The thing about Wooden Overcoats that interests me most is its almost gothic aspects. There are the surface nods to gothic aestheticism with the gloomy weather of a rural English island and the macabre setting of a funeral home run by the village outcasts. But I believe the Gothicism extends further into the themes and the characters themselves.
Antigone is most obviously reminiscent of the iconic character archetypes of gothic literature. She has an off putting, almost spectral presence. At the beginning of the story she is a complete shut in. Isolated from society, she only even leaves the house once a week to sit by herself in an empty theatre. There is also the matter of her fascination with the mortuary sciences and her reverence for it on a philosophical level. She can be seen in a sense as a keeper of death.
Rudyard conversely is completely consumed by his role as an undertaker. That his business is a family business is of great importance to him. Rudyard sees himself as the torch bearer of his family's legacy. It is revealed slowly over the course of the story how terrified he is at the thought of failing in his role. His inheritance is a gothic one not only because it has to do with death but in the sense that his whole life is haunted by it.
Funn Funeral home thus presents itself as a symbol akin to the haunted houses of gothic fiction. Funn does not stand for Rudyard's name but rather the Funn bloodline itself. It is a monument of tradition that exerts influence over the lives of its owners. It is also the site of the twins' childhood neglect. It is where Antigone learnt to reign in her personhood completely for fear of societal disapproval. It is where Rudyard lost himself to the expectations of his father. This familial rot trapped and inhibited the twins, and in true gothic fashion, festered for decades till the idea of moving beyond it became unthinkable.
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