Gothic Horror is a term used to depict fictitious work that has incorporated a lot of horror scenes as well as elements of the unreal world, exploring the conflict between good and evil and dealing with the supernatural in some sort of way. The episodic novel Dracula written by Bram Stoker in 1897 and the movie Blade by Stephen Norrington created in 1998 bring to the fore many conventions relating to the Gothic Horror genre despite their vastly different contexts. Gothic elements of imprisonment, eccentricity and death are clearly represented through each of the texts. Stoker and Norrington present these conventions through a variety of literary and film techniques, paying particular attention to character and setting to explore the elements of the genre. Through these interactions, the audience can feel a sense of Gothic Horror in which the composers of the two texts aim to convey.…
In “The Judge’s House” written by Bram Stoker, the story takes place at an evil judge’s house that has hanged people, and a student named Malcomson is just staying there for a few days despite being warned not to. Strange occurrences begin with rats disturbing Malcomson while he is staying there but particularly a rat with red eyes sticks out to him. The rat with the red eyes would be in a hole behind a painting of the judge that is hung in the house, and sit in the same position as the judge in the painting. Little did Malcomson know those would be his last days alive since evil never fully dies. The judge comes back to life through the painting to hang Malcomson just like the others before him. Throughout “The Judge’s House” the four elements of Gothic Horror that occur are repetition, the double, menacing other, and transformation. All these elements contribute to my own interpretation of the story that evil never truly dies.…
The term gothic relates to gothic architecture from the 12th to the 15th century but nowadays modern readers associate the term gothic with darkness, gloom and ultimately death and even the term ‘goth’ has some reference to the gothic which the attire is focused around black.…
Dracula, by Bram Stoker, is quite the epitome of the gothic novel. Towards the beginning of the story, the setting takes place in an old and ominous castle, which is highly characteristic of gothic literature. Harker’s tribulation begins when “the driver was in the act of pulling up the horses in the courtyard of a vast ruined castle,” (Stoker 18). There is also a gloomy and menacing tone given to the setting of the novel, as in most pieces of gothic literature. This gloom is evident early on in the novel, as it reads, “Then a dog began to howl somewhere in a farmhouse far down the road--a long, agonized wailing, as if from fear.”(Stoker 16). Also coinciding with the nature of gothic novels is the ever reoccurring supernatural events, such as Count Dracula scaling the castle walls, up-side down: “I saw the whole man slowly emerge from the window and begin to crawl down the castle wall over that dreadful abyss, face down, with his cloak spreading out around him like great wings.” (Stoker 39). Another common theme of gothic novels is one of women in distress. This theme is evident throughout Dracula, as Lucy Westenra is in a constant struggle for her life for many days. “She was ghastly, chalkily pale; the red seemed to have gone even from her lips and gums, and the bones of her face stood out prominently;” (Stoker 133).…
In the history of literature, there have always been different themes and genres of writing. But few have been as different or unique as that of the "gothic" literature. Of all the gothic authors of history, few writing has captured the mind and plunged it into the depths of fear as that of Edgar Allen Poe. Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado," is a story that shows us how deadly being prideful can be. Themes of dishonour, revenge and questionable justice all come together in this story. In this essay, I will discuss how the setting, irony and the lack of certain details all contribute to the gothic theme and the spine-tingling effect of the story.…
Gothic literature demonstrates the consequences of disrupting the natural order of things. Consider the texts you have read in the light of this comment.…
Authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and William Faulkner have presented gothic literature throughout their writing during the 18th and 19th centuries. Gothic literature is defined as a "distinct modern development in which the characteristic theme is the stranglehold of the past upon the present"(294 Drabble and Stringer).Therefore, to deliver this theme to their readers they used gothic elements to create a "dark" sensation especially in the area of setting. All three authors in their literature portray accursed or decaying settings that are associated to violence, poverty, and human behavior. It appears authors like Poe, Hawthorne, and Faulkner were drawn to this elements of Gothicism for what it revealed about human psychology…
What makes the work of Poe gothic? Gothic fiction, particularly that written by Edgar Allan Poe has a number of common themes, motifs and structures that make his work easily recognizable and more importantly, fits his stories into the classification of the gothic. Among these elements of the gothic that run throughout the works of Edgar Allan Poe include the pervasive theme of death and decay, which is almost always a staple in Gothic fiction, the theme or presence of madness, insanity or other internal chaos, the supernatural in all of its forms, and haunted or creepy locations. Most stories by Edgar Allan Poe possess most if not all of these gothic qualities.…
The genre of gothic literature contains both elements of horror and romance, with an innocent female, a powerful male (usually the quintessential villain), as well as themes to do with the supernatural as key features included in the novel.…
Gothic is termed in the dictionary with crude and barbaric, this definition coincides with gothic literature. Gothic literature was said to be born in 1764 when Horace Walpole published The Castle of Otranto, which is considered to be the first gothic novel ever written. Gothic literature explores the aggression between what we fear and what we lust. The setting of these gothic stories were usually in some kind of castle or old building that showed human decay and created an atmosphere of mystery and suspense. The words chosen in these novels and short stories were very descriptive they tended to "blend the idea of the exotic and the familiar" (The Balkans, 75).Supernatural and unexplainable events are crucial to the plot of a gothic story. Often, they act as the backbone of the plot and many of the circumstances and coincidences rest upon them. After reading Goldworthy's piece and Stokers Dracula I intend to prove that the setting and the idea of a supernatural being are the most crucial parts to a gothic story.…
here are a number of techniques, devices and conventions common to a great deal of Gothic literature:…
Annie has now lived in the sepulchral castle for three months. She, nor her family, have had any paranormal encounters, but Annie still postulates that there is someone or something living in the shadows of her home. One dreary evening while her parents were having a dinner party for some of the wealthy people of the town, Annie excuses herself and goes off exploring. She figures that while her parents were distracted, it was the perfect time to go into the forbidden room. Annie creeps down the long hallway, where it seems as if every board of the hardwood flooring creaks as she steps as lightly as possible on them. She reaches the door, and puts her hands on the ice cold doorknob. She turns the doorknob and pushes the door inward, as it eerily…
Was a style of medieval art that developed in Northern France out of Romanesque art in 12th century, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, never quite effacing more classical styles in Italy. In the late 14th century, the sophisticated court style of International Gothic developed, which continued to evolve until the late 15th century. In many areas, especially Germany, Late Gothic art continued well into the 16th century, before being subsumed into Renaissance art. Primary media in the Gothic period included…
Gothic literature has been manipulating the depiction of women and the way females are presented as oppressed by men, as helpless or submissive throughout literature; some gothic texts have strong emphasis on women's submissiveness and passivity with examples such as Elizabeth in Frankenstein or Ophelia in Hamlet, however there are other gothic literary texts such as The Bloody Chamber where Carter breaks the stereotypical image under which women are presented, depicting a new image of a more powerful woman that is an 'active agent in her own rights' as David Punter suggests. Typically in older gothic texts women are presented in conventional and stereotypical manners to suit the classic woman stereotype with idealized images, very often women…
Another feature that makes this short story a powerful example to show the literature written in the gothic genre is the feature of the protagonist having an obsessive personality and being troubled, disturbed or misunderstood is a fundamental feature to the gothic style of text.In the short story this fundamental feature can be identified when the protagonist describes his troubled self,‘I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others. I suffered myself to use intemperate language to my wife’.The quote uses the idea of the protagonist describing himself and how he felt in the situation.From this idea we as readers,see how much the protagonist is struggling with his addiction to alcohol and how he…