The Influence Of Gothic Elements In Tim Burton's Movies

Tim burton as a director shows mood and tone through cinematic techniques. In the movies Edward Scissor hands and Charlie and the Chocolate factory he used these techniques to create his original mood and tone. These cinematic techniques are camera movement, lighting, and sound to create his cinematic technique.

Gothic horror, what does it symbolize, does it connect to our modern lives, what exactly is it? Gothic horror is the genre of literature that has elements of both romance and horror. Gothic horror is very dark, stormy full of eerie winds and is usually set in an old mansion or in castles on high cliffs. Usually gothic horror is a combination of fiction, horror, and romance. This genre was famous throughout England and had and still does have a big influence on British culture and how they live their lives today. “Some get the gothic horror mixed up with paranormal romance but the difference between the two is in the results The Gothic builds up the protagonist until he achieves what he’s after, and then details the terrible consequences of achieving it” (Dittmer 1). The theme in Dracula is that classic Gothic theme of the epic battle of good versus evil. “In this novel this is expressed in a very direct way, there is never any question as to who is right and who is wrong. According to Duran “it can be clearly seen the protagonists on the side of good have many endearing qualities while the antagonists on the side of evil have a pact with Lucifer and are of the purest evil” (mikeduran.com). Bram Stokers Dracula demonstrates how religion can influence the mind of others and how they react and encounter to different situations of their lives.

Gothic literature is dominated by gothic horror, for instance dark and mysterious objects or events. It is a type of literature that combines fiction, horror, and romanticism. As Bram Stoker wrote his famous novel, Dracula he makes sure to include many different characteristics of gothic literature. Three important motifs that are stated in Dracula which also fit into the gothic literature category would be; blood, dreaming or nightmares, and superstition. This particular novel has many gothic motifs, but these are three that I believe really stand out.

as a director Tim Burton has more abilities as opposed to a writer to depict mood/tone.In some of his older movies, He utilized a multitude of cinematic techniques to show off sinister tones and mood in movies such as “Batman”. The moods and tones of his movies are practically always eerie and dark. Tim Burton uses lighting, camera movements and sound to depict a distinct, gothic film experience.

The first trope that must be present in order to make a novel “Gothic” is, desolate and wild landscapes. In Dracula, Stoker writes, “ Soon we were hemmed in with trees, which in places arched right over the roadway till we passed as through a tunnel; and again great frowning rocks guarded us boldly on either side” (11). Stoker demonstrates the first trope by introducing a desolate setting in the woods. He does this by creating a landscape that involves trees, rocks, and tunnels, to create a dark spooky image for the readers. On the same page, Stoker also writes, “The baying of the wolves sounded nearer and nearer, as though they were closing round on us from every side. I grew dreadfully afraid, and the horses shared my fear… I could not see anything through the darkness” (11). On the wild aspect of the landscape, Stoker speaks about the presence of wolves and darkness that creates fear within the character in the novel who is experiencing it. Clearly, Dracula portrays the first trope in a

To begin, “The term Gothic fiction refers to a style of writing that is characterized by elements of fear, horror, death and gloom, as well as romantic elements, such as nature, individuality, and very high emotion. These emotions can include fear and suspense.”. (Greaver, 1). This specific style of writing began in the late seventeen hundreds. Gothic fiction was created in order to keep a narrower set of viewers or readers more intrigued and interested. “The term Gothic actually originated as a term belittling the architecture and art of the period, which was dark, decaying, and dismal. The settings were often old, dilapidated buildings or houses in gloomy, lifeless, fear inducing landscapes.” (Greaver, 1). Gothic literature is often explained as an illusion that is unexplainable. “Gothic fiction hovers between the uncanny and the marvelous, offering little

However, there is still much more to Gothic Literature. According to Baldick, “For the Gothic effect to be attained, a tale should combine a fearful sense of inheritance in time with a claustrophobic sense of enclosure in space” (xix). A story can have Gothic tropes but not be Gothic. There are loads of books that have murders and ghosts that aren’t considered Gothic at all, like Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. His parents were killed and there was a ghost trapped in the girl’s bathroom, but it isn’t Gothic at all. What makes a story Gothic is how it is told or portrayed. Sometimes, the scenes that are used are to make the viewers question what is righteous and what is wicked. Burton shows this with how he introduces his characters and their personalities.

