Dracula, by Bram Stoker

Dracula, by Bram Stoker, is a classic tale of Gothicism. Traditionally, Gothic tales only carried single theme of horror. Through Dracula, Stoker breaks this single theme barrier. The theme throughout Dracula is clearly displayed through the characters as they step from ignorance to realization in this tale of horror.
     The theme of ignorance is vital for this story. It is woven throughout and evident in all the characters. It is first displayed through the protagonist, John Harker. It is his innate lack of knowing that puts him in a deadly situation: Do you know that to-night, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil in the world will have full sway? Do you know where you are going, and what you are doing? This was the protagonist, Jonathan Harker's second encounter with strangers, in a strange land, in which he was confronted in this manner. He had three such encounters, all of which he nonchalantly dismissed. During his first encounter, the people simply refused to answer any of his questions. In his third encounter, strangers made the sign of a cross and pointed at him. During all of this, Jonathan had no clue why these people were acting in this strange way, nor did he have a notion to question why. Even though he is oblivious to the reasons for their behavior, he blindly continues on the path the strangers warned him not to go on. Another depiction of this ignorance is shown through Dr. Seward and Dr. Van Helsing as they work on a patient, Lucy Westerna. After the doctors diagnosed Lucy as being somewhat bloodless and the pricks on neck were discovered, they immediately dismissed the idea of the pricks being the cause of this loss of blood. It at once occurred to me that this wound, or whatever it was might be the means for this manifest loss of blood; but I abandoned the idea as soon as formed, for such a thing could not be.These doctors had knowledge, but their own ignorance interfered even though all the signs of what was going on were clear.
     It is when Stoker allows his characters to step to realization that the story heightens. Jonathan is only enlightened to realization after his ignorance has completely thrust him into a life threatening situation. I started for it amazed me that I had not seen him, since the reflection of the glass covered the whole of the room behind me. I turned to the glass again to see how I had been mistaken. This time there could be no error, for the man was close to me, and I could see him over my shoulder. But there was no reflection of him in the mirror! Jonathan's first realization was for who or what Dracula was. His second eye opener was that he was a prisoner. When I found that I was a prisoner it was these two facts that enabled Jonathan to see. Although Lucy could not come to a realization on her own, Dr. Seward and Dr. Van Helsing came to one for her. From the beginning, they could see that she had lost blood. They could not pinpoint how the blood was taken from her, but they were aware enough to know that it happened when she was alone. This fact led them to decide that she should not be left alone. You must remain here all the night, and must not let your sight pass from her. Even though the doctors were not completely ignorant, Lucy had four times needed blood while in their care. The doctors tried in as many ways as they could to preserve Lucy’s life, but all to no avail. It was only when the knowledge of Jonathan and the doctors was combined that tier realization was made into power. I suppose one ought to pity anything so hinted as is The Count. That is just it: this Thing is not human-not even beast. Also recognizing that what they were dealing with was not human gave them extra ability to defeat Dracula. As a team, they had to learn all the intricate details about Dracula. They even sacrificed one of their own in order to gain the information that they needed. I can see the characteristics of the vampire coming in her face. They almost lost Mina, but ended up being victorious. It was only the power that came from knowing that allowed them to defeat Dracula.
     This Gothic story not only played on the ignorance of the characters, in order to heighten the suspense, but it also used the technique of realization in order to make the story seem real. Their ignorance was well balanced when they finally came into realization of what was going on. The horror, ignorance and realization were the manifestation of Stoker’s threefold theme. It was this threefold theme that made this Gothic tale complete.

