She shares an alternate history of what happened in the Doyle mines during the mysterious illness that killed the miners and reveals Ruth’s violent attempt to disrupt the Doyles’ crimes. Marta’s ability to see the truth of who the Doyles are influences Noemí’s willingness to embrace other ways of knowing beyond the explicitly rational and scientific.

Ruth, the beautiful daughter of Howard, appears in the novel as one of several spectral female figures who ultimately help Noemí escape High Place. She is one of the few Doyles who refuse to cooperate with the incestuous, murderous goings-on at High Place; her decision to slaughter as many Doyles as possible shows that no matter how terrible the situation, there is always some degree of agency in how people respond to oppression. Even after death, Ruth refuses to be complicit.