Spooky tenebrism and gloomy chiaroscuro: how light shapes the landscape to crystallise a Gothic atmosphere in Frankenstein and Dracula

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Spooky tenebrism and gloomy chiaroscuro: how light shapes the landscape to crystallise a Gothic atmosphere in Frankenstein and Dracula Gothic fictional narratives are fraught with intricate references to light, from the pale saffron moonshine to flickering candle flames, not forgetting lurid dawns and sunsets red as blood. The “agent that stimulates sight[1]” can be construed as the very essence of Gothic landscapes; it contributes to creating an eerie aesthetic, a dreary environment charged with tension by allowing the reader to catch a glimpse of malevolent monsters, merciless malefactors, barbaric murderers, or dangerous vampires hiding in every nook and cranny of haunted castles, shadowy graveyards, or dark mountainous caves. Yet, light may embellish these harrowing surroundings. As Freud states in his article “The Uncanny[2]”, aesthetic is generally associated with beauty and attractiveness and triggers positive connotations, but on the other hand, it may emphasise creeping horrors and unpleasantness, what arouses dread and repulsion in the reader’s mind. We shall focus on the use of luminosity as a means to generate an emblematic Gothic atmosphere in Frankenstein and Dracula. Paradoxically, its appearance is meant to increase the overwhelming presence of darkness, while the revealing rays of the moon become ominous harbingers of death.