Poe - Scary Stories

What is the total effect of a story? The total effect of a story is the specific response an author expects to get from his/her readers. In "The Tell-Tale Heart," by Edgar Allen Poe, is complete and total horror. The setting, plot, character and even point of view contribute to this total effect of horror. The setting contributes to this total effect in several different ways. All of the shudders in the house were closed, so no one could see anything from the outside in or the inside out. This was scary because no one ever knew what went on in that house except the old man with the googily eye and the murderer. The house was old and creaky, and, during the midnight hours, was pitch black. This creaky old house is a classic for horror stories and films, so it definitely adds to the total effect. The plot also gives that same feeling of horror. The way the murderer watched the old man night after night, for hours at a time. You got the total effect of horror when he flipped the bed onto the old man, and then chopped him into little tiny pieces and hid him the floorboards. Then the police came to see about a scream that was reported earlier. The man led them through the house, claiming that the old man was out of town for a while. He finally sat down in the exact spot where the old man had been buried under the floorboards. What eventually made the man confess to what he had done when he imagined that he heard the old man's heart beating from under the floorboards. It got louder and louder until finally he thought they(the officers)were just driving him insane and they heard the heart to and they must have heard it until he just jumped up, ripped off the floorboards and said "I did it, I killed him," pointing at the pieces of the man. Characterization is the biggest part of the total effect of horror. The man seemed normal enough, except for the fact that the old man's "vulture eye" made a little crazy. He was very normal, until the "eye" drove him to stalking the man while he was asleep, and then finally killed him. At the beginning of the story, or the end, whichever you would like to call it, it was the beginning, and the end, he kept saying "I'M NOT MAD," it was sort of, well, a psycho thing to say after chopping someone into little pieces and hiding them in the floorboards, that kind of told you that he WAS mad. Another aspect of the story that contributed to the total effect was point of view. It is in first person point of view, and if it wasn't, the story would not be the same. If you knew what the old man was thinking, then what the murderer thought he was thinking would be absolutely irrelevant in the story, because you would know what he thought the old guy was thinking was what he was really thinking or if he was thinking about something totally different. If we knew what the police were thinking then, in the same way as the old man, the murderer's ideas of what they were thinking would be irrelevant because we would know that that was or was not what they were thinking. As you can see, the plot, setting, character and point of view all play major roles in the total effect of the story "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe.

Scary Stories

Fake Poe Toaster

Jan 19 2012, waiting for the Poe Toaster brought to you by http://www.burialday.com - Here is a fake toaster at the Poe monument and then leaving the cemetery. It is hard to see but this guy was wearing a red scarf and not a white scarf like the real Poe Toaster normally does.

Salems Lot and The Shining

Stephen King sets up the perfect horror scene in room 217 by building off of Hitchcock and hos own previous work, Salem's Lot. King uses Hitchcock's definition of great horror to set for the scene in room 217. He also uses background from his old work, Salems Lot.

Alfred Hitchcock's idea of horror involves human suspense and the realistic aspect of scary situations. Hitchcocks masterful directing leads the audience to be the first to understand what is going on. The characters are left in the dark until the suspense reaches its climax. As the impending danger builds, the viewer is allowed to wtiness the situation before the character. This raises the level of suspense making it more realistic. Hitchcock takes normal situations and adds a terrifying twist. The twist is always something that has never happened, but is definitely possible. Hitchcocks The Birds is an excellent example of this. He takes normal situation with normal birds and turns them into killers. As the birds gather behind one unsuspecting victim, only the audience is allowed to see the impending danger. The woman is calm and collected as she waits on the bench. Hitchcock adds a little scare music and the woman suddenly realizes she is being watched. She whips around in horror and the birds are there ready to attack. This screen is not a common occurrence, but to an overactive imagination it could become a very real possibility.

Kings early work Salems Lot helps to prove he has created the perfect horror scene in room 217. Salems lot was, at that time, a suspenseful story about vampires and things that lurk in the night. The plot was predictable, new guys come to town, vampires attack, suspicious old man is accused. When King wrote Salems Lot his techniques for horror and suspense were still young and under developed. The element of surprise was more evident than that of suspense. The writing of King matured greatly before he wrote The Shining. The scene in room, 217 us a perfect horror scene as it takes a realistic situation and turns it frightening. As the beginning of the nover danny is warned by Hallorann not to enter room 217. The first step has been completed, the warning. The second step of building the action begins. Danny steals the passkey, but not only that as Jack has been having hallucinations along with Danny. The fire hose and the hedge animals are just two of the suspense building elements. The next step is the rule breaking, and Danny enters the room. All looks well until the tub is exposed and the bloated woman is seen. The nightmare of finding someone where they are least expected adds to the horror as the dead woman follows Danny out of the bathroom and grabs onto his neck. The paranoia of being followed is also a realistic right that people relate with. This scene, taken from Hitchcocks style of suspense, is the perfect horror scene.

