Gothic Romanticism

Gothic Romanticism: Hawthorne, Poe and Baudelaire

1) Throughout the story, Madeline is described to have pale skin, one of the first signs picked up in the story, as vampires are unable to be in the sunlight. It was noted that they rarely leave their home; If they were vampires, this could be easily attributed to the fact that their home is water-locked, and vampires cannot cross moving water. The narrator is called to this house by his friend who wishes to have comfort, for his sister is dying, but a more sinister plot is uncovered for the sister is to be buried in a sealed tomb. This moment we should take to address that this tomb will be keeping all light form her body, specifically the light of the full moon, which can completely rejuvenate a vampire upon contact.

This plan surely had failed. As the narrator is reading the tale of Ethelred, a dragon, the symbol of Dracula, is being slain. As the shriek of the slain beast is to ring out, a very real shriek echos outward from the very tomb Madeline has been sealed in, for as the dragon dies, the dead hath risen.

 

2) Gothic writers criticize human  nature in a number of various ways ranging in their subtlety.

Most Gothic fiction points us to see the evil within ourselves, this movement inspired others to learn that understanding ones true self you cannot simply admire their good traits, you must also see and understand their bad side with equal weight and meaning.

In the tale Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, for example, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are one and the same, yet different entirely. Jekyll is the man the public sees daily, the man he wants himself to be portrayed as. Hyde, on the other hand, is a brutish, ugly, hateful monstrosity that seeks only destruction. While the serum s the way to achieve his transformation, that is only the stories mean to it's end. It represents any 'triggers' that would set us off to show our true nature, for that's all the Hyde is, our evil and us are one and the same. We simply hide the bad away and ignore its existence until we are out of the public eye.

That has always been what Gothic Literature has stood for, showing man's true nature, that's what it still is today.