Director Tim Burton is brashly thought of as having a dark, macabre, and humorous style in his films. This being true, there is a multitude of ways that the style is created for the audience. Furthermore, Burton’s cinematic technique usage is a direct mark of creative exposure of this dark style throughout the duration of a film’s story. Director Tim Burton uses diverse cinematic techniques to create a variety of effects that represent his style of grim childlike misfortune, tampered by opulent optimism.

Gothic Literature includes a gloomy mood and a dramatic description throughout the story. Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a good example of Gothic Literature because it has a gloomy mood which helps the story feel more eerie and also contains a dramatic description which makes the reader feel as if they are in the moment and living the event. For example, in Poe’s story,”...but the first glimpse of the building a sense of insufferable gloom prevademy spirit.”(13). He sets a gloomy and dark mood which is one of the requirements for Gothic Literature and describes it in a way that makes everything sound like a crucial event. He explains the building using words such as “spirit”

The two stories can both fall under the “gothic” theme. However, the way these gothic elements are depicted vary drastically. In Tim Burton’s film, we see brightly colored houses, bright summery dresses, bright colored cars. Everything appears very happy and carefree once Edward is brought into what seems like a new world to him. Even though we can account this as “gothic” due to Burton’s use of exploding stereotypes, the town is presented in a positive connotation.

The novel Dracula is a very popular book that was written in the form of Gothic Literature. This novel was written by Bram Stoker in the Victorian Age. A large portion of this piece of writing deals with many famous Gothic motifs. Gothic Literature combines the usual Gothic horror with fiction and Romanticism (Wikipedia). A motif is a distinctive symbol or dominant idea used in literature. So therefore, a Gothic motif is a literary symbol that usually combines fiction with either horror or romance. Bram Stoker’s usage of Gothic motifs not only helps define Dracula as a piece of Gothic Literature, but also helps the reader become better acquainted with what is happening in the novel. Gothic motifs are found in many different forms in pieces of work, and if readers are already accustomed to these motifs, it makes reading Dracula clearer and easier. Stoker uses many different Gothic motifs throughout this novel, but there are only a few that are the more important and stand out from the rest. These motifs are: castles and strange places, power and constraint, and revenants.

In Bowen’s article, he discusses the different gothic motifs that make up gothic literature such as power and restraint, clashing time periods, strange places, terror versus horror, and a world of doubt. “Edward Scissorhands” has always been considered a strange film while We Have Always Lived in a Castle has always been considered a gothic novel. According to Bowen’s list of gothic motifs, “Edward Scissorhands” would be considered more gothic than the novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle because it fits more of the gothic conventions.

The gothic writing is more of an imitation of medievalism, in which horror is the central theme. The pieces written during this time aimed to make their works pleasurably terrifying. Writers and poets in this era used tools to make their works relate to the mysterious, fantastic, supernatural, and ghostly. Mary Shelley did a great job of this in her terrifying novel, Frankenstein (The Romantic Period: Topics).

From Edward Scissorhands to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Big Fish, Tim Burton uses cinematic techniques in order to intrigue his watchers to have them become more engrossed in his movies. Tim Burton's past is strange for his techniques. An example of this could be that he worked at Disney, which is a place filled of happy things with no dark meaning at all. In Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Edward Scissorhands, Tim Burton uses flashbacks, lighting, and high angles to prove that mood can change in the blink of an eye.

In one of the scenes of Charlie and the Chocolate factory it’s almost completely black and in the next scene it’s bright white. He uses this to symbolize what the character is going through mentally like with the flashbacks of Willy in Charlie and the Chocolate factory. In Alice in Wonderland he used it to symbolize again what the character is going through or has gone through like in the scene when Hatter was still working for the White Queen of the village being burned down and the lighting was very dark then. The fight scene with Alice and the White and Red queen’s armies were the same with the lighting going from very bright to dark and