In Stephen King's novel The Shining the horror in room 217 is a perfect suspense situation. King used Hitchcock's style of suspense to build the scene King's previous work Salem's Lot proves the style his suspense has matured.

Horror Stories
Scary Stories

Nineteenth Century Horror

Horror can be delivered through many different ways, be it through
gothicism, the psychological aspect or the industrial view on horror.
Bram Stokers writing involves gothicism. He wrote many novels and
short stories and amongst them was "The Squaw". I think that Stokers
vivid and graphic descriptions of death add more aspects to his
writing than just gothicism:

"but the stone fell right on the kittens head and shattered out its
little brains."

People usually associate gothicism with creepy haunted houses or
underground passages and secret stairways and that gothic writers
focus more on describing the scene than the characters and death.
These are true, but not necessarily to stoker. He sets the scene well
and he also describes the manner in which the characters died with an
exceptional likeness to life. Unlike the other authors that we have
studied, Stokers characters have no clear psychological uncertainties.
Elias P Hutcheson comes across as a very arrogant and racist
character, and when he kills the cat´s kitten, the cat is set out for
revenge fueled by the hatred of Hutcheson:

"Launched herself at him as though hate and fury could lend her
wings."

I think that stoker drops subtle hints foreshadowing the fact that the
cat is going to get revenge on Hutcheson:

"Her eyes looked like positive murder"

Stoker delivers an exceptional description of the Iron Virgin which
makes his writing all that more creepy and imaginative:

"Placed in such a position that when the door should close the
upper ones would pierce the eyes of the victim, and the lower ones his
heart and lungs."

I don´t think that the reader would have any sympathy for Hutcheson
when the Iron Virgin kills him and they will think that he has finally
got his comeuppance:

"Had pierced so deep that they had locked in the bones of his
skull. And tore him out of his own prison"

Edgar Allan Poe sends the horror genre in a new direction that is
somewhat different to that of Stokers methods of writing horror. He
does so by dealing more with the psychological viewpoint and what´s
going on in the characters head rather than the surroundings. In Poem´s
writing there is not so much focus on atmosphere but more on
characterisation.

In "The tell-tale Heart" we are immediately introduced to a
protagonist who has a very nervous and indeed mad state of mind. This
is suggested to us as he tells the reader that he hears voices from
out of this world:

" I heard all things in heaven. I heard many things in hell."

He denies his madness and I think that this covering up of his madness
is a most definate and obvious sign of madness.

Similarly, in 'The Black Cat´ the protagonist´s mind becomes
progressively worse and more perverse through his evident alcohol
abuse. In just the same way, he tries to say that he is not mad:
"Yet, mad I am not."

'The Black Cat´ I think also deals with the imagery that Stoker
conveyed, not as well as him but he does so in such a fashion that the
reader recognises that it is a horror story which they are reading:
" Grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of
its eyeballs from its socket."

In contrast to Stoker, Poem´s stories involve investigations from the
police that lead to the protagonists´ madness being shown full on as,
under no pressure, they break down and confess to their crimes. At the
beginning of The tell-tale Heart, he tells us that he is cursed with
an acuteness of the senses: ". Of hearing acute." And this is then
used later on during his confession. I think that he confesses to it
because he can still hear the heart beating under the planks:

" "Villains" I shrieked "dissemble no more! I admit the deed!-tear up
the planks!-here, here!-it is the beating of the hideous heart!"
As with 'The Squaw´, I think that there is also revenge on the cats
behalf in 'The Black Cat´. It is the cat that has driven him into
murder and it is then that cat that allows the police to discover that
he has murdered his wife and concealed her in the walls, by wailing
out. But, it is his fault for allowing the cat to wail out because it
was him, through his belief that he had got away with it and boasting
about it, that he hit upon the very same point in the walls where the
body was concealed. We saw this mental breakdown in 'The tell-tale
Heart´ and now we see it again here. I think that the protagonist
shows his willingness not to be caught by after being caught by the
police murdering them as well.

