SOPHIA LOROM (Mentor: James Krasner)
My January Research Opportunity Program (JROP) project focused on themes of confinement, repression, and rebellion in female-authored Victorian Gothic literature. I mainly focused on Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, alongside shorter works from Elizabeth Gaskell and Mary Elizabeth Braddon. My project relates to the theme of social inequity because it illuminates the societal limitations and expectations placed on women during this time, and reveals how marginalized female writers challenged these constraints through stories containing symbols of struggle, anxiety, and resistance.
Prior to beginning my research project, I had no knowledge or grounding in Gothic literature, so I had to quickly navigate the female Victorian literary canon and read several essential texts. During J-Term, I synthesized my primary texts with academic articles, inviting philosophy, psychology, and historical perspectives into my literary analysis. Throughout this process, I developed an original literary argument based on my findings and began writing a long-form scholarly academic paper, which I finished near the end of the designated period at approximately twenty pages.
I found that Brontë in particular tends to utilize an overarching binary of civilization and barbarism to categorize characters and settings. While her approach was often criticized as being filled with rage and elementary in its philosophy, due to her simplification of the conflicts between civilization and barbarism and the characters who represent their respective sides, I argue that her work, being told from the view of an individual girl facing the pressures of Victorian society, represents an individual seeking freedom in a world that only offers predetermined paths. One can either adhere to the standards of English society, renouncing individuality, or become a transgressive criminal in the eyes of the public. Jane Eyre manages to pave an seemingly impossible third path toward self-definition and individual harmony, finding balance between these two trajectories through contained, morally grounded rebellion and a staunch refusal to accept anything less. Jane Eyre represents the ideal of a fused domestic and autonomous female vision, whereas many Gothic stories, including The Grey Woman by Elizabeth Gaskell and The Cold Embrace by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, primarily warn about the precarious position of women, showing the consequences of committing to a predetermined path rather than embarking on an individualized search for happiness.
As an English major, this project allowed me to strengthen my research and synthesis skills, refine my scholarly writing voice, explore the Victorian Gothic canon and its themes, and engage deeply in critical thinking and literary analysis. It gave me time to take my classwork a step further and apply my learning independently by developing personal interpretations and constructing a well-supported argument. It allowed me to explore a subject that genuinely interests me, focus in on authors in a particular genre and time period, and better understand the struggles women have faced in their search for autonomy—especially within societies defined by confinement and repressed passion, such as the strict Victorian era in England. This project has propelled me forward and prepared me for the high-level literature courses I will take in the coming years.
In the future, I am interested in pursuing writing and becoming involved with academia. This research allowed me to study inspiring female authors who will contribute to my developing literary style, and it gave me early experience in literary research, laying the groundwork for my honors thesis and future graduate studies topics. This project also established topics I plan to explore in my upcoming years and revisit in future research projects and theses, including progressive individuality and existentialism in Gothic texts.
Sophia Lorom is an English literature major and writing minor. In summer 2026, Sophia continued her research with a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) from the Hamel Center for her project titled, “Vice, Virtue, and the Divided Self: Moral Conflict in the Victorian Gothic.â€
