Dracula vs the Fall of the House of Usher

Dracula vs. The Fall of the House of Usher In my life I have read many books. I have never really taken the time to notice any particular styles or genres except for fiction and nonfiction. That was until I read my first gothic short story. The power the writers use to describe every detail and how dark they wrote is very fascinating to me. When I read Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and Bram Stokers’ “Dracula” I fell in love. These books are both famous and are for a good reason. In these books they both have death, ruined castles or manors, and a death like state.

In Gothic literature death is a very common theme. I think this is because what the gothic style is used in. Generally horror stories make up most of the gothic genre. In Dracula many innocent people died in the pursuit of Dracula’s demise. All of those deaths made me dislike Dracula a little bit more. When the Wives were killed I was cheering in my head. When the moment finally had come, and Dracula was slain, I was extremely happy. I think Brim wrote this novel so that the audience would have one more grudge against Dracula So that when he finally chose to kill him it was as if a weight was lifted off of the reader’s shoulders. In Poe’s story he hinted that Madeline was still alive so you were almost trying to scream at Roderick “don’t burry her!” In the end when Madeline came back and Roderick died of fear it was not to much of surprise. I did not feel that he should have died that way.

Gothic literature has many more characteristics such as ruined castles or mansions. I feel this is because this setting gives me an initial feeling of eeriness that most gothic literature has. In Dracula when Jonathon first arrives at the house. He is welcomed by a large castle with a gloomy feel to it. At this point I felt that something was wrong just by the way Brim described the house. In Poe’s story the effect is even stronger as the reader is invited into a crumbling mansion which is haunted and the confinement the characters are put in with little space to move and no escape made me feel bad for the people in the story. I believe these authors used these specific descriptions to show that this area is not where on would want to be. Every characteristic of Gothic literature feeds on to the other. The setting sets the stage and mood for the reader and it was not a pleasant one.

Creatures that are meant to scare people are very common in Gothic Literature. In Dracula the story is all about vampires. Vampires are a creature which must feed off of blood. By choosing this character it really made me feel as if Brim was targeting you as the reader. It made me feel bad for the regular humans. In Brims novel he used a ghost. The ghost he used was of Madeline who Roderick and his friend had recently buried but was still alive. This specific selection of creature was made to break the main characters down. They were still recovering from the death and then used their emotions against them. Roderick was so frightened he died. I feel as if the author was saying that no matter how bad your life is, that it will get worse. Overall the stories “Dracula” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” were very scary. Throughout the story the author had built up a hatred for some specific character. In Brims case it was Dracula. By the end of the story all you wanted was to see him die. The use of Gothic literature always adds a dark side to every story in my opinion. Whether its death, ruined castles and mansions, or even evil creatures the authors all had a way they wanted you to feel as they wrote their tale.