In the Gothic story "The Fall of the House of Usher," it can be assumed that Madeline Usher is a vampyre. This is assumed fore several reasons. One reason being that upon meeting Roderick, the narrator describes him as having pale skin and silken hair that is disregarded, and that Madeline had features identitcal "in their very minutest development."Another is that Roderick's eyes could be "tortured by even a faint light," which is a common trait in vampyres. One more is the burial of Madeline by Roderick. By burying Madeline in a coffin, the light will not reach Madeline, not even the light of a full moon, which would revive Madeline. Very spooky and vampyric. Like this text.
In Gothic Romanticism, stories tend to have themes of vanity and self-righteousness that indirectly criticizes society as a whole. For example, in "Masque of the Red Death," while there's a nice big party going on inside the palace of Prince Prospero, the people of common blood are dying outside of the palace to the Red Death. The palace itself is meant to keep the sickness out, but despite this, the stranger dressed as a Red Death victim still gets inside the palace, suggesting that the high and mighty guests of the ball are just normal people who think that just because mommy and daddy were nobles, they're immune to everything the world throws at them. And in "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," the friends all turn young again and become egotistical because of how great their younger selves are, and their lust to stay young eventually overtakes them, showing how terrible society is.
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