Gothic Heroine - Empress Sisi

Empress Sisi embodied the characteristics of a gothic heroine throughout her life in many different ways.  She lived a life of imprisonment within the nobility and this prevented her from expressing her heritage, interests, and desires.  Empress Sisi was bound by the empire to act according to their standards and she was not able to enjoy the pleasures in life such as taking care of her animals, walking, and being a mother.  Her daughter died as an infant and her son grew up to be a man but committed suicide with his lover.  The deaths of her children destroyed her life and were one of the causes of her spiral into a deep depression.  Empress Sisi dealt with extreme nostalgia as well as mental instability and a constant fear of the empire and her royal life.  She constantly yearned for an imagined better quality of life which she was destined to never receive.  Empress Sisi was a gothic heroine due to her reluctant way of complying to the empire's formalities.