Heart Of Darkness: The Dark Themes Of Gothic Literature

What is Gothicism some people might ask? Well that in and of itself is not the easiest thing to explain. For many it is the dark themes in literature, but that is not so. Gothic Literature appeared in writings because writers started to delve into the murky past of literature in order to capture the ancient folklore and interesting mysteries. The web that makes of gothic literature stretches far and wide and touches different territories, that many find scandalous, escapism, stalking, outré, and perilous. Gothicism over the years has changed in several ways due to the fact that the writers were devouring French romances, and other things like the Grimm’s Teutonic tales, Grimm’s Brothers Fairy Tales. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, one of

The influences can be plainly seen in the dark scenery in the game, along with the slightly menacing music. Now within the world of Castlevania, the dark scenery ranges from monster filled forests, dark and foreboding castles to haunted towns and mansions. An example of the Castlevania series being gothic is the game ‘Castlevania: Lament of Innocence’. ‘Castlevania: Lament of Innocence’ was developed by Konami for the PlayStation 2 console. This particular game relies heavily on the dark castle as its gothic setting. Although the story of the game revolves around a vampire and the loss of a loved one. There are many other aspects of the game that are considered gothic in nature. For instance the music, some of which is organ music while others seem to be harps and flutes. (Bettenhausen, Shane) One of the other Castlevania games is called ‘Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin’. The Castlevania game ‘Portrait of Ruin’ is similar yet different from many of the other Castlevania games. The main difference is that it is played on a DS instead of a PlayStation. Although the setting of the dark castle is still used. Even the dark music and the thrilling script remains almost the exact same as the rest of the Castlevania games, but each video game in a certain series will always have a chance to stand out from another game in that same series. (Donahoe, Michael) Although sometimes

Some series are more well-known than others, including the Castlevania games, whose setting really shows off the games gothic themes. Castlevania is not the only series that has a truly gothic setting, one such series that rivals Castlevania is the Resident Evil series. Each of these games series have more than just gothic setting, the music and even the script itself shows just how dark one’s mind can be. Now those are just the role-play games, but there are also board games that deal with the gothic side of life, some of which include “Last Night on Earth” and “Eldritch Horror.” (Robbins M. Brandon) Gothic video games cover a wide variety console playability. Many games that are considered gothic that people run across are playable on the PlayStation 2, Nintendo 64, GameCube, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, and the Wii. Many of the games that are playable on the Nintendo made consoles are the Legend of Zelda games and the well-known Castlevania games. Although the Legend of Zelda games are strictly for the Nintendo Consoles while the Castlevania are playable on other consoles depending on when the game was made. The legend of Zelda games include several gothic themes throughout the series of games. They range from the songs that they play in the games to the graveyards and the castles of the villain. Thought the villain in each of the games is a different person, thus the castle changes along with the monsters that appear when it is