Dracula: The Picture Perfect Ideal of Gothic Literature Essay

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Dracula: The Picture Perfect Ideal of Gothic Literature. Gothicism has been a very popular genre of book, through past and present, and Bram Stoker’s, Dracula, is no exception. One of the most widely read novels of all time, Dracula possesses all the features of a classic gothic novel. The various dark and dreary features throughout the entire novel paints a perfect gothic picture for the reader and contribute to the mixture of feelings One gets while reading Dracula. The first feature of Gothicism found in Dracula is a constant and oppressive darkness. This feature is a reoccurring theme that is related to everything in the novel from the characters to the events that take place. Another feature found in Dracula is presence of a…show more content…
After hearing the muffled cry from the child, Harker then hears the desperate cries from the mother from outside the castle wall and watches helplessly as the Count calls his wolves to destroy her. The next morning, Jonathan says, ‘No man knows till he has suffered from the night how sweet and how dear to him heart and eye the morning can be.’ (Dracula, 39) This quote shows how the dark night mirrors evil and unpleasantness, which enhances the gloominess of Gothicism. Darkness is also projected on to characters. The villain, Count Dracula, when sighted, is described as a dark and shadowy figure. Mina Harker woke up to find Lucy Westerna missing from her bed in the middle of the night, and knowing her past of sleep walking, Mina hurriedly looked around the house to find the front door open. She stepped outside and looked across to the cliff where their favourite spot to sit was and describes what she saw: ‘...there on our favourite seat, the silver light of the moon struck a half-reclining figure, snowy white...the cloud was too quick for me to see much, for shadow shut down on light...something dark stood behind the seat where the white figure shone, and bent over it.’(Dracula,78). Darkness reflects upon many different aspects of the entire novel and shows how it
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