It's a literal darkness, in that where there is fog there is a lack of light, 'black drizzle' and 'the death of the sun'. ... But the fog is also representative of something more, of everything that is bad in the city, from the poverty to the politics, and the Chancellor sits in Chancery at the heart of it, literally, but that he sits at the centre of this representative fog shows that he is also at the heart of what is bad with London, he represents the authority of high political powers, the rich and capitalism, something which is hinted towards with 'accumul...

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

Later, when he goes away to college in pursuit of knowledge about alchemy and other sciences, everything gets darker and darker. ... While flipping through the novel, the reader can be certain of catching a glimpse of the words rain, dark, horror, and tears. ... Victor's fear of the monster is reminiscent of "The Tell Tale Heart", a story by one of the most distinguished Gothic writers of all time, Edgar Allen Poe. ... In "The Tell Tale Heart," the main character hears the beating of the heart of a man that he killed and buried in the floor. ... Death, darkness, rain, and horror ar...

• Word Count: 1350
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Conversely, Wuthering Heights, is most often described as one of the most tragic and heart breaking love stories ever told. ... (Pg. 63) Even though Cathy knows Heathcliff's dark side better than anyone, this description of her new lifestyle confirms that she mistakenly trusts that he will always be her protector and under her spell. ... We are expecting Heathcliff to have limits on his revenge in order to win Cathy back, but his intent is so dark, and his obsession so great, that to destroy Cathy is to destroy himself. ... " I have not broken your heart - you have broken it; and in...

• Word Count: 855
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Indeed, his feeling of disorientation is highlighted l.12: "his mind revolved the point of the strange questions put to him " and reinforced by the metaphor l.20 of the ship "helplessly fallen into a current " which suggests Delano's loss of control and his progressive immersion into the dark waters of his mind. ... There is in fact a whole lexical field of sensuality, starting with the name of Delano's ship "the Bachelor's Delight " and other allusions: "heart-broken pretense " (l.45), "a dark deed had been done " (l.47), "silk-trimmed undershirts"" (l.4), "cherish any desire b...

• Word Count: 1584
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

In, "The Tell-Tale Heart," it is the madness of the man which brings him to murder his employer and at the end of this particular story, the madness – or the acuteness of senses as it is frequently described by Poe – serves also as the man's punishment since the unbearable sound of the beating of his own guilty heart forced him to confess. ... "3 Besides frightening subjects like death, disease, dark setting, haunted locations and others, characters who exhibit madness4 are the gothic elements incorporated in number of his stories, like for example in, "The...

• Word Count: 1406
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Shelley's Frankenstein is host to a range of significant gothic elements, evident through Victor's creation of the gigantic creature, the dark setting of the novel, set in places of gloom and horror, and the disempowered portrayal of females, in which women are threatened by the tyranny of males and are often in distress. ... In her 1831 introduction, Shelley declares her desire to think of a story which would speak to the "mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror " one to "curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart". ... In Frankenstein, the multitud...

• Word Count: 2218
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

This place is full of veiled secrets that disturb the characters psychologically or physically, as well as secret rooms and dark interiors. ... " (Chapter 8) Here Jane talks about Helen as if she wasn't a mortal but a supernatural, spiritual being with purity at her heart. ... Fairfax, the housekeeper, shows her old rooms and dark staircases. ...

• Word Count: 1776
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography

Jane Eyre is a well-known gothic English novel publishes during the Victorian period by Charlotte Bronte. The novel contains the social criticism of sexuality, religion and feminist, which considered to be ahead of its time. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys has written a prequel to Jane Eyre. It mainly focuses on Bronte character Bertha, the mad wife who is not given a chance to speak out for herself in Jane Eyre. Both novels focus on the feminist issue in different ways; Rhys portrays Antoinette's struggle for identity within herself under patriarchal society, making her constrained and d...

• Word Count: 4886
• Approx Pages: 20
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

This is written to be one of the more sexual scenes in the novel, thus crossing the boundaries of incest and representing a new wave of morality in society, "Her lips quivered, and her mouth locked to me and the pain whipped through me suddenly encircling my heart."" (175). ... This is perhaps a device influenced by societal ideals of the nineteenth century, the notion that communities are protected; evil will be displaced and makes the character of Dracula, himself a cold being, " he is brute, and more than brute: he is devil in callous, and the heart of him is not - (304). ...

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

I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips'5. ... Seen as an avenging servant of God, he represents the rival to Dracula, who is often likened to the Devil: 'His eyes flamed red with devilish passion'9, and thus seeks to end the Manichaean conflict between light and dark. ...

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