By using these features of the times to create a new substantial text aspects from others. The setting of Shadow is very similar to Nosferatu, but uses strong gothic imagery from Dracula. The director attempts to combine two genres: the gothic and the docu-drama. By doing this, it takes elements of both Dracula and
What values and attitudes are explored within Stoker’s Dracula? How might context have influenced Stoker’s vision? Bram Stoker’s Dracula is, if nothing else, an extraordinary exploration of the values and attitudes at turn-of-the 20th Century London. Stoker portrays the collision of two disparate worlds - the Count’s ancient Transylvania and the protagonist’s rapidly modernising London - along with a variety of other symbols in order to highlight the primary anxieties that characterised his age: the dangers of female sexuality, the ramifications of scientific and technological advancement and the impacts of abandoning religion. Stoker makes continued use of symbols and objects throughout the novel in order to further strengthen on this idea.
Frankenstein was composed during the Romantic period; which involved challenging previously accepted, scientific statements, regarding the practical and ethical possibilities arising from human enquiries into the sources of life and human knowledge in general. Romantics such as Shelley held firm views in the rejection of science and rationalism, espousing the sublimity of nature and emotional experiences. This ideology involved the concept that mechanical production, such as seen through the Industrial Revolution, led to the alienation of man from essential human nature. Shelley’s Gothic writing style was heavily influenced by such ideologies; evident through her use of vivid imagery, juxtaposing the beauty of natural elements and the hideousness of scientifically manufactured beings, a symbol of the Enlightenment; “I watched
However, what is interesting is how vampires have gone from being hated and feared dark monsters of the night to the romanticized creatures of young girl's dreams. Whether you believe the vampire legends or not, is up to you, just remember in the words from Bram Stoker's Dracula “There are mysteries which men can only guess at, which age and by age alone they my solve only in
The (Now) Obvious Themes of Reverse Colonization Within Stoker's Dracula Stephen D. Arata's article The Occidental Tourist: Dracula and the Anxiety of Reverse Colonization, was written to highlight the no longer subtle and hidden themes of imperialism, race and culture found within Bram Stoker's Dracula. Arata categorizes Dracula with other written works of the Victorian era such as The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle, The Mark of the Beast by Rudyard Kipling and The Time Machine and War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. In each of these tales, the reader finds a story of reversal of roles: the colonized becomes the colonizer, the victim becomes the villain, the exploiter becomes the exploited. These stories were written in “response to cultural guilt and to atone for imperial sins”.
The two biggest and most conflicting religions in this period were two sects of Christianity, Protestantism and Catholicism. This conflict can be seen in a lot of literature in the Gothic genre, as the villains were mainly Catholic, which gave authors a gateway in which to insult Catholicism. However, in Dracula, Stoker creates the setting for Gothic conventions, but does not fully concede to this stereotype, making one of his protagonists Protestant but using Catholic symbols to help protect him. At the start of the novel, when Harker is travelling to Dracula’s home, he seems to be travelling between two different worlds, when passing through the landscape Harker notices a thunderstorm at the Carpathian Mountains which seems to “[separate] two atmospheres” (14) and describes the scenery as a “frontier… [that] has had a very stormy existence” (6). This suggests that Harker is leaving one world behind, the world of security, and is passing a world of superstition and danger, which can be otherwise seen as Harker digressing into Limbo, the theological “in between” world, between Heaven and Hell, in this context Heaven is Britain is Heaven and Transylvania is Hell.
Frankenstein, a classic in literature, was written by Mary Shelley. Its author incorporated several complex elements, making the novel a piece of literary art. One of these elements is the Enlightenment versus the Romantic views of science, knowledge, and progress, which make up an important part in her everyday life and her surroundings. This is exactly why she decided to incorporate such views in her novel, using the main character Victor Frankenstein and his creation. Victor Frankenstein is affected by such views, and reflects a swing back and forth from Romantic to Enlightenment.
Therefore, the Gothic cannot exist or be valued without the sublime and contextual fears as they are universally understood conditions. It is the universal fears, the use of the sublime and the lessons within this literature that allow us to value the Gothic genre. Parallel texts such as; ‘Dracula’, ‘The Strange
The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was first published in 1818 amid a world of changing views and religious uncertainty. Since this time, the story of Frankenstein and his creature has been reinvented numerous times by novelists and film-makers alike, with each new version reflecting the values or ideals of an alternate milieu, the original text altered by the demands of changed cultural or contextual principals. One of the better known reinventions of Frankenstein, Edward Scissorhands, a movie from 1990, directed by Tim Burton, is a parody of the middle-class suburbia that is America with major contextual influences from the 1950s and late 1980s. Edward Scissorhands plays with the same notions of creation and idea of the monster or outsider as in Shelley’s Frankenstein, showing a Gothic influence, especially through setting. The portrayal and role of women, however, varies significantly within these texts.
Northanger Abbey was posthumously published in 1816 and despite this, was also one of the first written by her. It centres around the enlightenment of Catherine Morland, a naïve girl whom has a fascination for the gothic, a motive which is driven heavily throughout the novel, with heavy gothic leanings and imagery preceding over her narration. At the time, it was written as a parody towards the gothic, whilst further highlighting the idiotic viewpoints society held towards gothic literature; yet in by doing so, does this parody lean itself towards a celebration or a condemnation? It can be inferred that through the excessive hyperbole and extended socio-economic allegories, that Northanger Abbey is in fact a true celebration of all things associated with the Gothic. The uses of excessive description and hyperbole in Catherine’s language (especially during chapters 23, 24 and 25) can show in some ways that Northanger Abbey is very much celebratory of the gothic genre.