In a literary context "Gothic" is most usually applied to a group of novels written between 1760 and 1820. Characteristics of the Gothic novel are: an emphasis on portraying the terrifying, insistence on archaic settings, a very prominent use of supernatural forces, the presence of highly stereotypical characters and an attempt to perfect the technique of literary suspense. ... Character and events are exaggerated beyond reality to become symbols, ideas and passions. ... Without the psychological analysis, which is available today, Lewis attempts to offer symbolic suggestions as to the cause...

• Word Count: 1271
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Though Count Dracula is a fictional character, Stoker based his most famous character an infamous 15 century family. ... The Prince also had a reputation for murdering beggars, forcing women to eat their children and nailing the turbans of disrespectful ambassadors to their heads (Voller, The Literary Gothic). ... Allusions from the previous literary works, The Picture of Dorrian Grey and Beowulf are found through out the novel. ... Jonathon Harker, one of the main characters of the novel, Travels to Castle Dracula in order to finalize a real-estate transaction. ... The character...

• Word Count: 1205
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Condemned by some critics for its tendencies toward Romanticism, a literary movement marked by melodramatic and maudlin exaggerations, "The Fall of the House of Usher" was nevertheless typical of Poe's short stories in that it presents a narrator thrust into a psychologically intense situation in which otherworldly forces conspire to drive at least one of the characters insane. ... The setting not only affects his telling of the story but changes the characters and action, too. ... The setting itself seems to infect the characters. Just as the atmosphere and landscape seem translated ...

• Word Count: 1485
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

" Usher, the main character, is a sickly looking man due to so much fear that he constantly lives in. ... Poe's literary genius doesn't stop at his need to break the anima out of our subconscious, but also to emanate the monsters that we try to hide. ... Poe wanted to be remembered for poetry such as "Annabelle Lee" and "The Raven," but we often remember him for his gruesome short stories that weren't his true literary style. ...

• Word Count: 1058
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher", the author depicts the workings of a human mind on the verge of insanity through the use of an allegory of which all characters and events of the story symbolize the human mind's transition into madness, universally conveying the terror that overwhelms and finally destroys the fragile mind of Roderick Usher. Poe establishes many connections for the reader, hinting at the true significance of the story through symbols portrayed as characters and events. ... From the characters representing different aspects of the mind to the ho...

• Word Count: 1147
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The discord between religious ideals and sin are paralleled through these texts, and attest to Christianity's influence in the literary Gothic. ... It is therefore unsurprising that the Coleridge poems, Dracula and The Bloody Chamber all display this theme, a breach of the character's moral and pious integrity in their desperation to satisfy their curiosity. In Stoker's novel, temptation is issued from the prurient and lascivious female characters. ... The temptation of protagonists is similarly presented in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, where the characters are enticed by ni...

• Word Count: 4055
• Approx Pages: 16
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The fog connects all of the people mentioned and it affects them, just as Chancery will later play the same role within the characters. ... In this case, however, he almost seems to be a character in himself, he has his own personality and that personality is actually rather satirical. ... The narrator has his own opinions on them and the literary devices employed allow the author to present his own opinion on the living conditions for the lower classes and a clear criticism on the governing bodies allowing such injustices to take place, and all in the guise of an omniscient narrator. ... Bein...

• Word Count: 1875
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

An example of this in the text Dracula is expressed through the character of Lucy. ... Stoker and Rice have, in their novels, taken on specific points of view to portray their characters and events. Each has a different literary effect on the audience, and heavily influences their portrayal of vampirism, in way of the old' and new' styles. ... His portrayal of Dracula as a character is greatly that of the elusive, stealthy and seductive being distanced from direct contact to the audience. This is perhaps a device influenced by societal ideals of the nineteenth century, the noti...

• Word Count: 2816
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: Undergraduate