Category: Gothic Fiction

Who doesn’t love a theatrical drama filled with contemplation? Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a spectacular adaption of the renowned 1817 gothic novel, Frankenstein, and is a movie lover’s dream, touching the thoughts of viewers since its release in 1994. Today, Branagh has sat down with me to discuss how he has used gothic elements, such as women, to appeal to the modern audience to depict the infamous tale so the modern audience can still enjoy this classic.

Hi Kenneth, thank you so much for joining me today! Your legendary film, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, was a success upon its release in 1994. How did you have such success in keeping the attraction and appeal of a 19th gothic tale for modern audiences?

Thank you for having me, it is such a pleasure to be talking with you! I remember when I was coming up with ideas for the film, it became extremely important to modernize the film. These days, a classic story must be modernized in order to keep the audience intrigued and keep wanting more. It was an idea of mine to change parts of the novel to make the film more interesting in order to attract a large base of movie enthusiasts. A difference in the film was the decision to change the representation of women. I decided to change this to reinvent the film so that it could stand on its own against the modernization of society. Society and its values have changed since the 19th century and the novel was lacking a lot of what our society values today. It became a decision that I stick by to this very day. The character of Elizabeth was changed so that the audience could understand her values. I decided to change her personality and make her a strong independent woman. I felt that the audience would connect with the film better if I made Elizabeth an empowering woman.

I added this scene where Elizabeth decides to leave Victor after the way that he has treated her. I used a long-range shot with blurry imagery to utilize the gothic element of emptiness in their relationship to capture modern society’s attention. You can clearly see that Elizabeth covering her wedding dress shows that Elizabeth is taking back control of her life after the lack of clarity that Victor had given her hence the poor images.

As you know, in modern society women are far more independent and bolder than in the 19th century. Changing their personality of Elizabeth was a necessary step in the right direction. All women deserved to be properly represented which I felt that unfortunately, the novel did not do justice for.

It was my idea to create something fresh and inspired, resulting in audiences having something they had never seen before, and I just fell in love with this new take on the story.

I also think the younger generation is very much attracted to stories with empowering supporting women such as Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series.

The elements in this film were amazing! It looks like you went into great detail with them. The story of Frankenstein is one that is quite gothic and dark, how did you manage to enhance these gothic themes?

They certainly were! I believed the settings and soundtrack were the keys to this film. When looking for locations for the film I tried to source out the best of the best as I believed that exaggerated settings are important when making a gothic film. It’s a technique of gothic movies that symbolizes important information.

Locations managers, Paul Shersby and Stefan Zürcher were sensational in finding and organizing locations that the three of us deemed fit for the film. I was extraordinarily lucky to have them as a part of my team as we were on the same page when it came down to the final decision. They both believed that the locations were the most important part of the film as they tell the whole story. A setting can determine the mood for a particular scene like when Elizabeth dies, the violent storm outside was there to represent the lack of control that she had in preventing her death.

As for the soundtrack, the music supervisor, Maggie Rodford, was an important part of our film as setting and sound are equally important in creating a gothic masterpiece. The soundtrack in Elizabeth’s rebirth scene was important to represent the horror of the audience once they realized what Victor had done. The carousel music playing as they are dancing is to …

Through the soundtrack, we were able to emotionally connect the audience to the film which is an important part of gothic films as the audience’s emotions change due to the sounds that they here. By using these artistic and technical merits, I feel they are impressive to viewers and give the story the grace that it deserves!

With your representation of female characters, you managed to show two types of women in this film. Why did you choose to characterize Elizabeth differently from the original gothic woman but not do the same for Justine?

My main focus was to create a more modernized storyline which can be rather hard to do. However, I refused to allow my modernization of the film to change the entire structure of the novel. While I changed Elizabeth into a strong woman, I could not do anything with Justine due to the way Mary Shelley designed her. Justine is portrayed as a weak woman that is always trapped with no way out. If I tried to change her, the storyline would have been disrupted. In the novel, Justine is famed for the murder of Victor’s younger brother because she was found asleep with the engagement necklace that the little brother last had. This all comes down to Justine being portrayed as a weak female as she was led to that situation by being sick. If I made Justine to be a strong independent female character, Justine would never have let herself fall asleep in the cabin or let herself be framed for the younger brothers’ murder. I also chose to modernize Elizabeth’s character because I wanted her and Elizabeth to be equal in their relationship. In the novel, there is no equality in their relationship, and I felt that as the director, I was required to change this. The only way through was to change Elizabeth’s personality so that the equality in the relationship was not out of place and awkward in the final product.

Thank you so much for your time today, it has been wonderful getting your in-depth view on the motivations behind Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and now you can see the feministic approach in the film made it such a huge success. It was great to hear how your use of gothic elements in the 19th century, has actually attracted the modern audiences of today.

Gothic literature is a popular genre that dominated Western literature throughout the 19th century and still endures today due to its grotesque yet gripping allure. From the looming image of Frankenstein’s monster to the macabre tales of Edgar Allan Poe, images of the gothic genre have permeated Western literature and popular culture. Explore the morbid, fantastical elements and characteristics of Gothic literature, as well as classic and contemporary examples of this influential genre.

Gothic literature is a genre of literature that rose to prominence in the late 18th century. The term Gothic historically refers to a style of architecture popularized in the Medieval period. The term has since become applicable to any medium that displays particular aesthetic characteristics, such as dark settings and atmosphere and elements of the supernatural. All this and more can be found in Gothic novels.

Many Gothic stories that are read and retold today are now considered classics. Dive into the plots of a few Gothic novel greats.

The Castle of Otranto contained all the elements necessary to be dubbed the first true Gothic novel. So much so that the subtitle that appeared on the cover was “A Gothic Story.” This genre-defining tale has all the hallmarks of a good Gothic novel: prophecy, a crumbling castle, a madman, a murder, and intrigue.

Corruption and downfall take center stage in this Gothic novel with two interweaving plotlines. Readers of the day were riveted and repulsed by the downfall of the titular monk, Ambrosio, and his interactions with a demon, as well as enthralled by the romance between Raymond and Agnes. This Gothic classic features genre staples such as ghosts, demons, rituals, and prophecies.

At just nineteen, Mary Shelley revolutionized both the Gothic and Science Fiction genres with her classic novel Frankenstein. The novel depicts the anti-hero Victor Frankenstein, who is driven to near insanity by his thirst for knowledge, resulting in the creation of the iconic Frankenstein’s monster. The story has been retold countless times and endures as a staple of the genre and Western literature in general.

Gothic literature can trace its roots to Romanticism, a movement that swept through Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Gothic literature stems from Dark Romanticism, a more macabre subgenre of Romanticism. This literary movement was particularly prevalent in English and German literature and ultimately dominated the market. Notably, many female authors rose to prominence writing Gothic literature, including Ann Radcliffe, Clara Reeves, Mary Shelley, the Brontë sisters, and even Jane Austen.

Some subgenres of Gothic literature include Gothic romance and Gothic horror. A popular example of Gothic romance is Jane Eyre, while the term Gothic horror might apply to the works of Edgar Allan Poe. A popular subgenre that has emerged in modern times is Southern Gothic, with notable works such as Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Beloved by Toni Morrison, and the works of Flannery O’Connor and Cormac McCarthy.

