Gothic Themes and Motifs in The Vampire Diaries

Faherty, A. and 277Followers (2015) ‘Check out the face of The Vampire Diaries newest character!’. moviepilot.com. Available at: http://moviepilot.com/posts/2015/01/09/the-vampire-diaries-has-a-brand-new-character-making-their-way-to-mystic-falls-2571430?lt_source=external,manual (Accessed: 26 February 2015).

Although the Gothic Horror thrived throughout the Victorian era, certain themes found in the earliest Gothic Horror novels are still found in modern day books, films and television. A series that I feel shares a lot with the original gothic genre is The Vampire Diaries. The series focuses on the uncanny town of Mystic Falls, Virginia and the lives of the human and supernatural beings that live there. In the beginning the show mainly focus's around the lives of Vampires and Humans, but more supernatural are introduced throughout. The show shares several motifs of the Genre such as...

THE HUMAN AND THE SUPERNATURAL
The human and the supernatural is a very popular theme among Gothic fiction, frequently featuring a supernatural male seducing or starting a relationship with a human female. The Vampire Diaries fits in with this theme right from the start through the relationship of Stephan and Elena. Although Stephan never abuses his strength or mind altering talents on Elena, his brother Damon is seen frequently to be using them to control the feeble minds of human women. This is a regular occurrence throughout the show, whether or not the control is used to make the women forget he is feeding on them, or to alter their thinking and make them adore him or do what he wants them to.

HEREDITARY CURSES
Werewolves are introduced into the show in the second season and so hereditary curses also play a prominent part in the plot of The Vampire Diaries. One of the main focus's of the hereditary werwolf curse is the sense of loneliness as they fear they are too dangerous to be around, so therefore push everyone away. This gives them a element of mystery, tied in with a history of keeping a dark family secret.

DOUBLES
Referred to as 'Doppelgängers' on the show these beings are an exact double in appearance. Very much like examples seen in Gothic Literature, their doubles are often unfriendly and seeking to destroy or bring unhappiness to the others life. In the Vampire Diaries they are very much two separate people, instead of the split personality idea's seen in novels such as 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'. I feel that although different, the basic idea is the same - one half tormenting the other or ruining the others life. Although Katherine (who is the main character Elena's doppelgänger in the show) is a separate person, she doesn't see all the nice qualities in Elena that everyone else does, so is desperate to ruin her life, getting satisfaction out of making Elena feel terrible for any mistakes she has made. She doesn't see why she is seen as so much worse, so wants everyone else to see Elena for the not so innocent person that Katherine believes she is. Similarly to how Mr Hyde ruins the reputation of the respectable Dr Jekyll.

LOCATIONS
Although graveyards and ruins are places frequently used in the show, the town that all of the characters, human and supernatural is seen as small, quaint and very normal to everyone to doesn't 'know' of the supernatural happenings there. The earliest Gothic Horror novels relied upon this scary scenery to create fear in a way that modernised versions of the genre don't need to. The genre has developed, knowing that it no longer takes haunted houses, castles, graveyards etc to set a scary tone, as in modern society people are more scared of being not accepted socially, rejected by their family or the one they love once their secrets are found out, and loosing their humanity. This 'normal' setting helps to add an extra layer of mystery to the show, as there is a lot of focus on not letting the towns 'secret' get found out.

I think that the reason that modern TV shows like the Vampire Diaries still play on the Gothic Motifs used hundreds of years ago is that people still thrive of the idea of fear, but not in a straight up 'horror' sense.. they enjoy the Gothic Horror genre for its mixture of forbidden romance, lies, secrets and the possibility that in a normal setting such as a small town, these things can still be found.