The Theme of Gothic horror is shown in both books as the books show the signs of basic gothic horror. Gothic horror is when terror or horror is inspired in the reader. This can be used to help describe the two books we are doing about as they both are gothic horror books. Both writers do this in their books when they have vampires in Interview with a vampire and the creature in Frankenstein showing unnatural birth and other unnatural occurrences.
Both Authors lost a child when writing the book or before. This influenced the authors to write their books as they both deals with unnatural births. Which helps define it as gothic horror as it deals with unnatural occurrences.
In both books the author uses the sublime (this is a type of literature which follows the same form e.g. horror) landscape to help show the genre and to create emotions. Sublime is a stimulus, which arouses emotions; It may be a feeling of overpowering joy or alternatively horror. An example of this in Interview with a vampire is
“ a sublime loneliness with which Lestat and I moved through the world of mortal men”.
Also in the texts they use uncanny which is when something familiar becomes unfamiliar or an eerie feeling created by something seemingly supernatural.
The setting in both books is mainly in the 18th century where there wasn’t anything too modern which helped add the theme of gothic horror to the reading audience as in those times it was a lot darker and more horrifying.
In an Interview with a vampire the story is set over 200 years. Showing as the theme of gothic horror in the book decreases, as the book becomes more modern. This is shown when Lestat is scared of the modern world and the artificial lights as he thinks they are sunlight scaring him into hiding.
There are various themes in both books for example they have written one of the characters acting like God, Lestat in Interview with a vampire and Victor in Frankenstein. This was especially scary in Frankenstein 1816 as the people took religion very seriously and to talk about gods in this way was known as evil, which scared the people who read the book Which would inspire terror into the people who read it. When in Frankenstein the creature says
“ I am thy creature, I ought to be thy Adam”
And in Interview in the vampire when Lestat acts as god by creating Louie and also when Lestat says they are the same as God when he says “ Gods kill, and so shall we” This shows the God theme as Lestat connects being a vampire to being Gods which is shown in the quote.
Another thing in both books they deal with the themes of outsiders. In Frankenstein when the creature is looking in
“On examining the dwelling, I found that one of the windows of the cottage had formally occupied part of it but the panes had been boarded up with wood. In one of these was a small and almost imperceptible chick, through which the eye could just penetrate. Through this crevice a small room was visible.”
Also in Interview with a vampire Louie became an outsider when he became a vampire.
“ I said goodbye to the sunrise and went out to become a vampire”
The two texts are very similar though in many ways. First of all in both texts the main character is an outsider, Louie as a Vampire as he is different from everyone else as he is a vampire and Victor as an outcast to everyone else as he created this monster and is a criminal for doing so making him an outsider and different to other people. Also both authors have lost a child which may have helped write the book using their life experiences to help them writing the book.
Both books have roughly the same plot when Louie or the creature both have a natural birth and find it hard to survive. Also in both books they murder when the creature kills people or Louie kills people for blood. As when Louie said, “ Now I am guilty of murder.”
I think the authors of these two texts have don’t an excellent job in dealing with the theme of outsiders in the text as the setting, the characters and what’s happening around them all make them outsiders. Also what the characters are and how they act and what they do which inspires terror or horror into the reader create the genre of Gothic horror and make it stand out.
But what most of all stuck into my mind were the words from Louie, which really made me think Gothic horror and outsiders, was
“I wanted love and goodness in this which is living death’ I said ‘ It was impossible from the beginning, because you cannot have love and goodness when you do what you know to be evil, what you know to be wrong”
and also in Frankenstein when Victor said
“ It was necessary that I should return without delay to Geneva, there to watch over the lives of those I do fondly loved; and to lie in wait for the murderer, that if any chance led me to the place of his concealment, or if he dared”
Both showing the Gothic horror in their words like when they say “murderer” and “evil” creating the gothic horror feeling.
