evil – R&D Gothic Discoveries

In this post, I decided to try to find and understand how someone can turn into a human monster. There are two aspects I want to explore with you, hoping you will enjoy it!

The first aspect that could influence this transformation is loneliness. I think that when someone is forced to stay on his own without seeing nor earing others, he or she might develop violent or thoughts that are disconnected from reality. For example, in the movie I Am Legend, the main character is left alone in New York City, due to the apocalypse that happened. Since he did not ear nor see other people for a long time, he became really fearful and tormented by the evil creatures that were outside his house at night. He was constantly thinking about how he could kill or fight them, which finally lead him to a form of madness. The proof is that when someone finally arrived with him in New York, he rejected her immediately, even if he wished company for so long.

Another aspect would be duality in personality. I think that when someone tries to hide a side of his or her personality to other people, it will surely come out eventually, maybe creating some negative events. What I want to express with this statement is that people who have two sides of their personality might, eventually, get tired of playing around with the perception of others and mix both parts together, sometimes creating a human monster. A good example of this duality would be Dr. Jekyll in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In this story,, the main character Dr. Jekyll turns into Mr. Hyde at night, who has an evil and monstrous personality, the complete opposite of his day-time personality. With time, his personalities come to mix altogether, changing whenever they want. This causes evil behavior, linking him to a human monster.

I suggest you do not stay alone for too long and hide a certain part of your personality because you might turn into a human monster! 😉

Rosalie

In this post, I will provide you a little explanation of the evolution of the gothic genre through time with different examples of books that were really popular in this genre.

First of, I will describe how The Castle of Otranto set the standards for the future gothic pieces. This story was written by Horace Walpole in 1764. It was the first story that follow the gothic genre we know today. This story really set the standards for this genre and, even nowadays, some gothic pieces are inspired from it. At first, the gothic genre really focused on the aspect of setting. The setting of a story is really the base because it will decide whether or not the reader will be frightened by the piece or not. In The Castle of Otranto, the setting is, in my opinion, the most important elements of the story. Actually, the fact that it is set in strange places really far from anything else is what makes the reader afraid. On the contrary, if the story was set in the middle of the city in a beautiful house, the tension in the book would certainly be destroyed.

Following the same idea, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, written in 1897, also put emphasis on the setting of the story. In this book, the fact that Count Dracula’s castle is far from the city makes the readers believe even more in the “evilness” of the character. Even in the story, the protagonist, Jonathan Harker, is afraid to go to the Count’s castle because it is set in a far and strange place and no one is really sure of what’s happening there. Once again, the tension found in the book is essentially created by the setting of the story.

On the other hand, more recent gothic pieces put emphasis on completely different motifs to create tension. For instance, Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, published in 2005, created tension based on the archetype of the damsel in distress and forbidden love. The forbidden love situation is mainly represented in Bella and Edward’s relationship. The fact that he is a vampire and she is a human, makes it technically impossible for them to fall in love, even though this is exactly what happens. Adding to this situation, Bella, one of the main characters, is essentially represented as a damsel in distress. Meyer puts Bella in different situations that sometimes put her in danger, but mainly creates vulnerability. It is in those cases that the archetype of the damsel in distress will create tension for the readers because they will fear what will happen to the girl.

With this glimpse of information, I hope you understand a little better the evolution of the gothic motifs through time and that it makes you realize how the authors create the tension you like so much about gothic novels.

Rosalie

Tag: evil

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