The isolation of such settings results in long journeys over sometimes bleak and dangerous land. In “Dracula” Jonathan Harker proceeded on a journey that took him all night through mountains, hills and dangerous ridges. In “The Red Room” the young confident man embarked on another journey that saw him walk through doorways, up staircases and along dark corridors lit by his lone candle. H.G Wells obviously felt the need to exaggerate every object, shadow and noise, he wrote “You will go along a passage for a bit until you come to a door, and through that is a spiral staircase, half-way up that is a landing and another door covered with baize. Go through that and down the long corridor to the end, and the red room is on your left up the steps”. H.G Wells exaggerated the journey to make the reader aware how helpless the young confident man would be if he got in trouble, no one would hear him scream!
The same thing happens in “The Old Nurses Story” another journey was made by the nurse travelling to Furnivall Manor, which was also emphasised to convey to the reader how isolated the Manor was. Again Elizabeth Gaskell described the nurse’s journey thoroughly describing every aspect. “We had left all signs of a town, or even a village, and were then inside the gates of a large wildlife park- with rocks, and the noise of running water, gnarled thorn-trees, old oaks all white and peeled with age.”
In the stories I have read I have noticed that the action usually takes place in and around an old castle or building, sometimes seemingly abandoned, sometimes occupied. The building is usually of large scale and contains secret passages, trap doors, secret rooms, dark or hidden staircases and possibly ruined sections. The castle may be near or connected to mountains, hills or caves, which lend their own haunting flavour with their vastness, claustrophobia and the unknown such as the mystery of the moors and hills in “The Old Nurses Story”.
The atmosphere of mystery and suspense is usually present in a gothic story; often the plot itself is based around mystery like “The Old Nurses Story” when the east wing is strictly out of bounds and when the picture of Miss Grace was mysteriously turned around as if to hide it. This was an important scene in “The Old Nurses Story” and Elizabeth Gaskell conveyed it to her reader well. She wrote of Dorothy and the nurse searching the old state drawing room for the picture Dorothy had previously seen and then wrote on the nurses behalf “ I helped Dorothy to turn a great picture, that leaned with its face towards the wall, and was not hung up as the others were. To be sure, it beat miss Grace for beauty and I think, for scornful pride, too. I could have looked at it an hour.” The nurse had discovered miss Furnivall’s sister Miss Grace who no longer existed and who was no longer mentioned of by the people of the house.
Mystery and suspense was also present in “The Red Room” with the haunting of the room where someone had died and was supposedly still present in an unearthly form.
The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear, is fear of the unknown. Bram Stoker, Elizabeth Gaskell and H.G. Wells clearly knew this and incorporated fear into their story through the supernatural element. All gothic stories incorporate a supernatural element whether it be a spirit, monster, or another strange phenomenon.
The intense description and narration provided by the author of gothic novels provides us with a story that creates a series of images inside your head that is highly detailed and clear to their reader. In Dracula, Bram Stoker uses the diary technique to create a realistic gothic horror story. By writing in diary and journal form, Stoker creates a sense of intimacy with his reader. We feel as if we are reading the story as it happens and share the horror of the various characters. Since diaries and journals are private writings, usually meant to be read only by the writer, we feel as if we are being told a dark secret. Edgar Allan Poe writes a lot like Bram Stoker, he may even have influenced Stoker's work. Stoker uses gothic imagery and bizarre characters in his various journals to add to the feeling of horror naturally inherent in a story about blood sucking vampires.
The use of dark imagery, and brutal language adds to the gothic scenery. It is easy to see why Bram stoker's novel is the most widely read and most well known gothic novel of all time. Stoker's language is not as gothic as Edgar Allan Poe's because I found it easier to understand, and more straightforward.
“The Old Nurses Story” also contains a sense of brutal imagery with the spectre child’s gruesome end. The last pages were critical they drew together the deep and complex storyline making everything understandable. The “broad and mysterious light” was the phantom organ player, who murdered Miss Graces child, resulting in her leaving the manor all those years ago and trekking up the snowy fells to the holly bush which would be her final resting place. I personally thought the last pages of “The Old Nurses Story” were very good and provided a gruesome ending to a brilliant gothic novel.