Gothic literature feeds off the fears and curiosities of the human experience to weave thrilling, imaginative tales. Keep your journey into literature going by exploring different literary genres, including ghost and monster stories.

Ever read a strange book or watch a scary film, and feel the hairs on your arms stand on end? Ever get the “chills” encountering a creepy story, or have a hard-to-pin-down, icky feeling while standing in a cemetery or house that feels “haunted”? Have you ever had a funny feeling, but can’t quite put your finger on what it is that’s actually bothering you?

Those feelings are intrinsic to the experience of reading Gothic literature. Many authors of Gothic literature capitalized on those creepy feelings in order to usher in a new literary experience for readers. Broadly conceived, the Gothic is a sub-category of the Romantic genre including poetry, short stories, or novels designed to thrill readers by providing mystery and blood-curdling accounts of villainy, murder, and the supernatural. Common characteristics of classic Gothic literature include: wild and desolate landscapes; ancient buildings (ruined mansions, monasteries, etc.); castles and dungeons; secret doors and winding stairways; and apparitions and phantoms (“Literary Terms and Definitions”). J. A. Cuddon aptly describes one important quality of the Gothic: “an atmosphere of brooding gloom” (Dictionary of Literary Terms, 381-82). While many Gothic texts include seemingly impossible scenarios and otherworldly events, the biggest, and most effective, thrill of the Gothic is how it taps into the essential terrors of human experience, hidden fears and desires, and the hauntings of the historical past. Narratives about crumbling castles and damsels in distress may not be in style anymore, but many characteristics of the Gothic prevail today in popular culture—ranging from the Harry Potter series, to noir films, to the Twilight franchise.

For the purposes of introducing and studying the Gothic in the classroom, however, one important characteristic is the particular role the genre plays in American literature, history, and culture. The American Gothic can be approached as a cultural lens, through which we can examine the social, political, and aesthetic investments of a particular historical period.

Gothic literature has a long, complex, and multi-layered history. In many ways, the Gothic genre invites many larger questions about the literary field, including—but not limited to—the ideas of how and when literary “canons” are formed, by whom, and under what conditions. As with any genre, the frameworks of the Gothic can be studied, as well as disrupted. For instance, how would our perspective on the American Gothic change in the context of transatlantic (Henry James), postcolonial (Jean Rhys), or North American (Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood) perspectives? While this essay focuses on writers often taught in American literature classrooms, it is necessary to recognize—and even challenge—the categories that have organized how we read and teach literature in the classroom. And if you need to write a gothic literature essay due tomorrow you may be interested in checking top writing services reviewed by Omnipapers and pick the one that is the best for your needs.

This article approaches the American Gothic literary text as a cultural and social object; in other words, not only does it convey important material in the writing itself, as it pertains to conventions related to the language (plot, underlying symbolism and messages, staging a critique, calling attention to a social problem, etc.). As a physical object, an American Gothic text also performs important cultural work. Through observing and analyzing its paratextual qualities (qualities of the text other than the written language, including its physical appearance, circumstances of publication, book sales, circulation, etc.), we can encounter, first-hand, the ways in which an American Gothic text functions as a historical and cultural artifact.

In order to study the American Gothic, it is important to understand its original foundations, found in the eighteenth century. While “spooky” things have certainly always existed, those who study the Gothic literary tradition identify its beginnings with Horace Walpole, a British art historian, writer, and politician. In 1749, motivated by his own fascination with medieval history and artifacts, Walpole built Strawberry Hill House, a Gothic villa in Twickenham, a neighborhood in southwest London. This series of turreted, castle-like buildings departed from the classical architecture popular in the 18th century, and helped bring Gothic revival architecture to public’s imagination. It also became closely connected to the Gothic literary movement.

His aesthetic interest filtered into his life as an author, as well. Walpole wrote the book The Castle of Otranto (under the pseudonym “William Marshal”) while a member of British Parliament for the Whig Party in 1764. It is deemed among scholars to be the first supernatural novel, as well as a mixture of old and new themes—with “real people” in ordinary life experiencing otherworldly, extraordinary situations that are difficult to rationalize and explain.

In the first edition, Walpole claimed that the story was a translation of an original Italian manuscript from 1529 by “Onuphrio Muralto.” It was only until the publication of the second edition of the book that he admitted himself as the author. One possible reason for not admitting full authorship of the story would be to distance himself from sensational fiction, which was a controversial literary genre in the eighteenth century. The idea of discovering a manuscript would, therefore, makes the circumstances surrounding the story seem more historical than fantastical. (Undoubtedly, as an art historian, Walpole had the theme of history at the front of his mind.) However, another motivation for Walpole’s denial could relate to the idea of deflecting authorial responsibility for the story, as he claims himself a mere “translator” of another writer’s narrative. Additionally, the idea of a 16th-century manuscript heightens the exotic narrative of Otranto, staging it in an otherworldly place (Italy) as well as another time, “long ago.” These otherworldly characteristics contribute to the effect of the Gothic as displacing the reader from “normal life” into another setting, in which the supernatural reigns.

The story of The Castle of Otranto is a long and convoluted one. It focuses on a man named Manfred, whose son, Conrad, dies before his wedding to the princess Isabella. Anxious about continuing the family line, Manfred marries Isabella after divorcing his wife. As his plans become increasingly evil, the castle becomes haunted. Aside from centering on Manfred’s concern about continuing the family line, the story features many supernatural occurrences, portraits that come to life and walk around, trapdoors and secret passageways, and doors that open without warning.

This section’s featured woodcut image depicts the famous scene in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839), during which Poe’s narrator and Roderick Usher carry his sister, Madeline, into the family tomb. Abner Epstein’s woodcut, in a 20th-century edition of Poe’s story, depicts a stark aesthetic, with Roderick’s disheveled look—and maddening gaze—placed front and center. This pictorial representation of Poe’s story contrasts the flowery, fantastical illustration of Otranto in Horace’s frontispiece, pictured in the above section. Instead of focusing on the romantic scenery and majestic buildings, this woodcut illustrates the downward spiral of one’s own psyche, symbolized further in the downward descent of the (we later learn, half-live) corpse into the tomb.

Because of their different time periods and artistic mediums, these two illustrations call attention to how the Gothic has evolved as a literary genre across the centuries. Certainly, we identify important influences of the eighteenth-century Gothic in American works; take, for instance, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” which takes place in an unknown Italian city, in the catacombs during a raucous Carnival festival.

The American Gothic as a genre generally shifts away from the outward appearances of haunted landscapes and buildings, as well as outward signs of the supernatural, to the inward terrors of one’s own mind. The above image is an apt symbol of Poe’s preoccupations as a storyteller—as well as his important influence on the Gothic genre in America.

Many American writers have been categorized as “Gothic” writers, including (but not limited to): Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Henry James, Ambrose Bierce, Stephen Crane, William Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, Toni Morrison, Stephen King, and Joyce Carol Oates. These writers deploy elements of the Gothic to illustrate their social, political, and cultural concerns about what they observe around them.

