Laura was told that, if she ever wanted to secure the tenure-track job of her dreams, she needed to convince a certain high-profile professor to serve as her dissertation advisor. That’s how she ended up like Emily St. Aubert—the heroine of Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho whose life is dominated by one very imposing figure. Find out exactly what makes these figures so imposing and how each heroine makes her escape in this chapter of My Gothic Dissertation.