Dracula and the Little Stranger Comparative

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Contrastingly, Stoker and Waters take very different approaches to the endings of their gothic novels. While Stoker uses the classic good triumphing over evil trope vanquishing all fear built up in the novel for the reader, Waters’ crafts her ending to be sinisterly ambiguous with no real triumph to be seen- most of the protagonists are dead or insane- leaving an uncertainty that creates fear till the very end. At the very end of Dracula, Stoker leaves an almost epilogue written by Johnathon seven years after the Counts’ death in Transylvania. In this short extract, Johnathon says that his son’s bundle of names unifies “[his] our little band of men” together. Stokers’ use of metaphor could create a sense of unity between the men, almost as if they are a “band” of very old friends, through the baby Quincy. This could further suggest, in Victorian society, a sense of victory over evil as Johnathon has been able to start a family of which is the perfect representation of Victorian middle-class society, despite the ordeal he faced when the Count was alive thus taking away the sense of fear that was prevalent throughout the novel. Stokers’ use of the determiner “our” could promote ideas of togetherness, comforting the reader as they realise that no evil can break the trust team Helsing held with God and each other, vanquishing any fear the reader may have had in Stokers’ novel. Helsing believed they were on a “crusade” from God to punish evil; by Stoker having Dracula killed, it supports his audience that their long standing religious faiths, the foundations of their social structure, was the right way to live. Helsing “crusade” was not in vain, the “hell-fire” Count was killed along with his “voluptuous” wives, destroying the fear and suspense Stoker crafted throughout his novel to achieve the classic trope of good triumphing over evil. In contrast to Stokers’ happy ending, Sarah Waters’ contemporary Gothic novels ending is purposely ambiguously mysterious, using imagery to create suspense and a fearful atmosphere. Faraday, after the death of Caroline, visits Hundreds Hall whenever he has the time, dusting and cleaning he sees a shard of glass where he looks “baffled and longing” at his face which is “[his] my own”. Waters’ use of polysemous imagery could suggest that Faraday was the ghost himself all along unconsciously and he finds his own face when looking for the ghost because it is him, keeping the reader in intense dread unlike Stokers’ unified ending where all evil has been destroyed. This is ironic as Faraday has been the embodiment of rationalism throughout Waters’ Gothic novel, dissimilar to Stokers’ use of rationalism as a device to support the existence of the supernatural, and even at the end Faraday has no idea that he is the ghost. Waters’ use of the adjective “distorted” could imply that Faraday is twisted and warped, which could his subconscious murderous psychotic other self, created by his obsession with the house. This is very enigmatic, and purposely done by Waters’, as we do not know if Faraday is the ghost after all. There are simply too many holes in the reader’s knowledge, thanks to Waters’ going to extreme lengths to keep her novel in Faraday’s point of view, creating suspense and fear for her audience till the very end. This atmosphere of unknown and mystery utilises the gothic trope of fear, leaving the reader with an eerily feel of discomfort, contrasted to Stokers’ classic Gothic novel where all questions are answered. Alternatively, the face Faraday sees could be a symbol for the manifestation, “the germ” that he created in his sleep. By Waters’ leaving her book in such a tangle of uncertainty, she could be representing the time in British society where social change was coming due to the newly powerful Labour government. The British people, especially the upper class, had an uncertain and ambiguous future themselves, playing on these fears until the very end of her novel, creating a chilling and sinister end to her contemporary gothic novel.

In conclusion, both Stoker and Waters use the setting and the gothic beings in their novels to inject fear and develop it like a poison, through the use of gothic tropes, in the reader throughout their novels creating suspense and dread. Stoker destroys the sense of fear in his classic gothic novel by giving a unified good-always-wins atmosphere while Sarah leaves her ending purposely ambiguous, never telling us the extent of the “Little Strangers” existence, leaving a chillingly fearful atmosphere to the very last line of her novel. Both authors raise the question of: how should gothic horror novels end? Should the reader be left with Waters’ chilling ambiguity, having key questions unanswered? Or have Stokers’ happy ending, comforting them in the sense that good will always win over evil but ultimately destroying the very thing the Gothic intends to achieve: fear?

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