The American Gothic genre is at once vast and diverse, and unified by shared thematic concerns. Whereas earlier centuries emphasized the Gothic genre as a form of escapist literature, with a “long ago and far away” atmosphere, the American Gothic focuses on important elements of daily life that, when framed in a Gothic nature, brings a new light to social issues that may be at first too “ordinary” to notice. In his book American Gothic (2009), Charles Crow claims that this genre enabled “the imaginative expression of the fears and forbidden desires of Americans” (1). In comparison to earlier versions of the Gothic, which focused on ancestral bloodlines and decaying, centuries-old castles, the American Gothic digs deeper into the darker, often psychological underbelly of everyday life. Even in outwardly “extra-ordinary” plot lines (a drunken party during carnival season, like in Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” for example), there lies an emphasis on one’s inner evils, drives, and secret desires. Poe, in particular, often utilizes a self-proclaimed “rational” narrator to illuminate his own inner demons and murderous drives (Crow).

Examples of ordinary occurrences and events, framed with Gothic qualities, include post-Reconstruction South and slavery (William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily”), and women’s issues, including depression, childbirth, and the abuse by men in the medical profession (Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wall-Paper”). The former, an example of the Southern Gothic sub-genre, rests on the tension between a dangerously false, nostalgic representation of American slavery with the economic, social, and physical realities of slavery and its aftermath in American history. The latter illustrates the feminist possibilities within what may originally seem a “damsel-in-distress” genre. Gilman’s loosely autobiographical story a woman’s descent into madness while participating in the “rest cure” illuminates the conflict between one’s desires (especially to engage in creative expression, through writing) and the social constraints of marriage and motherhood. Additionally, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” has played a crucial role in scholarship that re-examines the American literary “canon” and makes conscious efforts to bring more women writers into the conversation.

Crow, responding to and building from Leslie Fiedler’s definition of the American Gothic in his seminal work Love and Death in the American Novel (1960), writes that “[the] American Gothic is no longer defined as a narrow tradition bound by certain props (ruined castles, usually in foreign lands, and imperiled maidens). It is now usually seen as a tradition of oppositional literature, presenting in disturbing, usually frightening ways, a skeptical, ambiguous view of human nature and of history. The Gothic exposes the repressed, what is hidden, unspoken, deliberately forgotten, in the lives of individuals and of cultures”.

Crow’s assessment of the American Gothic prioritizes how the way things appear on the surface can amplify the felt, unseen terrors that lie beneath an individual, community, or nation.

The Table of Contents in Edgar Allan Poe’s Prose Tales shows an unidentified reader engaging with the stories he or she reads. The various reactions, indicated by the writing in the margins (also called marginalia), indicates how this reader connected so powerfully with these stories that he or she wanted to scribble commentary inside of the book itself. This is not an unusual thing to see in nineteenth-century books; however, in the context of the American Gothic, it is important to remember that these stories are meant to engage, titillate, and terrify their readers.

Aside from some important shared formal characteristics, Gothic American literature can allow us to witness important cultural moments and debates in American history. Various texts held at the Newberry Library show us the ways in which these stories circulated and—as in the case of the image above—were received by audiences.

As this collection has shown, the Gothic genre is quite vast. It is partly such a large genre because people have used elements of the Gothic to communicate other ideas about society, politics, gender, health and medicine, and history. The Gothic genre has been utilized by writers to communicate messages about their contemporary lifetimes that they believe are problematic, controversial, or worthy of social change.

The paratextual qualities (characteristics of a text that do not relate to written content) of sentimental writer Mary E. Wilkins [Freeman’s] The Wind in the Rose-Bush (1903) contain several stylistic flourishes that suggest a targeted female readership. The book cover, including a red rose and a faintly-drawn woman spirit, ascribes to traditional conceptions of femininity as aesthetically beautiful and delicate. Even the gold type of Wilkins’s title adds a bit of glamour to this collection of ghost stories, and one can imagine the edition looking very elegant sitting in a bookshelf in a personal library. The illustrations, by Peter Newell, have a genteel, soft quality that humanizes the spiritual apparitions—almost as if to make the ghosts more personable and less threatening, despite their otherworldly state.

In addition to Wilkins’s book, many published short stories can reveal the way the Gothic genre can be used to advocate for social change. An important example in the women’s writing genre is Charlotte Perkins Stetson [Gilman’s] short story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” (1892), first published in New England Magazine.

This story, which is told in journal entries, is about a woman’s descent into mental illness or so-called “madness.” She becomes enthralled and, eventually, obsessed by the changing patterns in the wallpaper of her room (which used to be a nursery), and she eventually succumbs to them with erratic and obsessive behavior. Arguably exacerbated by the medical cure intended to treat her “nervous condition” in the first place, the narrator is a patient of the “rest cure”—a treatment that required complete abstention from physical and mental activity, including writing. For a creative and prolific writer, as well as feminist, such as Gilman, one can imagine that this issue was close to the author’s heart.

“The Yellow Wall-Paper” contains many important themes found in the Gothic tradition, including the speaker’s powerlessness and expressions of inner turmoil and—possibly—madness. In one of her journal entries, she mentions the “queer” state of the old house in which she resides (647)—echoing Poe’s narrator’s feelings of uneasiness in the opening pages of “The Fall of the House of Usher.” She also describes feeling like a prisoner in her own home, and the lengths she would go to in order to be free: “I am getting angry enough to do something desperate. To jump out of the window would be admirable exercise, but the bars are too strong even to try”. By the end of the story, the narrator’s behavior upends the household, rendering her husband, a doctor named John, senseless on the floor after fainting.

Many readers interpret “The Yellow Wall-Paper” as an autobiographical story inspired by Gilman’s own experiences under the rest cure, developed by the physician Silas Weir Mitchell. Gilman allegedly wrote the story to inspire Weir to consider the detrimental effects of the rest cure. The Newberry owns a copy of one of his publications, Doctor and Patient.

For Gilman, the Gothic specter terrorizing her life is not an ancestral ghost, or a “haunted” mansion; it is the pressure of maternal and marital convention—the struggle between individual desires and social expectations for all women at the turn of the twentieth century. And while the story describes a house ridden by unusual events, ultimately “The Yellow Wall-Paper” cautions readers—women readers, in particular—of the terrifying and terrorizing presence of professional male doctors like Mitchell, with his abusive treatments and far-reaching power in the medical profession, domestic sphere, and the world of print. While Gilman wrote in a time before “mansplaining” was a mainstream term, she indeed criticized the all-powerful reach of Weir’s medical theories and treatments, and called attention to how his influence on the medical profession and women’s health exercises a traumatic influence over the body, as well as the mind. Alan Ryan sums up this idea of Gilman’s version of the Gothic the lines, “Gilman’s story is one of the finest, and strongest, tales of horror ever written. It may be a ghost story. Worse yet, it may not”.

There are 13 elements of European Gothic. Elements of European Gothic are important in a gothic novel because authors can explore supernatural thoughts and ideas through narration. Two famous stories of the gothic genre are “The Fall of The House of Usher ” by Edgar Allan Poe and “The Castle of Otranto” by Horace Walpole.

