Stalking Jack the Ripper

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.

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.