Gothic Elements Of Dracula Essay

In the Encyclopedia Britannica, a Gothic novel is characterized as, “pseudo medieval fiction having a prevailing atmosphere of mystery and terror” (Britannica). A novel that fits this description is Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”. This dark novel is full of mystery inspiring terror throughout the story. Stoker has set a dark atmosphere to create a sense of horror and fear in his readers. He uses very specific elements to influence the dark tone and set a dismal mood. These elements are a combination of eerie word choice, suspenseful tone, and terror-inspiring characters.
First of all, Stoker uses word choice that is quite creepy to influence the dark atmosphere. One example of this uncanny vocabulary use is, "…in the courtyard of a vast ruined castle, from whose tall black windows came no ray of light, and whose broken battlements showed a jagged line against the moonlight sky” (Stoker 15). With words like “vast,” ”broken,” and “jagged,” the atmosphere of this scene is depicted as dark and scary without needing any visual cues. If Stoker uses the word “large” instead of “vast” or “rough” instead of “jagged” the scene would seem less dark or negative.

All throughout the book he uses a dark and suspenseful tone. "In trance she died, and in trance she is Un-Dead, too... There is no malign there, see, and so it make it hard that I must kill her in her sleep" (Stoker 193). This quote is one good example of how he shows this tone, as he uses this as a malicious and yet somehow enticing description of the murder that he is aspiring to commit. He emphasizes the negative words by capitalizing or sticking them in certain spots of a sentence to bring them out more. This tone pulls the reader to a place of deep sympathy with Lucy, and allows the realization that her death has only turned her to the undead. The tone in this one quote is both somber and terrified as it sheds light on the horrific events that are taking