One of the elements of European Gothic that contributes to both these stories is supernatural or otherwise inexplicable events. “The great door to which he was pointing now slowly opened. It was the work of the rushing wind, perhaps — but no — outside that door a shape did stand, the tall figure, in its grave clothes, of the lady Madeline of Usher. There was blood upon her white dress, and the signs of her terrible efforts to escape were upon every part of her thin form” (33). In this passage, Poe revealed that Roderick’s twin sister was buried alive. She had blood on her as if she struggled to escape the tomb. Poe also revealed Roderick dies of fear from seeing his sister. In “The Fall of The House of Usher” Poe portrays the supernatural as wicked and relates it to hysteria. In unusual occasions, for example, Madeline’s restoration, the conceivable consciousness of the house simply makes its inhabitants crazy with dread, indicating how the otherworldly rots what it contacts.

“Manfred, distracted between the flight of Isabella, who had now reached the stairs, and yet unable to keep his eyes from the picture, which began to move, had, however, advanced some steps after her, still looking backward on the portrait” (ch. 2). In this quote, we have Manfred watching his grandfather’s portrait sighing and moving uncontrollably. In “The Castle of Otranto” the castle is dark and scary, tormented supernaturally by trap entryways banging shut, the moaning of the breeze, and the life-like nature of people in photo paintings.

“The Fall of The House of Usher” and the “Castle of Otranto” have a lot of similarities but one. In ‘The Fall of the House of Usher ” is told in an anonymous first-person. The “Castle of Otranto ” is written with omniscient individual meaning in which the narrator knows what the characters are feeling and thinking in the story. As a reader, I prefer reading a story in first-person since it has more intimacy. Reading in third -person tells us what to think and feel about the character and story.

“The Fall of The House of Usher” is a more compelling story for me because there is no lesson attached, the story must be appreciated for the well-being of its own without an ethical point. At the end of the story, Poe leaves us with just the narrator alive to describe the death of the Usher twins. Unlike the “Castle of Otranto” where Manfred has lost both his children due to his hunt for power. Walpole believed that literature was meant to be a lesson. 

Look in the mirror and what do you see? What identifies you as a person? Is there an underlying truth about your identity that you are unconscious of? Who do you let influence your appearance and beliefs? The truth is, every external and internal factor in our lives can make up who we are, they only can control us if we let it, and they only can control us if we give it power. All human beings are commingled out of good and evil. Every human being has an underlying doppelganger whether you believe it or not. One side of us may take control more so over the other, however, some people do not know how to control it and this is what fears people the most. People fear the unknown, misleading appearances, and duplicitous behaviors that may protrude into a person’s personality.

Gothic literature was first established with the publication of Horace Walpole’s dark, foreboding The Castle of Otranto in 1764. Since then, gothic fiction has not only flourished but also branched off into many popular subgenres. Advancing to the Victorian era (1837-1901), was a significant time where the production of some of the most well-known gothic novels were created including The Tell-Tale of Heart (1843) and The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886). Both gothic novels share a common theme of misleading appearances and duplicitous behaviors. Duality is the state of separation – it is the opposite of reality, and it is the cause of all suffering that is the product of the mind. Duality is essentially a person being made up of two personalities, a good side and an evil. These two natures are constantly fighting over one another. Seems quite strange believe me, but after reading and extracting some gothic texts, it’s the reality of this world and what people fear the most as our lives become centered around judgment, condemnation, and fear. In gothic literature, identity is represented as misleading and duplicitous as seen in ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’.

Have you ever met came across an individual and wondered what was going on inside their head? many people are misled by the way people present themselves. To some extent “The Tell-Tale Heart’ is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1843. A Tell Tale of Heart explores and demonstrates misleading appearances through the use of word choice. It is relayed by an unnamed narrator who endeavors to convince the reader of the narrator’s sanity while simultaneously describing a murder he committed. The narrator of the story constantly creates discrepancies and contradictions within his telling of the tale. A quote from this short story highlights this when he says, “I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him”. This quote is significant in displaying his contradicting personality of kindness and insanity, which comes across as misleading. We have seen this with his dual-sidedness, in which he makes his bid for sanity by describing his calm, cautioned, and heightened sense of being, while at the same time describing this brutal murderous act. Not only does he contradict his plea for sanity, but he also creates this other huge discrepancy in his story, and his logic, when he explains his motives for the murder of the old man.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is a narrative about the complexities of science and the duplicity of human nature. Dr Jekyll is a kind, well-respected, and intelligent scientist who meddles with the darker side of science, as he wants to bring out his ‘second’ nature. He does this through transforming himself into Mr. Hyde – his evil alter ego who doesn’t repent or accept responsibility for his evil crimes and ways. Jekyll tries to control his alter ego, Hyde, and for a while, Jekyll has the power. However, towards the end of the novel, Hyde takes control over Dr Jekyll manipulating his thoughts into evil and sacrifice.  

The Gothic fiction, however, enjoyed its heyday from 1762 to 1820 and influenced and inspired the sensational writers of the late nineteenth century. Certain merits of the Gothic fiction have been recognised by the Freudian psychologists. Herbert Read in his book Surrealism remarks: “It is possible that Monk Lewis, Maturin and Mrs. Radcliffe should relatively to Scott, Dickens and Hardy occupy a much higher rank.” He had defended the Gothic fiction against the objections that the plots of these novels are fictitious, that the characters are unreal and the sentiments that excite are morbid, “All these judgements merely reflect our prejudices. It is proper for a work of imagination to be fictitious, and for characters to be typical rather than realistic.”

Dr. D. P. Varma in his book “The Gothic Flame” observes : “The Gothic novel is a conception as vast and complex as a Gothic Cathedral. One finds in it the same sinister overtone and the same solemn grandeur.” According to Montague Summers (The Gothic Quest), Gothic was the essence of romanticism, and romanticism was the literary expression of supernaturalism. As a matter of fact, the Gothic fiction was a profound reaction against the long domination of reason and authority. The Gothic novelists enlarged the sense of reality and its impact on human beings. It acknowledged the nonrational in the world of things and events, occasionally in the realm of transcendental, ultimately and most persistently in the depth of the human being. The application of Freudian psychology to literature has altered our attitude to the Gothic romances. The suppressed neurotic and erotic of educated society are reflected in the Gothic romances. “The scenes of no in the Gothic fiction may have been the harmless release of that innate sp of cruelty which is present in each of us, an impulse mysterious inextricable connected with the very forces of life and death”

The Gothic fiction has a resemblance to the Gothic Architecture. The weird and eerie atmosphere of Gothic fiction was derived from the Gothic architecture which evoked feelings of horror, wildness, suspense and gloom. The stimulation of fear and the probing of the mysterious provided the raison d’etre of the Gothic novelists who took an important part in liberating the emotional energies that had been so long restrained by common sense and good form.

