English gothic literature

Extract

[...] She begs Lord Uplandtowers to remove the statue and later becomes a loving wife. While the plot summary of Hardy's gothic is one of the romanticism genres, Stoker's “Dracula” is quite a different genre. The story starts with an account of Jonathan Harker's travel to Count Dracula's castle, which is a vampires' castle. The struggle against the vampires led to the killing of some of his friends and the near death experiences of his wife Mina. This is a horror gothic literature depicted by vampires and haunted castles. [...]

[...] The paper will first provide a summary of the plot to provide an understanding of the subgenre of gothic literature used in each story. Then the paper will analyze the architectural structures found in the stories, evaluating them for meaning, and importance in the development of the plot. The paper contends that depending on the subgenre of the gothic literature, architectural structures present different meanings and importance that are critical to the development of the plot. Summary Thomas Hardy's gothic narration of “Barbara of the House of Grebe” depicts the story of a young man from a royal family Lord Uplandtowers, who decides to marry a young beautiful lady Barbara, a daughter of a rich man called Sir John Grebe (Hardy 40). [...]

[...] However, an underlying concept of the architectural structures, especially places of residence, is that they are not as safe as one would think. Despite these places being endowed with high quality and expensive materials, they can be a source of pain and suffering. For the romanticism subgenre, the manor is depicted as a place of psychology suffering for Barbara. On the other hand, the castle in the horror subgenre is depicted as a place of physical and psychological suffering. Works cited Bomarito, Jessica. Gothic Literature. Detroit: Thomson/Gale Print. [...]

[...] While there are no castles in Hardy's story, the manors are characteristic of gothic stories. Unlike in the architecture in “Barbara the House of Grebe” represents affluent and a representation of the rich. In Dracula, the architecture represents a place of suffering and a den of vampires. The manors in Hardy's story represent a place of solace and rescue while the castles in “Dracula” represent horror, death, and pain. Architectural Description as a Depiction of Wealth Further, the architecture is used to describe the environment of a place in both stories. [...]

[...] However, in gothic literature, the house is perceived as a secure place only to turn out to be a source of pain and suffering. In both “Dracula” and “Barbara of the House of Grebe” the castle and the manors respectively are depicted as sources of pain for the protagonists. As Herker is welcomed by Dracula into the castle, he notices that there are no windows and there is only a single source of light (Stoker 25). Despite the beauty of the furniture (Stoker 28) the castle became a source of pain ones he noticed that he was a prisoner of Dracula (Stoker 39). [...]