Cassandra Clare Analysis

In the use of world-building, Cassandra Clare uses the young heroine’s memory loss as a technique to place the fear into the young heroine entering the world of the Shadowhunters and Downworlders. Jace brings Clary into the New York Institute that has other Shadowhunters, and gets her to use her sight in order to see his world. The institute is revealed as she says the institute was huge, a vast cavernous space that looked less like it had been designed according to a floor plan and more like it had been naturally hallowed out of rock by the passage of water and years. (Clare 63).
Clary’s description of the Institute is a representation of her beginning to understand part of the world Shadowhunters live in. Her fear and terror is lessened

This exuberates the fear and terror Clary experiences when entering the other world. The fear of being harmed by the being in the other world, makes Clary fear for her life, as “Clary fought the urge to cry out. The archivist’s head was bald, smooth and white as an egg, darkly indented where his eyes had once been. They were gone now. His lips were crisscrossed with a pattern of dark lines that resembled surgical stitches. (Clare 166) Similar to Emily connection of the banditti to Udolpho, the terror of the silent brother distinguished a horror that made her fear what would happen to her when entering the world of Shadowhunters. His presence created the anxiety of what he could possibly do to her, one thing being entering her mind without permission. The Silent City, the tomb of the dead, presents the political-social structure of death for the Shadowhunters. Clary enters this branch of the world, which makes her hold onto anything that resembles safety, Jace another Shadowhunter, who can protect her from being attacked by the brotherhood. Her inexperience makes her have to face the fears and attempt to understand, even if she fears for her

The young heroine paints society upon a canvas of experiences women have gone through during the time period. The impact of the encounters between the villain and the young heroine distinguish the political tension found in the fears of the female heroine that arise from the development of the villain. The young heroine in the Gothic must continue living in the Other world under the villain’s political system in order to face the villain that holds all the heroine’s power. She must attempt to overcome the villain in hopes of becoming the young heroine she is meant to