A number of influences contributed to the growth of the Gothic novel in the eighteenth century. It developed against the spirit of the Age of Reason and the stern warning of Dr. Johnson. The Gothic novel owes particularly to the picturesque antiquarianism, ruins and graveyard sentiment. Kenneth Clark in The Gothic Revival says : The Gothic novelists were the natural successors to the Graveyard poets. In the 18th century, the ghost stories were wide in circulation and people showed interest in questions of life, death, the occult, magic and astrology. The popularity of Spenser, Shakespeare and Milton intensified people’s belief in the supernatural. The Gothic novelists were inspired by the examples of Italy, France and Germany and by the oriental allegory or moral apologue of the east. Addison’s The Vision of Mirza (1711) and Johnson’s Rasselas (1759) gave some colour to Gothic romance.

Horace Walpole was the pioneer in Gothic fiction. Walpole’s sensitive imagination and dreaming mind absorbed the spirit of romanticism. His antiquarian interests caught the Gothic spirit–the romantic setting the continuous spell of horror, the colour of melancholy, awe and superstition which blossomed in The Castle of Otranto (1764). The Gothic romance is a horror novel in which we have walking skeletons, pictures that move out of their frames and their blood-curdling incidents. The ghostly machinery is often cumbrous but as a return to the romantic elements of mystery and fear, the book is noteworthy. Diana Neill, however, dismisses the book as amusing rather than frightening. Virginia Woolf in an article stated, “Walpole had imagination, taste, style in addition to a passion for the romantic past.” Miss Clara Reeve wrote many Gothic romances, the chief of them being ‘The Old English Baron’. She was the first Gothic novelist to make use of dreams. Miss Clara Reeve, however, lacked vivid imagination. Montague Summers condemns The Old English Baron as a “dull and didactic narrative told in a style of chilling mediocrity.”

Mrs. Ann Radcliffe, the wife of an Oxford graduate has been called “the Shakespeare of Romance writers”. Montague Summers refers to the sombre and sublime genius of Ann Radcliffe. Her romantic temperament, her passion for music and wild scenery, her love of solitude, her interest in the mysterious, her ability to arouse wonder and fear helped her in writing masterpiece in Gothic fiction. During the years 1789-1797, she wrote five romances Castles of Athlian and Dubayne, A Cicelian Romance, The Romance of the Forest, The Mysteries of Udolpho, The Italian Coleridge called The Mystery of Udolpho “the most interesting novel in the English language”. Its noble outline, its majestic and beautiful images harmonizing with the scenes exert an irresistible fascination. It gradually rises from the gentlest beauty towards the terrific and the sublime. Unlike other terror novelists, Mrs. Radcliffe rationalised the supernatural. We hear mysterious voices in the chamber of Udolpho, but we are told that they were the wanton tricks of a prisoner. She employed scenery for their own sake in the novel. Moreover, by her insight into the workings of fear, she contributed to the development of the psychological novel. She adopted the dramatic structure of the novel which influenced the Victorian novelists. Thus her influence percolated through Scott on the 19th century novel in its various aspects-psychological, romantic and structural.

Matthew Gregory Lewis made a spine-chilling and blood-curdling use of magic and necromancy and pointed the grim and ghastly themes in lurid colours. His The Monk absorbed the ghastly and crude supernaturalism of the German Romantic movement in English fiction. It is melodrama epitomised. He indulges in crude supernaturalism rising to a grotesque climax borrowed from Dr. Faustus, when a demon rescues the villain-hero from execution only to fly high in the air with him and drop him to his death cm jagged rocks.

Beckford’s Vathek is wholly a fantasy. Its air of mystery arises from supposedly unnatural causes, while a sense of horror is heightened for artistic effect. Its gorgeous style and stately descriptions, its exaltation of both poetic and moral justice relate it to the Gothic romance,

Charles Robert Maturin wrote a number of nicely constructed Gothic romances : The Fatal Revenge (1807), The Wild Irish Boy (1808). The Mebsian Chief (1872), Melmoth, The Wanderer (1820). Maturin dispensed with the spine-chilling paraphernalia of the Terror School and concentrated his attention on the suggestive and psychological handling of the stories. His acute insight into character, vivid descriptive faculty and sensitive style of writing are in the tradition of Mrs. Radcliffe; but by his unabashed of the supernatural he treads in the footsteps of Lewis. He introduces horror in the novel by the clever Radcliffian device of reticence and suggestion. His Melmoth the Wanderer may be called the swan song of Gothic fiction. After it the fashion gradually died away. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) is a remarkable Gothic novel. She employed the pseudo-scientific technique in depicting horrors in the novel. William Godwin wrote two horror novels Caleb Williams and St. Leon. He neither imitates the suggestive method of Mrs. Radcliffe, nor the gruesome horrors of Gregory Lewis, but he creates physical realistic horrors in his novels.

In both Gothic and romantic creeds there is a tendency to slip imperceptivity from the real into the other world, to demolish barriers between the physical and the psychic or supernatural. Wordsworth’s Guilt and Sorrow, Peter Bell, Coleridge’s The Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, Christabel, Keats’ The Eve of St. Agnes and La Belle Dame Sans Mercy, Shelley’s The Witch of Atlas are some Gothic poems influenced by the technique and devices of the Gothic fiction.

The Gothic romances have great influence on the Victorian and modern fiction. The sensational novels of Bulwar Lytton, Wilkie Collins in their emphasis on mystery and terror are a direct descent from the Gothic novels. The Bronte sisters luxuriously used the suggestive method of Radcliffe for creating the Gothic atmosphere in Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. Walter de la Mare’s Poem The Listeners is full of gothic setting.

In modern times, the fantasy of H. G. Wells, and C. S. Lewis, J . K Rowling, Edgar Allan Poe shows us worlds unknown, monstrous and horrible. The modern detective novels of Edgar Wallace and Peter Cheney are influenced by the Gothic romances. They provided a pattern and also inspired the sensational writers of to-day with the incentive that set them on the sinister paths of crime fiction.

Edgar Allan Poe is a famous American author. Poe wrote many famous poems such as “The Raven” and “Tell-Tale Hearts”. Poe’s poems are held in high regard today. He is seen as an amazing American author. Although many people believe that Poe’s mindset while writing poems was insane.

Many things will be gone over in this research paper. Such as Poe’s life a few poems by him and his mindset. Almost none of Poe’s stories are light-hearted. Poe’s stories were always dark and gothic-themed.

“Quoth the Raven nevermore” and “The Raven” written by Edgar Allan Poe is a famous pieces of poetry held in high regard today. It is one of Poe’s most famous pieces of poetry alongside “The Tell-Tale Hearts”. It tells of depression and loss. Alongside the theme, the story is dark in its own retrospect.

“The Raven” is one of Poe’s most famous poems. It is well known in the world mainly for the quote “Quoth the Raven nevermore”. It continues as the following a young man is mourning the loss of his lover after a time the young man falls asleep. Later in the night, the young man is awoken by a tapping on his window, which he believes is his lover, when the door is opened a Raven flies in through the newly opened passage. As the night progresses the man is awoken by the birds time after time. Within its first visit, the raven brings many dark and depressing themes such as grief, negativity, and depression, as a side note it is believed that a Raven is a sign of Death.

