There'll be peace when you are done: Supernatural as Tragic Male Gothic

When Supernatural first aired back in 2005, I remember thinking “This is a guy’s show”.  The show is one long road trip with two brothers in their awesome muscle car, hitting on pretty girls, killing monsters, and saving the day while backed by a badass classic rock soundtrack. At the time these things set it apart from most of the other shows on the then WB network. From what I remember the shows on the WB were targeted towards teenage girls and at the time Supernatural felt like the show that was being offered to teenage boys. It was, and still is, produced with the male gaze in mind. It wasn’t set in some high school and the character’s problems weren’t centered on their love lives. It was a supernatural-family drama. It was about these two boys trying to find their father and avenging their mother’s death. It had beautiful women and blood and gore. It was creepy as hell.

And yet, despite the fact that it’s written with the male gaze in mind the show has a huge female following. I’m sure a lot of men watch and enjoy it but it’s the fangirls who are the most vocal and the most present at conventions. They’re not just responding to the fact that the show’s stars are gorgeous; they’re responding to its tragedy. The show isn’t just written through the perspective of the male gaze, it’s written in the form of Male Gothic.

Gothic fiction can be split into two categories: Male and Female. These two categories offer us different ways of experiencing the Gothic – from the male perspective and the female perspective. Supernatural presents us the Gothic universe from the male perspective.

How does Supernatural fit the mold of Male Gothic? Well…

Male Gothic is really only ever studied when being compared to its Female counterpart. In Female Gothic the supernatural elements are explained away, like in Jane Eyre when we learn that the ghost is really Bertha Mason or how in The Phantom of the Opera the opera ghost is a masked man. In Male Gothic the supernatural is real, as in Dracula or The Monk.

Check. (The show is called Supernatural after all.)

Also, in Male Gothic, the hero tends to suffer a separation from their mother while in Female Gothic the concern lies with the father. For example, Clarice Starling and Christine Daaé both suffer from the loss of their fathers while Laura in Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla is motherless and Stephen King’s Carrie suffers under the hands of her own mother. Essentially, Gothic fictions are family dramas.

In Supernatural the drama begins the night the boys lose their mother in a fire. Later on we learn that, if she had lived, they probably never would have become hunters. It is exacting revenge for her death that drives the first two seasons and, as the series goes on, it is her memory that is used to manipulate her boys. The show also has a running theme of absentee fathers with both John Winchester and God being dead-beat dads. While in Female Gothic the hero(ine) finds a replacement father, in Male Gothic the heroes attempt to move forward and away (Carry on My Wayward Sons).

 Lastly, the plot of Male Gothic is generally tragic while Female Gothic plots generally end with happy endings. For example, Jane Eyre marries her beloved Mr. Rochester while Ambrosio from The Monk is damned.

At the end of my first post I mentioned that fans have a pretty good idea that the show will end in tragedy; that it will end with Sam and Dean meeting some tragic end. Even the stars believe this.

In my last Supernatural post I talked about Dean and his sacrifices, however, Sam is an even more tragic figure. When we first met him he was a Stanford student on his way to law school and a happy, normal life with his girlfriend Jess. Then Jess died and he went back on the road with Dean and they’re pulled into a life on the run from the law and destiny. Sam goes from a good kid trying to keep his brother in line to a lost soul, doing the wrong things with the best of intentions (things like drinking demon blood) and spending 180 years in Hell. There is a reason why he is Lucifer’s destined vessel.

However, the tragedy isn’t limited to just the Winchesters.

Since watching the season six episode “The Man Who Would Be King” (6x20) I can’t help but see Cas as a Promethean figure. The Angel of Thursday went from a loyal and obedient soldier of Heaven to a rebel, siding with humanity and the Winchesters and choosing to value freedom and choice over the Will of Heaven. After stopping the Apocalypse he returned to Heaven with the intention of introducing free will to his brothers and sisters, but of course it doesn’t work because “Explaining freedom to angels is a bit like teaching poetry to fish.” But after waging a civil war against the archangel Raphael he has become a bit disenfranchised by the notion, explaining that he should have told them “Freedom is a length of rope and God wants you to hang yourself with it.” In the end he overreaches and falls…hard.

As we stand now, seven episodes into season 8, Cas has fallen and is essentially in exile, Dean is marred by his experience in Purgatory by PTSD, and Sam is struggling with a choice of staying in the family business and finally getting that apple pie life he’s always wanted all the while they try to shut the Gates of Hell forever.

As I’ve said before, the fans have a good idea of how the show will end. When the time comes it won’t be about whether or not they successfully shut the Gates of Hell or who will live or die. They will close those gates. Instead, at the very end, it’ll be about what side of those gates we leave them standing on. Surely Heaven waits for them.