How does the character of Clara compare to women in other fiction of the same era? Has the depiction of women in Gothic fiction changed in the last two centuries?

In a different genre, a detective mystery for example, the characters might assume natural, rather than supernatural, explanations first. How might the story have progressed differently if the characters had started from a purely rational perspective? What about a straight horror novel?

Compare the theme of woman as victim of seduction in Wieland to its treatment in another book such as Pamela by Samuel Richardson, Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, or The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.