To restate this is one of Poe’s most famous pieces of poetry. This poem shows loss and grief in its finest form. Although it is mainly known for its quote, stated many times throughout the poem, “Quoth the Raven nevermore”. One of Poe’s inspirations for this poem was a Raven named “Grip” the pet of Charles Dickens.

Although the story was very dark to truly understand how Poe can write stories such as this, before going deeper. Poe grew up in Virginia where he grew up and went to school. Poe’s mother was an English actor, Eliza Poe. After graduating college Poe enlisted in the United States army where he wrote his first collection of Poems. After reading some of his poems people began to think Poe suffered from Mental Illnesses and I think a good example of this is “The Tell-Tale Hearts”.

“The Tell-Tale Hearts” is definitely one of the more, psychotic poems that Poe wrote. It starts with an older man and a young man working for the older one. The young man states multiple times that he is treated very well, well enough at least. But it is the old man’s “evil eye”, as the younger one calls it, that drives the young man crazy. And the young man begins to scheme

The young man watches the old man sleep for nights without sleep. And one night the young man breaks, from hearing the old man’s beating heart, and forcefully takes the eye from the Old Man, who by this time is dead. The young man is overcome by this and thinks he must hide the body to which he proceeds to cut the body into pieces. Days later the police come for the disappearance of the old man the young man invites them in as they search the young man feels he can hear the heartbeat of the old man’s heart and finally breaks again and confesses.

Although ‘Tell-Tale Hearts” is told very well some people may find it somewhat “over the top”. And although I love the work of Edgar Allan Poe some of these things take a Mentally Ill person to come up with. Although I am unsure if it ever was proven signs all point towards Poe having Mental Illnesses. But as I stated I am unsure if it was proven true or false.

Emily Jane Bronte was a British narrator and poet. She was born on 30 July 1818 and died on 19 December 1848. Emily is known for her only novel, Wuthering Heights published in 1847 in London under her alias Ellis Bell. Her novel is a classic of English literature. Emily’s character is mysterious and isolated. In addition, she has no friends outside the family. Among the literary works for Emily, the genre that is the most prominent in her writing is gothic, especially in her only novel Wuthering Heights.

Firstly, the novel of Wuthering Heights is categorized as a gothic novel and it includes gothic elements. Bronte’s novel is an important part of Gothic literature because it reconnoiters darkness in human awareness. Gothic literature is described as something that explores the darker sides of humanity and it is a genre of popular writers like Faulkner, Shelley, and Poe. Wuthering Height’s novel is a great example of Gothic Literature, owing in to the madness, decay, and setting. The gothic work is a combination of some of the elements. First, the castle whether was intact or destroyed or haunted or not. It plays a main role even being called a major character in the gothic novel. Second, the destroyed buildings that are evil or that excite a pleasing sadness. Third, winding stairs, labyrinths, and dark corridors.

Fourth, the extreme landscapes such as thick forests, extreme weather, icy wastes, and rugged mountains. Fifth, the hero whose true identity is discovered by the end of the novel. The Gothic inspires feelings of suspense, gloom, and mystery and tends to be sensational and dramatic such as necrophilia, incest, nameless terrors, and diabolism. It passes the boundaries, life and death, consciousness and unconsciousness, and daylight and dark. Sometimes explicitly, covertly, it displays taboos, transgression, and fears which fear of violation of social chaos, emotional collapse, and imprisonment. The elements of the gothic made their road to mainstream writing. They are found in some novels like Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, and Sir Walter Scott’s novels and romantic poetry such as John Keats’s ‘The Eve of St. AgnAgnesd Samuel Coleridge’s ‘Christabel.’

Secondly, we will start with the main characters in the novel.

Heathcliff is an emotional and revengeful man who Faces a harsh childhood and later desires retribution from Hindley because of his deep love for Catherine. Catherine Earnshaw is an energetic but snobbish girl. She felt sad when Heathcliff left her and finally, she married a rich man called Edgar Linton. Hindley Earnshaw is Catherine’s brother. He is jealous of Heathcliff and he kicked out Heathcliff of the house after his father died. Edgar Linton is Catherine’s modest husband. He loves his wife and patronizes her well. Nelly Dean is one of the tellers of the story and she works as a valet at Wuthering Heights.

Thirdly, Wuthering Heights is the romantic and emotional love story between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. The story is told by the narrator Mr. Lockwood, who is a guest to Wuthering Heights through Nelly Dean, the valet. Emily’s novel rounds around an orphan Heathcliff, the Linton relatives, Catherine Earnshaw, and her descendants. Heathcliff was an eager gypsy child adopted by the Earnshaw family. He fell in love with Catherine Earnshaw. In addition, she loved him, but they did not get married because she chose Edgar Linton, who was a rich man and had status. Heathcliff escapes with Isabella, Edgar’s sister. After that, Heathcliff becomes a wealthy and esteemed man. Heathcliff still loves Catherine throughout the story. He was buried next to his lover when he died. Emily portrays the natural powers and events clearly whilst telling the plot through Nelly Dean and Mr. Lockwood to present the relationship between the internal and external naturalist world in Wuthering Heights. According to Virginia Woolf’s notices in Wuthering Heights, she thinks that Emily wants “to say something across to her characters that are not only ‘I love’ or ‘I hate,’ but ‘we, the all human race’ and ‘you, the eternal powers. Emily managed to transfer important lessons around the world by using the extreme behavior of the difference between the characters, rather than just the lives of the figures themselves. According to Barbara Benedict, explicate that Emily herself in her role as a female author is a nosiness topic, but she becomes even more nosiness in her skillful ability to make a unique truth. In addition, Woolf depicts Emily as nearly possessing magic superpowers. The novel is full of boorish and antagonistic figures that mistreat and enact violence, revenge upon each other, and endlessly betray. The characters do not stratify to any recognizable collection of social values or follow any traditional ethical rule. Although, the savage figures and the fuzzy morality of the novel, Wuthering Heights was highly popular in its time, and still has been respected in high honor through the years. Whilst the novel is so loved and continuously praised for its poetic writing style, Wuthering Heights raises uncounted questions and elucidates many interpretations. The novel transacts with immortal topics such as the thirst for vengeance, the precariousness of social classes, and obsessive love. It is an e ample of gothic fiction. In addition, a weird novel has attracted inquisitive readers for many generations.

In addition, the characters in the novel find death and destiny most of the time, which leads to a sort of intrigue that colors the novel. Wuthering Heights has become a myth through Emily’s puritanical culture and literature. On the other hand, the use of setting and nature imagery in Wuthering Heights helps to value how human beings are influenced by the environment and conflict to disagree with naturalistic influence through their internal worlds. That means that some figures such as Catherine and Heathcliff intend to repress the force of the naturalist Scene. According to Barbara M. Benedict, curiosity in English culture is ambition, an ambition that creates the shape of a perceptible violation of species and categories. The Catherine character has two goals. First, it is a metaphor for how she feels about leaving Wuthering Heights. The next, it threatens and warns of, Catherine’s life after death.

Finally, there are some quotations from the novel. The first one is about suffering.