In 'The tell-tale Heart´, Poe uses a lot of repetition: "a very, very
little crevice", "it grew louder- louder-louder!" and I think that
this is to put such an emphasis on it that the reader is made aware of
how thorough the murderer is doing things and also to get a sense that
you are there at the time with them.

Again a new writer and a new theme, which sends the horror genre in a
new direction. H. G. Wells writes about industrialism in horror. In
'The Cone´ we are immediately shown that Raut is having an affair with
Horrocks wife and I think that this is apparent to Horrocks. Whilst
Horrocks is showing Raut around all the furnaces we are continually
told that Horrocks is holding on to Rauts´ arm extremely tightly.
Then, as they are crossing the train line I think what we see is
Horrocks attempting to murder Raut.

"Horrocks hand suddenly clenched upon him like a vice. And there were
a chain of lamp-lit carriage windows telescoped swiftly as it came
towards them."

We get the impression that Horrocks tried to get Raut run over by the
train but then we see the opposite:

" I wouldn´t have had you run over for the world."

The reader and Raut now do not know whether or not to trust Horrocks,
or suspect him for attempted murder. Is he trying to give Raut a false
sense of security? Horrocks talks about the blast furnace as: " white
as death" and " red as sin." Again the reader and Raut have to wonder
whether this is just coincidence or is Horrocks hinting at something.
When Horrocks and Raut are at the cone and Horrocks is describing it I
find it interesting that Horrocks says:

" If you were dropped in it"

Moments after saying this Horrocks is then trying to kill Raut.
H. G. Wells´ horror is industrial and his horror is not dealt with in
the way that people expect horror to be written. He does write horror,
but not in the manner that everyone expects, his horror involves the
industry and machinery. I think that a good example of this is when he
is talking about the cone and he delivers it involving both industry
and the horror which people anticipate:

" It will boil the blood out of you in no time."

This is good because he is showing that he can use and industrial
machine as a weapon. As with stokers and Poes stories I think that
there is revenge for a character in them. In this story the revenge is
for Horrocks on Raut for Raut coveting with Horrocks wife. Being
thrown into the cone by Horrocks eventually kills Raut. We see
Horrocks joy at this and we then also learn that he was killed for his
having an affair with Horrocks wife.

" Fizzle you fool! You hunter of women! You hot blooded hound! Boil!
Boil! Boil!"

In 'The Lord of the Dynamos´, we see similarities with 'The Cone´.
Obviously they are both industrial horror stories, but in them, I
think that it is considered that the machines are alive and in 'The
Lord of the Dynamos´, even lifelike:

" And yet not motionless, but living."
We also see similarities between the three writers writing. I think
that both Poesia and wells characters, especially in 'The tell-tale
Heart´ and 'The Lord of the Dynamos´ are mentally very unstable and in
fact quite mad. Also in this story asin The Black Cat, one of the
characters has a problem with alcohol abuse. Azuma-zi worships the
dynamo as his god, which is an obvious sign of madness, as no one
would worship a machine:

" He went and whispered to the thundering machine that he was its
servant."

The specific differences in this story to the others that we have read
are that this story involves religion. The religion being that
Azuma-zi thinks that the dynamo is his god. He thinks that the dynamo
is going to kill Holroyd for him, and indeed he does. There is a
symbolic conflict in this story and the conflict is that of science
versus nature.

In the end we have seen the genre of horror develop in three stages;
from the early gothic works of Stoker, on to the psychological theme
of horror with Poe, and finishing with the industrial horror element
of H. G. Wells.

Horror Stories
Scary Stories

Gone Black

Article by Gerardo Pelayo at 2012-01-13 17:11:05 Categorized in Short Fiction,
http://onlywire.com/r/66714416

The Devil Inside

Article by Cynthia Pelayo at 2012-01-07 17:11:32 Categorized in Blogs,

http://www.burialday.com/2012/01/07/devil-inside/