Gothic Horror in Literature Revised 28/10/10

Gothic Horror began in the 18th Century as a genre of horror that combines both romance and horror. it is generally believed to have been invented by the English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel

The Castle of Otranto [WIKI]

• 3 people get married but the groom is crushed by a helmet that falls from the sky
• Another lord desperatly marries the bride becasue he believes the grooms death was a signifier of his own downfall
• The bride escapes to a castle with the help of a peasant
• The lord orders the killin of the peasant
• The peasant helps the bride escape to a church and as the peasant lifts his shirt to be killed the lord realises the peasant is his son
• They are interupted in the killing by knights who beg for the bride
• The lord  rushes of to free the bride from the castle where he thinks she is
• The lords daughter frees the peasant from being locked up
• The peasant goes to the church where the bride is
• The peasant hides the bride in a cave and fights on of the knights
• He wounds the knights who is the brides father
• The lord stabs the bride thinking it is his daughter
• The peasant is then revealed to be the true Lord of the land who marries the bride

The narrative is unlike today's gothic horror because the characters are all human. However it does invovle castles, churches and a sense of class and power.

The first use of vampires was used in WAKE NOT THE DEAD by Johann Ludwig Tieck but the first famous vampire story was:

The Vampyre by John William Polidori [WIKI]

• Aubrey meets the mysterious Lord Ruthven
• Aubrey accompanies Ruthven to Rome, but leaves him after Ruthven seduces the daughter of a mutual acquaintance
• Aubrey becomes attracted to Ianthe
• Ianthe tells Aubrey about the legends of the vampire
• Ruthven arrives at the scene and shortly thereafter Ianthe is killed by a vampire
• The pair are attacked by bandits and Ruthven is mortally wounded.
• Ruthven then begins to seduce Aubrey's sister while Aubrey, helpless to protect his sister, has a nervous breakdown.
• Ruthven and Aubrey's sister are engaged to marry on the day the oath ends. Just before he dies, Aubrey writes a letter to his sister revealing Ruthven's history, but it does not arrive in time. Ruthven marries Aubrey's sister, kills her on their wedding night, and escapes

As you can see male again dominates and hierachy is shown now the dominant figure is the vampire yet it still contains elements of love.

One of the most famous Gothic Horror stories is the story of Frankenstein.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelly [WIKI]

 Walton tells his sister the story of Victor Frankenstein and his creature as Frankenstein tells it to him. Walton sets out to explore the North Pole and expand his scientific knowledge in hopes of achieving fame and friendship.
Unfortunately, the ship becomes trapped in ice.
One day, the crew observes a being in the stature of a giant man in the distance on a dogsled. Frankenstein was in pursuit of his monster, when all but one of his dogs from his dogsled died.
He broke apart his dogsled to make oars to row an ice-raft toward the vessel.
Hours later they find Frankenstein, weak and in need of sustenance, near the ship.
Saved by the kind occupants of the ship, Frankenstein starts to recover from his exertion and recounts to Walton his story, warning Walton of the wretched effects of allowing one's ambition to push one to aim beyond what one is capable of achieving.

• Victor Frankenstein (a scientist) is raised by a wealthy family and has an interest in science
• He studies how life decay's and his mother dies from scarlett fever
• He makes the monster and brings it to life but frightened by its apearance he runs away
• His friend is murdered by the monster
• The monster becomes affraid of humans and lives in a cottage he becomes educated and realised his loneliness
• The monster seeks to befriend people even abducting a little boy for companytrying to silence him he kills the boy
• He demands Frankestein makes him a female companion
• Frankestein is unsure another monster could do more harm so the monster gets mad and kills somone else and Frankestein is imprisoned after prison he lives with his father
• The monster kills Frankensteins wife and with grief kills his father
• Frankenstein agress to pusue the monster untill one of them gets killed they end up in the Artic

This was one of the first Gothic Horror stories to include a character that was victim to their power. It's interesting that the narrative is often not known yet the monster is. It is because of the association of Frankenstein the Novel as including the unique significant monster that Frankenstein became known as the monster's name. With so many intertextual references of Frankenstein and Dracula the narrative becomes lost but the charaters remain.

Dracula by Bram Stoker [WIKI]

• Jonathan Harker travels to Count Dracula's crumbling, remote castle to get legal support to Dracula for a real estate transaction overseen by Harker's employer
• Harker falls under the spell of three wanton female vampires, the Brides of Dracula
• He is saved at the last second by the Count, because he wants to keep Harker alive to obtain needed legal advice
• He arrives on the shores of Whitby all of the crew are missing
• Dracula is tracking Harker's devoted fiancée, Wilhelmina "Mina" Murray, and her friend, Lucy Westenra
• Lucy begins to waste away suspiciously.
• Van Helsing immediately determines the cause of Lucy's condition
• Lucy and her mother are attacked by a wolf. Mrs Westenra, who has a heart condition, dies of fright, and Lucy apparently dies soon after.
• Van Helsing, knowing that this means Lucy has become a vampire stake her heart, behead her, and fill her mouth with garlic
• After Dracula learns of Van Helsing and the others' plot against him, he takes revenge by visiting—and biting— Mina at least three times.
• It is only possible to detect Dracula's surroundings when Mina is put under hypnosis by Van Helsing
• Dracula flees back to his castle in Transylvania
• Van Helsing's group, who manage to track him down just before sundown and destroy[3] him by shearing "through the throat" with a knife and stabbing him in the heart also with a knife. Dracula crumbles to dust, his spell is lifted and Mina is freed from the marks.

This is the most famous vampire and therefore although again not an origninal part of the plot this vampire became known as Lord of Vampires because of his fame. All these stories are written pre 20th century Twilight is a book written recently that induced the film.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer [WIKI]

• Bella who recently moved attracts a lot of competition over her from boy's
• On her first day she is sat next to Edward Cullen who is repuled by her and has to move away
• Bella is nearly run over but Edward saves her
• Bella wunders why he saved her and eventually workes out he is a vampire they fall in love
• James another vampire want's to hunt Bella for sport
• Before she is killed Edward rescues her
• Realising she is bitten Edward sucks the venom from Bella's hand Bella want's to be a vampire but Edward refuses

What made this appeal is because the story is set in a highschool and involves the sweet man vs an unpleasant man which is similar to the narrative of Rom Com's and is relational to a modern audience. Also it appeals to a female audience because the male is considerate about his dominance.