‘Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!’ He dashed his head against the knotted trunk; and, lifting his eyes, howled, not like a man but like a savage beast being goaded to death with knives and spears.’ (Sparknotes.com, 2019)

The analysis: Nelly clarifies to Mr. Lockwood how Heathcliff suffered after Catherine’s death. She recurs Heathcliff’s scar of sadness and then depicts his animalistic situation. Whilst both her husband and her lover bear in losing Catherine, Heathcliff’s hardship resonates in the love with Catherine. The suffering and Self-destroying still scruples haunt Heathcliff throughout the novel.

The second one is about social class.

‘Catherine had kept up her acquaintance with the Lintons and she had no temptation to show her rough side in their company and had the sense to be ashamed of being rude where she experienced such invariable courtesy, she imposed unwittingly on the old lady and gentlemen gained the admiration of Isabella, and the heart and soul of her brother: acquisitions that flattered her from the first she was full of ambition and led her to adopt a double character without exactly intending to deceive anyone.’ (Sparknotes.com, 2019)

The analysis: Catherine adapted to the Lintons’ higher class. Nelly depicts how Catherine developed thing of her be divided personality to earn the love of the Lintons whilst also suitable for the love of Heathcliff. Catherine aspires to move to the higher social class to enjoy and knows that the higher class will improve her life.

The last quotation is about revenge.

‘I want you to be aware that I know you have treated me infernally—infernally! and if you think I can be consoled by sweet words, you are an idiot: and if you fancy I’ll suffer unrevenged, I’ll convince you of the contrary, in a very little while! Meantime, thank you for telling me your sister-in-law’s secret: I swear I’ll make the most of it.’ (Sparknotes.com, 2019)

The analysis: Heathcliff talks with Catherine about his schema to vengeance and he does not forget how to mistreat him by everyone. He decided that he would use Isabella Linton who is Edgar’s sister to achieve his vindictive strategies. In addition, something that has increased his design of the range is the marriage of his lover Catherine to Edgar Earnshaw. Heathcliff’s revenge became an inescapable and driving force throughout the novel.

In conclusion, the novel combines romance and realism. Some have judged her immoral and others praised her strength and authenticity. It was written by Emily Bronte, and which considered a work that combined passion and hatred. Emily’s life was secret and her record was very meager because she tended to the silent and calm.

The list of references:

1. Academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu. (2019). Emily Bronte Overview. [Online] Available at HYPERLINK ‘http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_19c/wuthering/gothic.html’ http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_19c/wuthering/gothic.html [Accessed 17 Nov. 2019].
2. Aldewan, M. (2017). Wuthering Heights as a Gothic Novel. [E-book] Iraq: IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, pp. 01-05. Available at: http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol.%2022%20Issue7/Version-1/A2207010105 .pdf [Accessed 4 Nov. 2019].
3. Anderson, W. E. (1993). The Lyrical Form of Wuthering Heights. Major Literary Characters: Heathcliff, (Ed: H. Bloom), Chelsea: 114-133, New York.
4. Sparknotes.com. (2019). Spark Notes: Wuthering Heights Quotes Supernatural Elements. [Online] Available at: https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/wuthering/quotes/theme/supernatural-elements/ [Accessed 15 Nov. 2019].
5. Anon, (2019). [Online] Available at: https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/wuthering-heights-gothic-romance-344324 [Accessed 18 Nov. 2019].
6. En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Emily Bronte. [Online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Bront%C3%AB [Accessed 17 Nov. 2019].
7. Bartleby.com. (2019). Gothic and Gothic Literature: Wuthering Heights – 1194 Words | Bartleby. [Online] Available at: https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Gothic-And-Gothic-Literature-Wuthering-Heights-PKURLBVKRZKQ [Accessed 10 Nov. 2019].

The gothic genre, largely developed during Romanticism in Britain, has been associated with the combination of mystery, the supernatural, horror and, at times, romance. Starting with Walpole’s Castle of Otranto, the gothic genre gained its popularity during the Victorian era, with writers such as Stoker and Stevenson continuing to develop stories in the late 19th Century. In more modern times, King and Rice have continued to adapt gothic conventions by merging them with contemporary fears and anxieties. Stoker’s Dracula (1897) and King’s Salem’s Lot (1975) both follow the traditional norms of gothic literature, despite their different publication eras and audiences. The basic essence of horror and mystery are further emphasised by gothic conventions and motifs. The two novels are grounded in a similar storyline, with a key focus on vampires and the clash between good and evil, as well as the exploration of reality, duality and madness.

In both Dracula and Salem’s Lot, the writers adhere to the traditional norms through the use of eerie, isolated settings. In Dracula, Harker originally describes the counts castle as having “a sea of green tree tops, with occasionally a deep rift where there is a chasm” and there are “silver threads where the river wind in deep gorges through the forests”, but straight after concludes that when he explored further there were “doors, doors, doors everywhere and all locked and bolted” and that “the castle is a veritable prison, and [he is] a prisoner”. This juxtaposition between the overpowering free landscape and the trapped castle is effective in creating tension for the reader as an uneasy atmosphere is created. A contemporary reader questions as to who exactly the count is, which would have added to the underlying fear during the Victorian era of the supernatural, and what he wants. The ominous repetition of “doors, doors, doors everywhere” helps to demonstrate the frightful tone in Harker’s narrative which highlights the gothic nature of the castle, and how it is a “veritable prison”. Harker’s description of the castle is strongly suggestive of the idea of entrapment and evil, which assists in building an atmosphere for dread and fear.

Additionally, the dark, poorly lit rooms of Lucy’s crypt, Dracula’s castle and Dracula’s abode in London take advantage of the human fear of the unknown, the darkness foreshadows the supernatural horrors the characters see. Furthermore, Stoker uses pathetic fallacy in the weather to create a suspenseful atmosphere. For example, in Mina’s journal, she describes “the waves rose in growing fury, each overtopping its fellow, till in a very few minutes the lately glassy sea was like a roaring and devouring monster”. This is effective in creating a mood of eeriness as the description adds fear in the readers mind, the simile “like a roaring and devouring monster” mirrors the villain in the play, Dracula, and how his presence affects all elements of life as nothing is safe from his wrath. In Salem’s lot, King implemented the gothic style into a small town – the novel would not be the same without that as it helped place an emphasis of things are not always what they seem.

Drawing on inspiration from Dracula, the small-town atmosphere provided a place for fear to grow in the minds of the reader and helped the reader form a connection with the characters in the novel. In particular, the use of the “haunted” Marsten house as a safe house for the supernatural villains is key in this novel. It acts as a motif for the eeriness of Salem’s lot. Its “witch grass grew wild and tall in the front yard” – the adjective wild gives it a sense of untameable evilness, this is emphasised by using ‘witch’ as an adjective as witches have been seen as links to the devil throughout history. King uses a traditional characteristic of ruined and abandon buildings but adds a modern twist to it; “the paint had been weathered away//windstorms had ripped many of the shingles off”. This is effective as it highlights King using norms of gothic literature despite the differences in eras. Moreover, much like the vampires, the Marsten House is a symbol of evil. Hubie Marsten was a horrible man who killed many, many people, and the novel suggests that that evil lives on after him, that all of his unspeakable acts left a ‘dry charge’. This shows that while King’s target audience was more modern then Stokers, both use conventional gothic characteristics of eerie, isolated settings to add suspense and horror in their novels.

