Gothic Literature- the Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe and Dracula by Bram Stoker
Dracula by Bram Stoker and The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe
Any text that is composed is written to fit into the society that it is written for. A genre must evolve and modernise itself to remain relevant and interesting to the target audience. In “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe and “Dracula” by Bram Stoker, the composers have both adapted their stories to appeal the people of their time.
“Dracula” by Bram Stoker used many of the conventions of the gothic genre to appeal to the Victorian Society. Stoker used the style of the novel, his characters and the tone to create an enticing text based on the beliefs of the novel’s era.
The tone of the novel Dracula seemed to be fear. Fear is a very common theme in many gothic texts. A few different types of fear were used in “Dracula” but the most prominent was the fear of evil and the supernatural. This comes from the era in which “Dracula” was written. In the Victorian era, religion played a huge role in people’s lives. These religious beliefs are shown in the quote “No longer she is the devils Un-dead. She is God’s true dead, whose soul is with Him. People still strongly believed in superstitions and evil creatures and because of this fear, “Dracula” was a truly terrifying novel.
Many allusions are made to myths and legends that were more commonly know in the Victorian era than in the modern world. “The brows were wrinkled as though the fold of flesh were the coils Medusa’s snakes” is a reference to the popular Greek legend of the goddess Medusa, with her hair of serpents.
The characters in “Dracula” tend to reflect the moral codes of the Victorian era. The antagonists are the embodiment of the behaviors considered unpropitious in the era that “Dracula” was composed in, such as the overly sexual female vampires that try to prey on Jonathon Harker. They were very forward in their approach to Jonathon, though in Victorian Society it was considered wrong for a female to be anything but demure and virtuous. Their
Any text that is composed is written to fit into the society that it is written for. A genre must evolve and modernise itself to remain relevant and interesting to the target audience. In “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe and “Dracula” by Bram Stoker, the composers have both adapted their stories to appeal the people of their time.
“Dracula” by Bram Stoker used many of the conventions of the gothic genre to appeal to the Victorian Society. Stoker used the style of the novel, his characters and the tone to create an enticing text based on the beliefs of the novel’s era.
The tone of the novel Dracula seemed to be fear. Fear is a very common theme in many gothic texts. A few different types of fear were used in “Dracula” but the most prominent was the fear of evil and the supernatural. This comes from the era in which “Dracula” was written. In the Victorian era, religion played a huge role in people’s lives. These religious beliefs are shown in the quote “No longer she is the devils Un-dead. She is God’s true dead, whose soul is with Him. People still strongly believed in superstitions and evil creatures and because of this fear, “Dracula” was a truly terrifying novel.
Many allusions are made to myths and legends that were more commonly know in the Victorian era than in the modern world. “The brows were wrinkled as though the fold of flesh were the coils Medusa’s snakes” is a reference to the popular Greek legend of the goddess Medusa, with her hair of serpents.
The characters in “Dracula” tend to reflect the moral codes of the Victorian era. The antagonists are the embodiment of the behaviors considered unpropitious in the era that “Dracula” was composed in, such as the overly sexual female vampires that try to prey on Jonathon Harker. They were very forward in their approach to Jonathon, though in Victorian Society it was considered wrong for a female to be anything but demure and virtuous. Their