I Am Legend

Horror novels such as I Am Legend generally construct narrative, character, and symbolic expectations particular to the genre. The horror genre is rooted in Gothic, a literary movement of the Victorian period that typically featured a woman locked in a house, some mystical or spiritual threat, and the absence of male protectors. I Am Legend navigates these genre expectations in a way that centers masculinity rather than innocent femininity.

Robert Neville, a character living in the 1970s but reflective of early 1950s America and its clearly defined gender roles, comments that he doesn’t keep the inside of his house clean as “he was a man and he was alone and these things had no importance to him” (3). Instead of explaining his habit as a symptom of alcoholism or depression, Neville comments that he is a “man” and therefore doesn’t care about a little mess—the implication being that if he were a woman, or if his wife Virginia were still alive, the house would be cleaner. Still, he is essentially locked in a house as a Victorian damsel would, and his lifestyle reflects the gendered expectations of his society.