The Origins of the Species by Charles Darwin

Gothic fiction emerged in the late eighteenth century and it was an extension of Romanticism. The principal characteristic of Gothic is the account of terrifying situations with elements like the sublime, madness, mystery, death, supernatural and horror. But as all the literary genres it underwent a transition. In the nineteenth century, the coming of Queen Victoria to the throne, the introduction of new scientific theories, the publication of The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin and industrialization modified the structures of society , its motivation, and believes. This influenced the genre, creating a new literary movement: Victorian Gothic, and therefore also the novels written in these different periods. During this era novels shared some of the conventional themes and features of the Early Gothic but there was an addition of new elements such as science, atavism or the monster figure.

The following pages deal with the main differences and similarities between Victorian Gothic and the previous traditional Gothic works. In particular this essay will explore and compare Stoker’s Dracula with Lewis’ The Monk and Radcliffe’s A Sicilian Romance. It will examine in deeper detail two aspects of the novels: the writing style and setting in order to show how the Gothic genre has developed and evolved and how it has affected the works mentioned previously. The aim of this paper is to explore the ways in which Stoker has used traditional Gothic elements and what he has contributed to this genre.

The writing style is a tool to create fear and horror but there are some differences in how it is used in Early and in Victorian Gothic. Authors like Ann Radcliffe used suggestion, sensibility and suspense to provoke terror. She did not descr...

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...characteristics of both genres and others that make that Dracula diverges from typical Early Gothic novels. In other words, in agreement with the critics McNally and Florescu, Dracula is classified as ‘a realistic horror story rather than a Gothic novel and demonstrate how the novel differs from the romances of Ann Radcliffe’ .

According with this research work I arrived at the conclusion that Stoker has contributed to this new genre and had an important impact in the writing style, topics and structure of the novel. In summary, he has renewed the traditional Gothic style represented by Radcliffe and Lewis. As a result many authors and critics have talked about the novel and it has become in an influential work and an example of a whole literary movement. Furthermore with the previous study it is proved that Dracula is a connection, a link with the Gothic Fiction.