Additionally, to emphasise the horror by using traditional norms, Stoker uses the conventional characteristics of gothic evil spirits and bad omens; specifically vampires that embody the dead. The beginning and end of Dracula is set in Transylvania, Romania, which is far from London as a centre of civilization. Along his journey to meet the Count, Jonathan Harker notes that he meets some Transylvanian locals. When they learn of his destination, they cross themselves to ward off the ”evil eye” of Dracula, and one woman even gives him her rosary. Harker assumes this is merely superstitious. Here we see the romantic elements of the remote and the unfamiliar – a reoccurring theme of gothic novels. This allows the reader to question who the count actually is and foreshadows the horrors that happen later on in the book. Later on, when Harker firsts meets the Count, we learn that he is ‘a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache, and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of colour about him anywhere.’ This description is effective in highlighting the juxtaposition of Dracula. While he appears as a typical Victorian gentleman with a “clean shaven long white moustache,” Harker recognises that he is “without a single speck of colour”. This connotes him with the dead and being ghostly – his true identity.

Some critics have recognised this as mirroring the duality of the Victorian society, as some Victorian gentlemen often had a more sinful side to them, just like Dracula. Furthermore, Harker describes the Counts hand as “cold as ice – more like the hand off a dead then living man”. This shows the clear sinister side of Dracula, as both a modern and contemporary reader feel fearful as it touches on the supernatural. Dracula is easily angered but also maintains a both haunting and strangely charming façade. He becomes representative of both the old-world value of superstition and mystery surrounding the supernatural, whilst also maintaining a threatening presence as he embodies many aspects of evil and commits sinful deeds. However, some more modern perspectives argue that what makes the character of Dracula unconventional is that, when he escapes from Van Helsing, he insinuates that he has an ulterior motive, perhaps the longing for a return to the glorious past centuries and this illustrates him to not be a creature of pure, fathomless evil but instead a more human character who wishes for a return to power even if that means subjecting people to his own dark vision and following his urges. This shows the difference in audiences as more modern readers are understanding of Dracula compared to a more religious, conventional Victorian society, but also how this story follows traditional norms of gothic literature. However, in Salem’s lot, King uses supernatural villains such as Kurt Barlow (the vampire) and Richard Straker (his human familiar) to create fear in the small town in Maine, but ultimately uses them as an extended metaphor to highlight the evil within the small town with or without vampires.

The novel follows showing the true personalities of many characters and it helps the reader understand the inner evil people have – similar to the message in Dracula regarding the duality of Victorian gentlemen. The deeper meaning, while still using characteristic of gothic horror, is arguably more fearsome due to the reality of the situations. Barlow himself states that “they’ll spill each other’s blood with great vigour” in reference to small town Americans. This is also key in recognising Kings attitudes to American politics at the time as 1975 was the year that the Vietnam war ended, the message in this novel is about Americans self-destructive behaviour. Kurt Barlow still acts as a catalyst for the fear in the book, this is clear in his letter to the vampire hunters where he promises to castrate Mark where he declares “I am not a serpent but the father of serpents”. The noun “serpents” has immediate connotations with the devil, opposing god and holiness and embodying evil. Barlow is in fact pure evil – the way he turns the characters slowly into vampires with him and robs them of innocence adds to the horror of the novel. King successfully uses traditional gothic conventions of supernatural villains in his story to aid with his hidden message that everyone has evil inside them, and to add suspense to the characters in question. On the other hand Stoker uses supernatural villains to highlight that fear and horror is created by the devils’ creatures.

American Gothic is a diverse genre that often follows themes of terror, oppression, and danger. A popular film, The Joker, follows many common characteristics of this genre by portraying a subject that demonstrates the severity of numerous mental illnesses that individuals fight every day in our society. The production follows Arthur, a standup comedian and clown, who has numerous medical conditions that make him feel like an outlier in his city. His conditions make him appear heartless, extremely irritable, and essentially fearless. The Joker captivates the thoughts and actions of Arthur by taking the audience into his mind to show his day-to-day struggles, confusion, and insecurities as he tries to be “normal”.

It is clear that Arthur makes an effort to hold a job and take his medication to make himself better and a functional societal member. He attempts to control his rapid impulses and overpowering emotions, but once his social services center shuts down, he no longer receives his much-needed therapy, medicine and treatment. He becomes mentally insane, hostile, and eventually murders people who ridicule him for his condition or have previously mocked his differences. After Arthur kills three rich men on a subway because they mocked his behavior, many people in the city support and condone his erratic behavior. Average citizens take part in killing the rich by assaulting cops, robbing businesses, and nearly burning the entire city down. The poor not only want better lives, but they want revenge. Ultimately, they want to inflict pain and kill the wealthy people to have them experience the life of an average citizen in their destructive city.

Literature of the American Gothic genre often includes excessive extremes, horrific pain, and social anxieties. Arthur’s impulsiveness, sense of humor, and motives demonstrate many of the common themes of the genre. His irrationality and evil acts of self-defense demonstrate the extreme measures he was willing to take to protect himself and his mother. As mentioned above, he led riots and hate crimes to get revenge for the neglect and harassment he received as a child. The movie makes it clear that Arthur is psychotic suffers from delusions through his relationship and encounters with woman at the end of his apartment. At the end of the film, it is revealed that the entire relationship was a fantasy made up in his head. All Arthur wanted was to feel accepted by his peers and coworkers; however, his persistent anxiety, overwhelming depression, and underlying schizophrenia left him feeling alone and helpless while battling the tormenting horrors in his head.

Literacy tropes, including sounds and places, are common distinguishing agents in American Gothic literature. Sound plays an important role as it keeps the viewers engaged and interested in the story. In the film, Arthur has a distinct and memorable evil laugh that draws attention to his insanity. The displacement and crudeness of his humor traces his madness and makes the audience question his sanity. His poor, rundown, and neglected home is an example of the vivid setting in which the story takes place. He has few furnishings, minimal lighting, and questionable artifacts in his home that keep the viewers in suspicion of what might happen next. The setting and effects of the production are clear examples of common conventions in American Gothic literature.

Arthur is seen as a rebel to ordinary people in his city because he is not afraid to stand up for what he believes, even if it means risking the lives of other innocent people. He believed that the world was “out to get him”, thus justifying the fights and battles he got into with others. American Gothic is an interesting topic to many people because it includes situations that are somewhat personal and relatable. Viewers can imagine the horrific thoughts, nightmares, and pain that Arthur suffered on a daily basis. They can apply Arthur’s story to our society and picture what could happen if people didn’t receive proper care. His story demonstrates the dire necessity to dedicate more effort and resources to support those in need of medical and psychological treatment. The conventions, themes, and traits of The Joker make the movie a memorable and relatable production that captivates many of the premises of the American Gothic genre.