51 pages • 1 hour read
Kerri ManiscalcoStalking Jack the Ripper
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Laboratory
Stalking Jack to Ripper is peppered with motifs of the Gothic genre. These motifs, such as stormy or misty weather, dead bodies, experimentation on corpses, interaction with the supernatural, and grotesque deaths, invoke a sinister and malevolent mood that frightens and intrigues the reader. One of the strongest Gothic motifs is the laboratory: It is the space in which the examination of corpses takes place, both for legitimate medical research, like the autopsies that Audrey, Thomas, and Uncle Jonatan perform, and for the monstrous purposes of Nathaniel’s reanimation project. The Ripper crime scenes function as unofficial laboratories as Nathaniel performs his dissections and organ removal there. In each laboratory scene, Maniscalco creates a mounting sense of suspense and foreboding, which culminates in the quintessentially Gothic scene evoked in Nathaniel’s macabre laboratory lair, which features rotting organs, the decomposing corpse of his mother, and an electrically stimulated heart, all reminiscent of the doctor’s laboratory in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Audrey’s Breeches
Unlike the skirts and corsets Audrey usually wears (and which she is expected to wear as an aristocratic woman), Audrey’s black riding breeches make her feel unencumbered and powerful. Her corsets leave her feeling short of breath, and the skirts get tangled in her legs and slow her down. The flouncy and impractical outfits of aristocratic women illustrate the fact that these women are expected to be beautiful ornaments rather than active participants in public life. Conversely, the breeches symbolize freedom from the oppressive gender role into which Audrey feels like she is being forced. It is acceptable for women to wear a riding habit and breeches but only when they are riding a horse. Taking this attire out of context is viewed as subversive. In addition, their association with horse-riding and sport symbolizes freedom and action, two traits that exemplify Audrey’s nonconforming personality. Wearing her breeches, Audrey feels freedom to move about the city to investigate the Jack the Ripper murders and free to continue studying her beloved forensic science.
Blades
In the narrative, blades are associated with both medical discovery and crime. In this sense, the blade carries dual symbolism and represents the struggle between good and evil in the novel. In Uncle Jonathan’s laboratory, Audrey notes the “curved, scythe-like blade of the amputation knife” (23) as one of the frightening instruments used for autopsies. Even though the blade in this case is being used for legitimate scientific purposes, it still evokes danger and death. Blades have a psycho-sexual association as a penetrative object as well. This is seen when Audrey is performing a corpse dissection and “split the skin wide with [her] blade” (187), which earns Thomas’s admiration. In a more violent example, the way in which Nathaniel stabs, disembowels, and dismembers his victims points to the blade acting as a sexually penetrative object. Though this theme is minimized in Stalking Jack the Ripper, the historical Jack the Ripper sexually mutilated his victims, removing the uteruses from some and cutting off the breasts of others. Finally, the blade is the key to solving the murder as the cuts on Nathaniel’s fingertips and his possession of the same kind of knife used in the murders prove him to be guilty.
